We are not “Sons of the Baymen’s Clan”. We are “Children of the Belizean Soil”— women and men, girls and boys, females and males, Belizeans all. The old Baymen Clan from the years 1763, 1779, 1783, and 1786 have disappeared from the earth. However, there are a few surnames that are around that have been here since the beginning of the 1800’s, such as Potts, McAulay, Wilson, Dawson, Young, Hyde, Wall, Bennett, Burnham, Craig, Armstrong, Douglas, McKenzie etc.

Nonetheless, we wonder how many descendants of the English, Irish and Scottish men in the old Baymen Clan are in existence in Belize. And why should we extol those slave masters as if they were gods? Could it be that the mindset of the person who penned the poem “Land of the gods” was that they were some kind of divinity? Why not? After all, for millenniums the teaching has been that the Creator is white. Therefore, logically, the offspring of an enslaved people remained mentally in captivity.

Those of us who carry a Spanish surname have broken the chain of mental slavery, under which, for a long time, many thought of themselves as sons of the conquistadores. It would have been a shameful disgrace had someone penned a poem saying: “Arise ye sons of the Conquistadores, our forefathers valiant and bold drove the invaders from across the Hondo River”. And our Maya sisters and brothers sing to our glorious ancestors who fought against your masters, the British, and the Spanish invaders. We also have the history of our Garinagu sisters and brothers, who would also want to glorify their forefathers in Belize’s National Anthem. Why do you humiliate these other Belizeans and make them inferior?

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12th June 2020
Finca Solana
Corozal Town