The Americas
Barbados
*Edward Brathwaite, a Barbadian poet and academic widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon, was born in Bridgetown, Barbados (May 11).
Brazil
*Revolution broke out in Brazil against the rule of President Washington Luis (October 3).
*Brazil's three-week civil war ended in rebel victory as President Washington Luis resigned (October 24).
*Getulio Vargas became President of Brazil (November 3).
*The United States and Britain extended formal recognition to the new Brazilian government (November 8).
*****
Cuba
*Sandy Amoros, a Cuban left fielder in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and the Detroit Tigers best known for his defensive play in the 1955 World Series which enabled the Brooklyn Dodgers to win their first World Series, was born in Havana, Cuba (January 30).
Edmundo "Sandy" Amorós Isasi (b. January 30, 1930, Havana, Cuba – d. June 28, 1992, Miami, Florida) both batted and threw left-handed. Amoros played for the New York Cubans of the Negro Leagues in 1950. Dodgers scout Al Campanis signed him in 1951, struck by the small man's speed.
Amorós, nicknamed for his resemblance to boxing champ Sandy Saddler, had a largely unremarkable Major League career. However, his defining moment with the Brooklyn Dodgers was one of the most memorable events in World Series history. It was the sixth inning of the decisive Game 7 of the 1955 World Series. The Dodgers had never won a World Series in their history and were trying to hold a 2–0 lead against their perennial rivals, the New York Yankees. The left-handed Amorós came into the game that inning as a defensive replacement, as the right-handed throwing Jim Gilliam moved from left field to second base in place of Don Zimmer. The first two batters in the inning reached base and Yogi Berra came to the plate. Berra, notorious for swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, hit an opposite-field shot toward the left field corner that looked to be a sure double, as the Brooklyn outfield had just shifted to the right. Amorós seemingly came out of nowhere, extended his gloved right hand to catch the ball and immediately skidded to a halt to avoid crashing into the fence near Yankee Stadium's 301 distance marker in the left field corner. He then threw to the relay man, shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who in turn threw to first baseman Gil Hodges, doubling Gil McDougald off first. Hank Bauer then grounded out to end the inning.
*****
*Bernardo Baro, a professional baseball player who was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, died (June).
*Students at the University of Havana held a demonstration against president Gerardo Machado (September 30). Police blocked the streets and during the ensuing clashes, a student leader by the name of Rafael Trejo was killed. Trejo was later held up to be a martyr and a hero in Cuban history.
*The Cuban congress granted the request of President Gerardo Machado to suspend the constitution in and around Havana until after general elections on November 1 (October 4).
*Omara Portuondo Peláez, a singer and dancer whose career spanned over half a century was born in Havana, Cuba (October 29). She was one of the original members of the Cuarteto d'Aida, and performed with Ignacio Pineiro, Orquesta Anacaona, Orquesta Aragon, Nat King Cole, Adalberto Alvarez, Los Van Van, the Buena Vista ensemble, Pupy Pedroso, Chucho Valdes and Juan Formell.
*Cuban President Gerardo Machado suspended the Constitution for 25 days as rioting in Havana killed 7 (November 13).
Dominican Republic
*****
*Radhames Aracena, a Dominican radio host, music producer and businessman who helped give birth to bachata music and thereby changed the musical landscape of the Dominican Republic during and after Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship, was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic (May 13).
Radhames Aracena (b. May 13, 1930, Santiago, Dominican Republic – d. December 11, 1999, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), was able to bring the traditional Dominican bachata from the brothels and saloons to every radio set in the country. Aracena created Radio Guarachita, one of the first radio stations to cater to bachata music, and subsequently began recording, producing and promoting bachata artists.
When he was in his early 20s, Radhames Aracena was already making a name for himself as a popular radio personality. By 1955, while still working as a radio host, Radhames opened a record store called Discos La Guarachita (diminutive of guaracha, a popular type of Cuban music) near one of the most popular streets of Santo Domingo. He had been able to get local distribution rights for Pedro Infante's Mexican record company, Peerless, as well as some other Latin American record labels such as Panamerica de Discos, which controlled the catalog of the famous bolero singer Lucho Gatica. A few years later, he got distribution rights for RCA and CBS.
After Trujillo's assassination in 1961, Radhames purchased recording equipment and licenses to launch a new radio station, and in 1964 he created Radio Guarachita. Radhames, along with DJs Cuco Valoy (who later became an internationally famous salsa and merengue singer) on Radio Tropical, and Jose Tabar Asilis (popularly known as Charlie-Charlie) on La Voz del Tropico, was amongst the first to give bachata any air time.
Striving to create the same sound quality for bachata as the records he was importing from overseas, Radhames began recording local musicians, and soon became one of the most important names in the bachata business. Radio Guarachita gave many legendary Dominican artists their first break. Jose Manuel Calderon, Leonardo Paniagua, Blas Duran, Ramón Cordero and Edilio Paredes, are some among the host of traditional bachateros whose careers were launched by Radhames. Many popular merengue tipico musicians, including Tatico Henriquez, Dionisia "Guandulito" Mejia, and Fefita La Grande, also recorded important works with Guarachita.
