Interview with Martin Gomez -Tour Guide of Lopinot

16/10/2010 11:00

We drove through the Eastern Main Road, then onto Lopinot Road, one Sunday morning, with a picnic lunch prepared to spend the day at the Lopinot Historical Complex. We had a meeting set up with Mr. Martin Gomez, a son of the soil and parang pioneer from the village in Lopinot. Little did we know the wealth and storehouse of knowledge that Mr. Gomez would unlfold that day.

As the car meandered through the many curves along the road, through the valley, we couldn't help but notice the beautiful mountains, cool brooks running by , and the wooland scents along with the sounds of birds singing and bamboo leaves brushing against each other. This picturesque view added to the memory we would create of that day. Upon our arrival at the site we saw the "Great House" nestled among the greenery of the samaan trees and other shrubs.

This "Great House" was owned by a French man, Count Loppinot, and is located on what was his cocoa estate about 200 years ago. This estate comprised 478 acres of land which was given to Count Loppinot by the king of England. There were also a cocoa house for drying cocoa beans and a jailhouse where we met Mr.Martin Gomez conduting a tour with some tourists.

Mr. Gomez was no shy man and took his job seriously. He was very warm and invited us in and answered many of our questions. We did not have to ask many because he told us everything as though he was a great story master on the development of parang in Lopinot, with history and memories embeddedin his mind that he could never forget.

He also ended with a wonderful performance being a true parrandero and invited us to a Spanish Festival at the Lopinot complex later that month. Even after the interview was over he gave us a tour of the place and told us the about the ghost of Count Lopinot and the famous cashew tree.

You can view our interview and visit to Lopinot at :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN9mXlBDZco

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZhYgimBEZs

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I Love Parang Music

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Spanish heritage of Trinidad and Tobago

The Voyage Begins

14/11/2010 19:15

The voyage begins.pptx (812 kB)

Where did Parang originate?

Parang's root is basically Spanish with French and African influences. Our history as recorded, shows that in 1498 Christopher Columbus came to Trinidad. The Spanish settlers did not arrive until 1592, almost 200 years later.

As part of colonizing the island, the Spanish invited the French and other Europeans to settle and help to develop it. Many of these settlers came with their slaves as well as about 4000 free African slaves. They established cocoa and coffee plantations where many native Amerindians were slaves too. Within a short time the Amerindian population dwindled to a few hundred.

In this "New world" as the Spanish saw it, they sent many Catholic Priests who were in charge of various parts of the island where missions were set up to teach the natives Christianity. A criterion for placement was that the priest had to be a master of music and so taught many songs about the Bible in Spanish; the birth of Jesus being one. This influenced what is now known as parang music since the music is primarily about the birth of Jesus. The songs are about the nativity and are usually sung at Christmas time.

Another belief is that when the Venezuelans came to Trinidad to work on the cocoa plantations they also brought with them their culture of music and song. These workers called cocoa panyols entertained themselves with parang music as there was neither radio nor electricity.

African influence is attributed mainly to the zanza mbira drum which looks like the box bass drum. This drum along with other instruments we saw in the museum at Lopinot influenced the rhythm as we know it. In addition the singing voice added a peculiar timbre that is distinctly parang.

What is Parang?

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