In the first instance, the British did not intend for British Honduras to be a homogeneous or independent nation. That is why they constructed the demography of the colony with such obviously divisive intentions. For the British, Belize was a beachhead from which to interfere in the politics and economics of Mexico and Central America. The people who lived in the territory were insignificant and irrelevant natives.

When the natives of British Honduras began their nationalist uprising in 1950, it is very important to note that they saw the United States of America as an option to Great Britain. The people were willing to exchange colonial status under Great Britain for any kind of dependent status with the United States.

One reason for this was that the richest native in the colony, Robert Sydney Turton, had been doing mahogany, chicle and other business with American firms and banks since the 1920?s. Turton hated the British, and his personal secretary, George Price sympathized with his feelings. Through Price, Turton was involved with the 1950 PUP and no doubt helped with their financing.

No professional historian in Belize or elsewhere has ever studied the effect of Belizean labour migration to Panama during the 1940?s on the perspective and culture of Belize. Belizeans who returned from Panama were pro-American because they had seen how lavish and expansive the Americans were compared to the British. The Belizeans who went to Panama included some of British Honduras? most talented and daring young men. When they returned to Belize, they introduced organized gambling (the Panama lottery), built houses of prostitution, promoted professional boxing, and encouraged Belizeans to travel through Mexico to the United States. They changed the psyche, culture and life style of urban British Hondurans.

Since 1948 Guatemala has made frequent noise about her ?claim? to Belize, and the Mexicans, because they are ten times larger than Guatemala and sure of themselves, do not say anything. But the influence of Mexico is much greater in Belize than that of Guatemala. Many more Belizeans are of Mexican origin than Guatemalan, because of the fact that so many Belizean families became Belizean when the British decided to allow refugees from the Caste War in the Yucatan to enter British Honduras in the last half of the nineteenth century.

When people ask me why Belizeans are so feeble where their nationalism is concerned, I tell them like this, only half jokingly. ?Listen, Hispanic Belizeans think they are Mexicans; Creole Belizeans think they are Americans; and Garifuna Belizeans think they are part of some larger Garifuna nation which includes Garinagu in Honduras and Guatemala.? People here don?t really feel the need for Belize the way the citizens of other countries do.

I think the most nationalistic Belizeans may be the Belizeans in the two northern districts who benefited from the PUP land acquisition and land reform programs in the 1960?s and 1970?s, primarily. The Belizeans who are most noisy in their nationalism are we who call ourselves roots Belizeans because our ancestors have been working here for three going for four centuries. The Belizeans who will be the most determined in their nationalism down the road will be those Chinese and Taiwanese who have invested big bucks and properly appreciate the paradise they have found here.

In tying up all the loose ends of this essay, I have to return to the very beginning, and ideas which were provoked by the high profile juxtaposition of Mexico and Belize on Tuesday. Mexicans have paid the price, many times over, for their nation. We Belizeans do not know how important, what a treasure our nation is. To repeat, some of us are Mexicans; some of us are Americans; and some of us are Garinagu.

The Jews, despite their centuries of persecution, became one of the wealthiest groups of people on planet earth. Then they decided that they simply had to have a nation, come hell or high water. Thus, Israel. We Belizeans have a nation. We didn?t really earn it, because we did not bleed for it. But, by God, we have it. Let us find a way to hold on to Belize, my people. They don?t teach the history of Mexico and the history of Israel/Palestine in our schools. They should. I swear.