Radhames Aracena died on December 11, 1999, at the age of 69, and his Radio Guarachita was closed after his heirs sold it to Dominican businessman Juan Lopez.
*****
*General elections were held in the Dominican Republic (May 16). Rafael Trujillo was elected president unopposed when opposition candidates withdrew their names in protest, accusing members of the body overseeing the election of being appointed illegally.
*A hurricane struck the Dominican Republic, killing over 8,000 people and doing as estimated $15 million in damage (September 3).
Ecuador
*Guillermo Erazo, an Afro-Ecuadorian musician, singer, and marimba player better known as Papa Roncon, was born in Borbon, Esmeraldas, Ecuador (November 10).
Haiti
*Gabriel Alix (1930–1998) was a Haitian painter. A native of Saint-Marc. Alix was a member of the Centre d'Art and painted still lifes, religious subjects, and animals.
*Nicolas Geffrard (1871–1930), a Haitian musician best known for composing La Dessalinienne, the Haitian national anthem, died. The piece was adopted in 1904 to celebrate one hundred years of Haitian independence. He spent part of his career working in Europe.
*Stenio Vincent, a COTW, was elected President of Haiti by the National Assembly (November 18).
Jamaica
Barbados
*Edward Brathwaite, a Barbadian poet and academic widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon, was born in Bridgetown, Barbados (May 11).
Edward Kamau Brathwaite (b. Lawson Edward Brathwaite, May 11, 1930, Bridgetown, Barbados) is a Barbadian poet and academic, widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon. Formerly a professor of Comparative Literature at New York University. Brathwaite was the 2006 International Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize, for his volume of poetry Born to Slow Horses.
Brathwaite holds a Ph. D. from the University of Sussex (1968) and was the co-founder of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM). He received both the Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships in 1983, and was a winner of the 1994 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Bussa Award, the Casa de las Americas Prize for poetry, and the 1999 Charity Randall Citation for Performance and Written Poetry from the International Poetry Forum.
Brathwaite is noted for his studies of Black cultural life both in Africa and throughout the African diasporas of the world in works such as Folk Culture of the Slaves in Jamaica (1970); The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820 (1971); Contradictory Omens (1974); Afternoon of the Status Crow (1982); and History of the Voice (1984), the publication of which established him as the authority of note on nation language. ("Nation language" is the term coined by Brathwaite, and is now commonly preferred, to describe the work of writers from the Caribbean and the African diaspora in non-standard English, as opposed to the traditional designation of it as "dialect", which Brathwaite considered to be pejorative.
Born Lawson Edward Brathwaite in the capital city of Bridgetown, Barbados, Brathwaite started his secondary education in 1945 at Harrison College in Bridgetown. In 1949, he won the Barbados Island Scholarship to attend Cambridge University, where he studied English and History. In 1953, Brathwaite received an honors bachelor of arts in History from Pembroke College, Cambridge, and he also began his association with the BBC's Caribbean Voices program in London. In 1954, Brathwaite received a Diploma of Education from Pembroke College, Cambridge. The year 1955 found Brathwaite working as an Education Officer on the Gold Coast/Ghana with the Ministry of Education. In 1960, he married Doris Monica Wellcome, a Guyanes graduate in Home Economics and Tropical Nutrition from the University of Leicester, while he was on home leave from Ghana.
While in Ghana, Brathwaite's writing flowered, with Odale's Choice (a play) premiering in Ghana at Mfantsiman Secondary School. A full production of the play was later taken to Accra. In 1962-63, Brathwaite crossed the waters again and found himself as Resident Tutor in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies in Saint Lucia. Later, in 1963, Brathwaite made his journey to the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus in Kingston, Jamaica, to teach in the History Department.
In 1966, Brathwaite spearheaded, as co-founder and secretary, the organization of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) from London.
In 1971, he launched Savacou, a journal of CAM, at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus in Kingston, Jamaica. That same year, Brathwaite received the name Kamau from Ngugi wa Thiong'o's grandmother at Limuru, Kenya, while on a City of Nairobi Fellowship to the University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Kamau Brathwaite spent three self-financed "Maroon Years", 1997-2000, at "Cow Pasture", his now famous and, then, "post-hurricane" home in Barbados. During this period he married Beverley Reid, a Jamaican.
In 1992 Brathwaite took up the position of Professor of Comparative Literature at New York University, subsequently dividing his residence between Barbados and New York.
In 2002, the University of Sussex presented Kamau Brathwaite with an Honorary Doctorate.
In 2006, he was the sole person that year to be awarded a Musgrave gold medal by the Institute of Jamaica, with eight silver and bronze medals going to other recipients.
*****
*Albert Beckles, a professional bodybuilder and a three time New York City Night of Champions winner, was born in Barbados (July 14).
*Albert Beckles, a professional bodybuilder and a three time New York City Night of Champions winner, was born in Barbados (July 14).
