Caribbean American Entrepreneurs Brighten the Fabric of American Society
by Duane Coombs
Caribbean immigrants, a disparate group scattered across the breadth of the United States of America, have made an indelible mark on the fabric of the United States.
The Presidential Proclamation designating June as Caribbean American Heritage Month has officially--some say, belatedly--acknowledged the enormous contribution that immigrants from the Caribbean have made in practically all spheres of American life.
Dr. Claire Nelson is regarded in many circles as the spiritual mother of the movement to have an officially designated Caribbean American Heritage Month.
“Caribbean Immigrants have played an intimate role in the fabric of America and we have contributed to its growth and development” Dr. Nelson said.
read more...Misson Statement
It is the mission of Caribbean Heritage magazine (CHM) to provide unique and in-depth editorial information on all subject matters concerning the Caribbean with the goal of building a more effective cultural bridge between the Caribbean, its expatriated peoples and those wh share its culture, through informing, educating and entertaining the people and friends of the Caribbean.
CHM will celebrate the contributions made by the people and friends of the Caribbean by showcasing celebrities and notables who are friends, and those who are of Caribbean descent.
Caribbean Heritage Magazine aims to become the preeminent resource of the Caribbean, the number one international publication – a source for scholars and grass roots readers. visitors and others will look to Caribbean Heritage Magazine for information on the culture, the people, and the happenings in the Caribbean and expatriated communities.
Because CHM's editorial will not only focus on the multl-ethnic Caribbean region, but also the International neighborhoods of the United States, Canada, South and Central Americas, United Kingdom and the ever increasing influence in Japan and China, CHM will attract a wide array of United States and International readers
About Us
Because CHM's editorial will not only focus on the multl-ethnic Caribbean region, but also the International neighborhoods of the United States, Canada, South and Central Americas, United Kingdom and the ever increasing influence in Japan and China, CHM will attract a wide array of United States and International readers
From Sun-Spirit to Spider-Man
Time came when the Arawak people and their cousins the Caribs, wandered far from the shadow of Mount Roraima. Some settled in the broad land of Guyana. Others moved north to the banks of the Orinoco River and the shores of the Gulf of Paria.
From the mainland the Arawaks who lived by the Gulf of Paria and the mouth of the Orinoco could see, penciled against the sky, the shapes of mountains. The old men were content to stay where they were, but the young men longed to cross the Gulf to the Distant Mountains. From the giant trees of the forest they made dug-out canoes they crossed from the mainland to the islands, to Trinidad and Tobago, which still bears the Arawak name for tobacco, and Barbados and Grenada.
As the generations passed, the Arawaks and the Caribs at a later time, moved from island to island in their dug-out canoes, settling even in those islands that lay farthest north, Jamaica and Cuba, and Haiti the land of mountains, and in the islands that we now call The Bahamas.
In these islands of the Caribbean, the Arawaks and Caribs made their homes. They lived in villages near the sea, searched the shores for chip-chip and mussels, fished with hooks of bone or shell, hunted in the woods for the iguana and coney, and cultivated maize, cassava and sweet potatoes. Not knowing the use of iron, they made tools from stone, bone and shells. For weapons they had spears and arrows tipped with bone, shell, or sharp flint. From generation to generation they passed on stories that their fathers had told, tales of the Ancient One who lived in the heights and of the sun-spirit Arawide who sometimes fished in the rivers of Guyana and the giant Coomacka-Tree that grew till its branches touched the sky.
For many centuries these Arawaks and Caribs of the islands lived as their fathers had done in a world in which there was little change. The Arawaks, who were quiet, peaceful people, feared the fierce warlike Caribs. They feared also the god Huracan, who brought storms in the summer, whipping the seas and tearing the branches from the forest trees in his anger. But they feared little else. They knew the changes of the year, the dry summer months and the wet rainy months, the seasons when the sapodillas and sweet sops ripened in the woods, and the best times for planting maize and cassava. In their world it was always spring or summer. The trees were always green, the air gentle and warm. Year followed year, century followed century with little change. The old men and the old women fell asleep, and the young men and young women lived in the way their fathers had lived.
Then a strange thing happened. On the morning of Friday, October 12, in the year 1492, some Arawaks living in the little island of Guanahani in The Bahamas saw three canoes lying off-shore, larger than any canoes they had ever seen, each moved not by oars but by white wings. Men came ashore from the strange ships, but men such as they had never seen, with white-and-pink faces, bearded, their bodies covered with thick garments of cloth and with hard, bright metal. Once ashore the strangers fell on their knees, lifted their hands to the sky, kissed the ground, shouted for joy, and gathered round their leader, Christopher Columbus.
This was the first meeting between the old world of America and the old world of Europe. The two groups faced each other on the sandy beach: naked brown-skinned men with weapons of stone and shells, and white men from Europe, clad in amour, with weapons of iron. The Arawaks, whose fathers had crossed the gulf that lay between the mainland the islands in their dug-out canoes, faced Spanish seamen who had crossed in their sailing ships the wide gulf of the Atlantic that lay between Europe and the islands of the Caribbean.
Read more in the premiere issue of Caribbean Heritage Magazine.