Albert "Al" Beckles (b. July 14, 1930, Barbados) was born in Barbados but emigrated to London. In the mid-1960s, he won several British regional titles before winning the 1969 and 1970 National Amateur Body-Builders' Association (NABBA) Mr. Britain titles. In 1971, Beckles joined the International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness (IFBB), earning the overall at the IFBB "Mr. Universe."
Beckles was one of the most active participants in bodybuilding history, having been in over 100 contests. In 1982, he won the Night of Champions competition in New York.
Beckles’ 13 forays into the IFBB Mr. Olympia competition yielded six placings among the top five, including coming second to Lee Haney in 1985.
In 1991, at the age of 61 years, he won the Niagara Falls Pro Invitational.
*****
*Revolution broke out in Brazil against the rule of President Washington Luis (October 3).
*Brazil's three-week civil war ended in rebel victory as President Washington Luis resigned (October 24).
*Getulio Vargas became President of Brazil (November 3).
*The United States and Britain extended formal recognition to the new Brazilian government (November 8).
*****
Cuba
*Sandy Amoros, a Cuban left fielder in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and the Detroit Tigers best known for his defensive play in the 1955 World Series which enabled the Brooklyn Dodgers to win their first World Series, was born in Havana, Cuba (January 30).
Edmundo "Sandy" Amorós Isasi (b. January 30, 1930, Havana, Cuba – d. June 28, 1992, Miami, Florida) both batted and threw left-handed. Amoros played for the New York Cubans of the Negro Leagues in 1950. Dodgers scout Al Campanis signed him in 1951, struck by the small man's speed.
Amorós, nicknamed for his resemblance to boxing champ Sandy Saddler, had a largely unremarkable Major League career. However, his defining moment with the Brooklyn Dodgers was one of the most memorable events in World Series history. It was the sixth inning of the decisive Game 7 of the 1955 World Series. The Dodgers had never won a World Series in their history and were trying to hold a 2–0 lead against their perennial rivals, the New York Yankees. The left-handed Amorós came into the game that inning as a defensive replacement, as the right-handed throwing Jim Gilliam moved from left field to second base in place of Don Zimmer. The first two batters in the inning reached base and Yogi Berra came to the plate. Berra, notorious for swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, hit an opposite-field shot toward the left field corner that looked to be a sure double, as the Brooklyn outfield had just shifted to the right. Amorós seemingly came out of nowhere, extended his gloved right hand to catch the ball and immediately skidded to a halt to avoid crashing into the fence near Yankee Stadium's 301 distance marker in the left field corner. He then threw to the relay man, shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who in turn threw to first baseman Gil Hodges, doubling Gil McDougald off first. Hank Bauer then grounded out to end the inning.
Amorós' last season in the majors was 1960, after which he fell on hard times, largely because he came into conflict with Fidel Castro by refusing to take the manager's job at Castro's request for the Cuban National Team. He lost a $30,000 ranch he had owned for a number of years.
For many players, the collapse of the Cuban League had tragic consequences. The diaspora began. Amorós, for instance, returned to Cuba to find his property confiscated by the new Socialist government of Fidel Castro. Sandy could no longer leave Cuba for many years, during which time he became increasingly dependent on others for his needs. When he eventually was given permission to leave, the Dodgers put him on their roster for the few days he needed for his pension."
It was 1967 when Castro finally allowed Amorós to leave for the United States. After the Dodgers act of kindness of always looking out for those players considered part of the Dodger family, it became ironic Amorós would then move to Elton Avenue in the South Bronx not too far from Yankee Stadium where he made that famous catch in the 1955 World Series. Later that year, his wife divorced him.
Amoros lost touch with everyone in the Cuban community, especially all those individuals he thought were his friends. As a result of moving to the South Bronx, Amoros was immediately embraced by the local Puerto Rican community. There he became active in supporting Herman Badillo a politician who had been a borough president, United States Representative, and candidate for Mayor of New York City. He was the first Puerto Rican to be elected to these posts and be a mayoral candidate in the continental United States. A few years later Amoros wanted something else so, in 1977, he moved to Central Florida to live with his best friend, Victor Germain, from Puerto Rico who lived in the South Bronx and later moved to Tampa in search of a better quality of life for he and his family.
Amoros lived comfortably in Clair-Mel City, a section of Tampa, with the Germain family for many years attending functions in his honor as the man who made it possible for Brooklyn to win its only World Series title.
After receiving an increase in his pension from Major League Baseball, Amoros moved out on his own where he eventually developed an alcohol problem which later led to ill health (diabetes) and a life of poverty. He lost his best friend in 1986, then lost part of his left leg in 1987 to circulatory problems and gangrene where, at that time, old teammates and then the Baseball Assistance Program (BAT) gave him a helping hand.
Five years later, at the age of 62, Sandy died from pneumonia, in Miami, Florida.
*****
*Bernardo Baro, a professional baseball player who was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, died (June).
Bernardo Baró (b. February 27, 1896 – d. June 1930) was a Cuban professional baseball player player in the Negro leagues and the Cuban League. Primarily an outfielder, he also played some games as a pitcher or an infielder. He played from 1913 to 1930 for the Cuban Stars (West), the Cuban Stars (East), and the Kansas City Monarchs.
Baró played winter baseball in the Cuban League from 1915 to 1929. He led the league in batting average in 1922/23 with an average of .401. He ranks fifth all-time in Cuban League career batting average with an average of .311. In 1945 he was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame.
*Students at the University of Havana held a demonstration against president Gerardo Machado (September 30). Police blocked the streets and during the ensuing clashes, a student leader by the name of Rafael Trejo was killed. Trejo was later held up to be a martyr and a hero in Cuban history.
*The Cuban congress granted the request of President Gerardo Machado to suspend the constitution in and around Havana until after general elections on November 1 (October 4).
Omara Portuondo Peláez (b. October 29, 1930, Havana, Cuba) was a founding member of the popular vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida. Portuondo collaborated with many important Cuban musicians during her long career, including Julio Gutierrez, Juanito Marquez and Chucho Valdes. Although primarily known for her rendition of boleros, she she has recorded in a wide range of styles from jazz to son cubano. After 1996 she was part of the Buena Vista Social Club project, touring extensively and recording several albums with the ensemble.
Born on October 29, 1930 in Havana, Portuondo had three sisters. Her mother came from a wealthy Spanish family, and had created a scandal by running off with and marrying a black professional baseball player, Bartolo Portuondo. Omara joined the dance group of the Cabaret Tropicana in 1950, following her elder sister, Haydee. She also danced in the Mulatas de Fuego in the theatre Radiocentro, and in other dance groups. The two sisters also used to sing for family and friends, and they also performed in Havana clubs. Portuondo and Haydee then, in 1947, joined the Loquibambia Swing, a group formed by the blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn.
From 1952–1953 she sang for the Orquesta Anacaona, and later in 1953 both sisters joined (together with Elena Burke and Moraima Secada) the singing group Cuarteto d'Aida, formed and directed by pianist Aida Diestro. The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole at the Tropicana, and recording an album for RCA Victor. In 1957 the sisters recorded an album with the quartet. In 1958, pianist and composer Julio Gutierrez invited Portuondo to sing for his ensemble in a series of recordings bridging jazz and Cuban music for the record label Velvet. The result was Magia Negra, her debut solo album. Haydee left the Cuarteto d'Aida in 1961 in order to live in the United States and Omara continued singing with the quartet until 1967.
Portuondo sang (singing a duet with Ibrahim Ferrer) on the album Buena Vista Social Club in 1996. This led not only to more touring (including playing at Carnegie Hall with the Buena Vista troupe) and her appearance in Wim Wenders' film Buena Vista Social Club, but to two further albums for the World Circuit label: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo (2000) and Flor de Amor (2004).
*****
Dominican Republic
*The President of the Dominican Republic Horacio Vasquez fled Santo Domingo as rebel forces led by General Rafael Trujillo, a person of African descent, toppled his government (February 26).
*****
*Radhames Aracena, a Dominican radio host, music producer and businessman who helped give birth to bachata music and thereby changed the musical landscape of the Dominican Republic during and after Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship, was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic (May 13).
Radhames Aracena (b. May 13, 1930, Santiago, Dominican Republic – d. December 11, 1999, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), was able to bring the traditional Dominican bachata from the brothels and saloons to every radio set in the country. Aracena created Radio Guarachita, one of the first radio stations to cater to bachata music, and subsequently began recording, producing and promoting bachata artists.
When he was in his early 20s, Radhames Aracena was already making a name for himself as a popular radio personality. By 1955, while still working as a radio host, Radhames opened a record store called Discos La Guarachita (diminutive of guaracha, a popular type of Cuban music) near one of the most popular streets of Santo Domingo. He had been able to get local distribution rights for Pedro Infante's Mexican record company, Peerless, as well as some other Latin American record labels such as Panamerica de Discos, which controlled the catalog of the famous bolero singer Lucho Gatica. A few years later, he got distribution rights for RCA and CBS.
After Trujillo's assassination in 1961, Radhames purchased recording equipment and licenses to launch a new radio station, and in 1964 he created Radio Guarachita. Radhames, along with DJs Cuco Valoy (who later became an internationally famous salsa and merengue singer) on Radio Tropical, and Jose Tabar Asilis (popularly known as Charlie-Charlie) on La Voz del Tropico, was amongst the first to give bachata any air time.
Striving to create the same sound quality for bachata as the records he was importing from overseas, Radhames began recording local musicians, and soon became one of the most important names in the bachata business. Radio Guarachita gave many legendary Dominican artists their first break. Jose Manuel Calderon, Leonardo Paniagua, Blas Duran, Ramón Cordero and Edilio Paredes, are some among the host of traditional bachateros whose careers were launched by Radhames. Many popular merengue tipico musicians, including Tatico Henriquez, Dionisia "Guandulito" Mejia, and Fefita La Grande, also recorded important works with Guarachita.
Radhames Aracena died on December 11, 1999, at the age of 69, and his Radio Guarachita was closed after his heirs sold it to Dominican businessman Juan Lopez.
*****
*General elections were held in the Dominican Republic (May 16). Rafael Trujillo was elected president unopposed when opposition candidates withdrew their names in protest, accusing members of the body overseeing the election of being appointed illegally.
*A hurricane struck the Dominican Republic, killing over 8,000 people and doing as estimated $15 million in damage (September 3).
Ecuador
*Guillermo Erazo, an Afro-Ecuadorian musician, singer, and marimba player better known as Papa Roncon, was born in Borbon, Esmeraldas, Ecuador (November 10).
Guillermo Ayovi Erazo -- Papá Roncón -- learned to play the marimba at an early age with the Tsachila people. He began to make himself known in the 1970s, first in his village, and then at national and international levels, with tours in the United States, Venezuela, Colombia and Japan. In 2001, he received the Premio Eugenio Espejo for his contribution to the Ecuadorian culture through the practice and teaching of the marimba and traditional dances. He also directed several films, including documentaries.
He was the founder of the school of traditional culture 'La Catanga', through which he taught dozens of children and youth to play and dance marimba in the province of Esmeraldas.
He was married to Grimalda for over 50 years, had 10 children, 14 grandchildren, and about 8 great grand children.
*Gabriel Alix (1930–1998) was a Haitian painter. A native of Saint-Marc. Alix was a member of the Centre d'Art and painted still lifes, religious subjects, and animals.
*Nicolas Geffrard (1871–1930), a Haitian musician best known for composing La Dessalinienne, the Haitian national anthem, died. The piece was adopted in 1904 to celebrate one hundred years of Haitian independence. He spent part of his career working in Europe.
*Stenio Vincent, a COTW, was elected President of Haiti by the National Assembly (November 18).
*In September 1929, Marcus Garvey founded the People's Political Party (PPP), Jamaica's first modern political party, which focused on workers' rights, education, and aid to the poor. Also in 1929, Garvey was elected councilor for the Allman Town Division of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). In July 1929, the Jamaican property of the UNIA was seized on the orders of the Chief Justice. Garvey and his solicitor attempted to persuade people not to bid for the confiscated goods, claiming the sale was illegal and Garvey made a political speech in which he referred to corrupt judges. As a result, he was cited for contempt of court and again appeared before the Chief Justice. He received a prison sentence, as a consequence of which he lost his seat. However, in 1930, Garvey was re-elected, unopposed, along with two other PPP candidates.
*****
*Marcus Mosiah Garvey, III, the son of Marcus Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey, was born (September 17).
At the age of 32 in 1919, Garvey married his first wife, Amy Ashwood Garvey. Amy Ashwood Garvey was also a founder of The UNIA-ACL. She had saved Garvey in the Tyler assassination by quickly getting medical help. After four months of marriage, Garvey separated from her.
In 1922, he married again, to Amy Jacques Garvey, who was working as his secretary general. They had two sons together: Marcus Mosiah Garvey, III (born September 17, 1930) and Julius Winston (born 1933). Amy Jacques Garvey played an important role in his career, and would become a lead worker in Garvey's movement.
*In Jamaica, Rastafarians hailed the new Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie as the living God, the fulfillment of a prophecy by Marcus Garvey who was said to have declared, "Look to Africa, where a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is near." Members of the new sect withdrew from Jamaican society, called white religion a rejection of black culture, insisted that blacks leave "Babylon" (the Western world) and return to Africa, and contributed to Jamaican culture (notably to the island's reggae music) but Rasta extremists would traffic in ganja (marijuana) and engage in acts of violence.
*****
*Una M. Marson had a first collection of poetry, Tropic Reveries, published. Subsequent collections appeared in 1931, 1937, and 1945.
*****
Saint Lucia
*Derek Walcott, the 1992 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in Saint Lucia (January 23).
Derek Alton Walcott, (b. January 23, 1930, Castries, Saint Lucia - d. March 17, 2017 Cap Estate, Saint Lucia), a Saint Lucian-Trinidadian poet and playwright, received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem Omeros (1990), which many critics view "as Walcott's major achievement." In addition to having won the Nobel Prize, Walcott has won many literary awards over the course of his career, including an Obie Award in 1971 for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain, a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, a Royal Society of Literature Award, the Queen's Medal for Poetry, the inaugural OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and the 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize for his book of poetry White Egrets.
*Una M. Marson had a first collection of poetry, Tropic Reveries, published. Subsequent collections appeared in 1931, 1937, and 1945.
*****
Saint Lucia
*Derek Walcott, the 1992 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in Saint Lucia (January 23).
Derek Alton Walcott, (b. January 23, 1930, Castries, Saint Lucia - d. March 17, 2017 Cap Estate, Saint Lucia), a Saint Lucian-Trinidadian poet and playwright, received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem Omeros (1990), which many critics view "as Walcott's major achievement." In addition to having won the Nobel Prize, Walcott has won many literary awards over the course of his career, including an Obie Award in 1971 for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain, a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, a Royal Society of Literature Award, the Queen's Medal for Poetry, the inaugural OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and the 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize for his book of poetry White Egrets.
Derek Walcott was educated at St. Mary’s College in Saint Lucia and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He began writing poetry at an early age, taught at schools in Saint Lucia and Grenada, and contributed articles and reviews to periodicals in Trinidad and Jamaica. Productions of his plays began in Saint Lucia in 1950, and he studied theatre in New York City in 1958–59. He lived thereafter in Trinidad and the United States, teaching for part of the year at Boston University.
Walcott is best known for his poetry, beginning with In a Green Night: Poems 1948–1960 (1962). This book is typical of his early poetry in its celebration of the Caribbean landscape’s natural beauty. The verse in Selected Poems (1964), The Castaway (1965), and The Gulf (1969) is similarly lush in style and incantatory in mood as Walcott expresses his feelings of personal isolation, caught between his European cultural orientation and the black folk cultures of his native Caribbean. Another Life (1973) is a book-length autobiographical poem. In Sea Grapes (1976) and The Star-Apple Kingdom (1979), Walcott uses a tenser, more economical style to examine the deep cultural divisions of language and race in the Caribbean. The Fortunate Traveller (1981) and Midsummer (1984) explore his own situation as a black writer in America who has become increasingly estranged from his Caribbean homeland.
Walcott’s Collected Poems, 1948–1984, was published in 1986. In his book-length poem Omeros (1990), he retells the dramas of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in a 20th-century Caribbean setting. The poems in The Bounty (1997) are mostly devoted to Walcott’s Caribbean home and the death of his mother. In 2000 Walcott published Tiepolo’s Hound, a poetic biography of West Indian-born French painter Camille Pissarro with autobiographical references and reproductions of Walcott’s paintings. (The latter are mostly watercolors of island scenes. Walcott’s father had been a visual artist, and the poet began painting early on.) The book-length poem The Prodigal (2004), its setting shifting between Europe and North America, explores the nature of identity and exile. Selected Poems, a collection of poetry from across Walcott’s career, appeared in 2007. Aging is a central theme in White Egrets (2010), a volume of new poems.
Walcott’s Collected Poems, 1948–1984, was published in 1986. In his book-length poem Omeros (1990), he retells the dramas of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in a 20th-century Caribbean setting. The poems in The Bounty (1997) are mostly devoted to Walcott’s Caribbean home and the death of his mother. In 2000 Walcott published Tiepolo’s Hound, a poetic biography of West Indian-born French painter Camille Pissarro with autobiographical references and reproductions of Walcott’s paintings. (The latter are mostly watercolors of island scenes. Walcott’s father had been a visual artist, and the poet began painting early on.) The book-length poem The Prodigal (2004), its setting shifting between Europe and North America, explores the nature of identity and exile. Selected Poems, a collection of poetry from across Walcott’s career, appeared in 2007. Aging is a central theme in White Egrets (2010), a volume of new poems.
Of Walcott’s approximately 30 plays, the best-known are Dream on Monkey Mountain (produced 1967), a West Indian’s quest to claim his identity and his heritage; Ti-Jean and His Brothers (1958), based on a West Indian folktale about brothers who seek to overpower the Devil; and Pantomime (1978), an exploration of colonial relationships through the Robinson Crusoe story. The Odyssey: A Stage Version appeared in 1993. Many of Walcott’s plays make use of themes from black folk culture in the Caribbean.
*****
Trinidad
*****
*Sterling Betancourt, a Trinidad-born pioneer, inventor, arranger and musician who became a major figure in pioneering the steel pan in Europe and the United Kingdom, was born in Laventille, near Port of Spain, Trinidad (March 30).
*****
*Victor Pascall, a Trinidadian cricketer who represented the West Indies in the days before they achieved Test status, died in Port of Spain, Trinidad (July 7).
*****
Trinidad
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*Sterling Betancourt, a Trinidad-born pioneer, inventor, arranger and musician who became a major figure in pioneering the steel pan in Europe and the United Kingdom, was born in Laventille, near Port of Spain, Trinidad (March 30).
Sterling Betancourt (b. March 30, 1930, Laventille, near Port of Spain, Trinidad) was born and raised in Laventille, near Port of Spain, Trinidad. His father, Edwin, was a musician and a man of many trades trying to make ends meet. His mother, Stella Bowen, was a seamstress and a cleaner. At a very early age, Betancourt was involved with music with the Tambo Bambo family band and grew up experimenting with the steel pan, becoming a member of the Tripoli Steel band. He began his career in the 1930s and became a steel pan tuner and eventually leader of Crossfire, a steel band from the St. James area. He also played a large part in the development of steel pan in Trinidad,
Selected as a member of TASPO (Trinidad All-Steel Percussion Orchestra) to go to the Festival of Britain in 1951, Betancourt toured England and Europe with the band that year. He was the only musician of TASPO to remain on in England when the others returned to Trinidad on December 12, 1951.
Betancourt together with Russell Henderson and Mervyn Constantine, who later on was replaced by Max Cherrie, followed by his brother Ralph Cherrie, formed the first steelband in the United Kingdom and performed all over London as well as in radio shows, jazz clubs and the BBC. In 1953, Betancourt was taught by Tony Kinsey to play the traps drums in order to form The Henderson combo.
Henderson, Betancourt and their group participated in the multi-cultural Notting Hill street festival organised in 1966 by Rhaune Laslett and, as noted in Ishmahil Blagrove Jr's Introduction to Carnival : A Photographic and Testimonial History of the Notting Hill Carnival:
Betancourt also took steelpan to many other countries throughout Europe and Asia, including Switzerland, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Morocco, Indonesia, Germany, Spain, France, Oman, Italy, Sicily, Sweden and Norway.
A 1976 performance Betancourt gave in a hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, inspired some locals to form their own Swiss group, which they called Tropefieber ("Tropical Fever"), the first steel band in Zurich, followed then by many others.
In 1985 Betancourt's steel band, "Nostalgia", was born and continued with him as the leader, player and arranger until 2005.
The honors and awards that Betancourt received include: in 1993, Trinidad and Tobago’s Scarlet Ibis award; a University of East London Honorary Fellowship in 1996; a membership of the FRSA for his commitment in promoting steelpan culture throughout the United Kingdom, and pioneering steelpan projects in English schools and in the same year, the New York Sunshine Award.
Betancourt was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours 2002 "for services to the steel band movement". In 2004, Betancourt received a Fellowship of the Royal Society; in 2006, a Pantrinbago Pioneer award; in 2010, Pan Jazz Life Time Achievement award; and, in 2011, a Pan Trinbago Commemorative Plaque for Life Time Achievement.
In 2012, on the occasion of the Trinidad and Tobago Independence Jubilee celebrations, he was a recipient of one of the Arts awards recognising citizens who made a positive contribution to the promotion and development of Trinidad and Tobago in the United Kingdom during the past 50 years, given at a gala dinner in London hosted by High Commissioner Garvin Nicholas.
*Victor Pascall, a Trinidadian cricketer who represented the West Indies in the days before they achieved Test status, died in Port of Spain, Trinidad (July 7).
Victor S Pascall (b. 1886, Diego Martin, Trinidad – d. July 7, 1930, Port of Spain, Trinidad) was primarily as a left-arm spinner, but he was also regarded as a reasonable batsman. Pascall was related to the Constantine family. He was the maternal uncle of Elias and Learie Constantine and may have been a coaching influence on the latter. At the time he played, critics considered him the best left-arm spinner in the West Indies.
Pascall was born in Diego Martin, Trinidad, at some time in 1886. His parents were Yoruba from West Africa who were brought to South America as slaves. According to family legend, Pascall's father, Ali, escaped as a child and sailed to Trinidad. Ali lived to be around 100 years old and maintained some African traditions in the family.
Pascall first played for Trinidad in 1906, making his first-class debut and taking a wicket in the final of the Inter-Colonial Tournament. From 1909, he played regularly in the team and appeared in the Inter-Colonial tournament until 1927. In total, he played 24 times for Trinidad to score 513 runs at a batting average of 15.08 and take 102 wickets at a bowling average of 17.39. He twice played innings of over 50 runs and took more than five wickets in six innings. He first represented a combined West Indies team in 1913 when he took four wickets for 83 runs for West Indies against a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team which was touring the region. Then in 1923, he was chosen as part of the West Indies team which toured England. Pascall played 19 matches on the tour and took 52 wickets at an average of 24.30. His best figures were five for 67 against Cambridge University and six for 77 against MCC at Lord's Cricket Ground. His final appearances for West Indies came in 1926. In 22 games for teams styled "West Indies" or "West Indians", Pascall hit 268 runs at an average of 10.31 and took 59 wickets at 25.20. In all first-class cricket, he hit 859 runs at an average of 13.63, with a top score of 92 against Barbados in 1922, and took 171 wickets at 20.09, with best figures of six for 26 against British Guiana, also in 1922.
In Trinidad, Pascall represented the Shannon team and was used as the third bowler. The Shannon club was made up of members of the black lower-middle classes, and contained several international players. The team played in a highly competitive manner and were passionately supported by their spectators. Shannon players took part in games in a serious manner and were not given to smiling on the field, but Pascall, while a formidable opponent, was more friendly. The people of Trinidad regarded Pascall with great affection, and he was a most charming person and a great popular favorite with all classes on the island.
Pascall died on July 7, 1930.
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Europe
Germany
*In 1930, there were between 20,000 and 25,000 people of African descent in Germany. Most prominent amongst the German people of African descent were the so-called "Rhineland Bastards".
"Rhineland Bastard" (German: Rheinlandbastard) was a derogatory term used in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany to describe Afro-German children, who were fathered by Africans serving as French colonial troops occupying the Rhineland after World War I. Under Nazism's racial theories, these children were considered inferior to Aryans and consigned to compulsory sterilization.
The term "Rhineland Bastard" can be traced back to 1919, just after World War I, when Entente troops, most of them French, occupied the Rhineland. A relatively high number of German women married soldiers from the occupying forces, while many others had children by them out of wedlock (hence the disparaging label "bastards"). The resulting children numbered from 16,000 to 18,000. The occupation itself had been regarded as a national disgrace by Germans across the political spectrum, and there was a widespread tendency to consider all forms of collaboration and fraternization with the occupiers as moral (if not legal) treason. The fact that it was carried out by what were viewed as "B-grade" troops (a notion that itself was drawn from colonial and racial stereotypes) increased the feelings of humiliation. In the Rhineland itself, local opinion of the troops was very different, and the soldiers were described as "courteous and often popular", possibly because French colonial soldiers harbored less ill-will towards Germans than war-weary French occupiers.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler described children resulting from marriages to African occupation soldiers as a contamination of the white race "by Negro blood on the Rhine in the heart of Europe." He thought that "Jews were responsible for bringing Negroes into the Rhineland, with the ultimate idea of bastardizing the white race which they hate and thus lowering its cultural and political level so that the Jew might dominate." He also implied that this was a plot on the part of the French, since the population of France was being increasingly "negrified".
However, most of the small population of people of African descent in Germany at that time were children of German settlers and missionaries in the former German colonies in Africa and Melanesia, who had married local women or had children with them out of wedlock. With the loss of the German colonial empire after World War I, some of these colonists returned to Germany with their mixed-race families. While the black population of Germany at the time of the Third Reich was small at 20–25,000 in a population of over 65 million, the Nazis decided to take action against those in the Rhineland. They despised black culture, which they considered inferior, and even sought to prohibit "traditionally black" musical genres like jazz as being "corrupt negro music". No official laws were enacted against the black population, or against the children of mixed parentage, since they were the offspring of marriages and informal unions from before the Nuremberg laws of September 1935 which prohibited miscegenation. The law also deprived persons of mixed parentage their freedom to marry at all, or at least the spouse of their choice by banning future sexual relations and mixed marriages between Aryans and others. Instead, a group named "Commission Number 3" was created to resolve the problem of the "Rhineland Bastards" with the aim of preventing their further procreation in German society. Organized under Eugen Fischer of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, it was decided that the children would be sterilized under the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring.
However, most of the small population of people of African descent in Germany at that time were children of German settlers and missionaries in the former German colonies in Africa and Melanesia, who had married local women or had children with them out of wedlock. With the loss of the German colonial empire after World War I, some of these colonists returned to Germany with their mixed-race families. While the black population of Germany at the time of the Third Reich was small at 20–25,000 in a population of over 65 million, the Nazis decided to take action against those in the Rhineland. They despised black culture, which they considered inferior, and even sought to prohibit "traditionally black" musical genres like jazz as being "corrupt negro music". No official laws were enacted against the black population, or against the children of mixed parentage, since they were the offspring of marriages and informal unions from before the Nuremberg laws of September 1935 which prohibited miscegenation. The law also deprived persons of mixed parentage their freedom to marry at all, or at least the spouse of their choice by banning future sexual relations and mixed marriages between Aryans and others. Instead, a group named "Commission Number 3" was created to resolve the problem of the "Rhineland Bastards" with the aim of preventing their further procreation in German society. Organized under Eugen Fischer of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, it was decided that the children would be sterilized under the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring.
The program began in 1937, when local officials were asked to report on all "Rhineland Bastards" under their jurisdiction. All together, some 400 children of mixed parentage were arrested and sterilized. This order applied only in the Rhineland. Other African-Germans or mixed race Germans were unaffected. According to Susan Samples, the Nazis went to great lengths to conceal their sterilization and abortion program.
Great Britain
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*Allan Minns, the first man of African descent to become a mayor in Britain, died in Dorking, England.
Allan Glaisyer Minns (b. October 19, 1858, Inagua, Bahamas – d. 1930, Dorking, England) was elected Mayor of Thetford, Norfolk, in 1904. John Archer, elected Mayor of Battersea in 1913, had been thought to be the first man of African descent to hold this title. However, in reporting Archer's election, the American Negro Year Book 1914 (founded by Monroe Work) recorded that "In 1904 Mr Allen Glaisyer Minns, a col'd man from West Indies, was elected Mayor of borough of Thetford, Norfolk". He had been elected to the town council of Thetford in 1903 and served a two-year term as mayor from 1904.
Allan Glaisyer Minns was the youngest son of John Minns. Born at Inagua, Bahamas on October 19, 1858, Minns was educated at Nassau Grammar School and Guy's Hospital in London.
Minns was registered with the British Medical Association on February 14, 1884. His qualifications were MRCS (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons) in 1881, and LRCP (Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians) in 1884. He was based in Thetford from 1885 until 1923, when he moved to Dorking where he died.
He was one of nine children of John Minns (1811–1863) and Ophelia (née Bunch, 1817 – 1902). His paternal grandfather, also John Minns, had emigrated circa 1801 from England to the Bahamas where he married Rosette, a former African slave.
His eldest brother, Dr. Pembroke Minns (1840–1912), was already in medical practice in Thetford when he moved there.
He was twice married; first to Emily Pearson in 1888 and secondly to Gertrude Ann Morton in 1896. He had children by both wives.
His son Allan Noel Minns, also a doctor, was one of the few black officers to serve in the British Army during the First World War.
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