I am concerned that we do not have any Latin representation on the Kremandala Show, which has been the most educational show on broadcast radio for the last 11 years. We had Paul Rodriguez for two or three years, but then, as you know, he became the Ombudsman.

I respect the relative quiet of Belize?s mestizos. They don?t go running off their mouths in public. If I were a mestizo, I think I would make sure to remind Creoles that they, who used to call people ?corn?, now eat more corn than anybody else. But you don?t hear mestizos disrespecting us. You don?t hear them throwing in our face that they are now the majority in Belize. They don?t refer to the fact that they are the financial powerhouses of Belize. They just work and take care of their families. They cool.

In September of 2003, we at Kremandala, along with Dr. Ted Aranda?s World Garifuna Organization, managed to hold a Belize Black Summit in Belize City. It was something I?d thought about from 1993, and, trust me, in the end it took several months of meetings, fund raising and hard work to pull it off.

I?m thinking now that it would be good to hold a kind of summit where national leaders and spokesmen, outside of this irritating party political model, get together to discuss things such as what we prefer to be called. For sure, nobody wants to be called a ?coolie?, but ?East Indian? sounds so formal. In UBAD, we dislike the description of ?Creole?. We think it is colonial and demeaning. We prefer the militancy of the ?black? designation. But there are Creoles who are fighting to remain ?Creoles.? The only ethnic groups that you know what to call, are the Garinagu and the Maya.

In Cuba and Mexico, they have erased ethnicity from their vocabulary where designation is concerned. In those countries, you are just a Cuban and a Mexican ? nothing before, nothing after. But discrimination and disrespect remain for black Cubans and black Mexicans, so erasing ethnicity from the national vocabulary does not solve the problem of tension and injustice deriving from ethnicity.

Every week for the last two or three months, Hipolito Bautista has been spending a few hours at Amandala doing some work. So, eventually, we got to talking. Hipolito belongs to one of those Hispanic families which lived in that old Belize City I referred to in the opening paragraph ? which was black and tough.

When boxing was big at Bird?s Isle during the 1970?s, I saw Hipolito?s dad, similarly named, referee fights and be introduced in the ring at big fights as one of Belize?s fine boxers of the past. It made sense. You had to fight if you were a young ?Spanish? growing up in the old Belize City. Knowing that Hipolito senior?s children had all worked hard and become successful citizens of Belize, I always held deep respect for the old man from a distance.

Hipolito junior and I were never friends. He was at the old Radio Belize, remember. Then in 1992, I helped Dorla Bowman in her attempt to win the PUP standard bearer nomination in Port Loyola. Dorla?s opponent was one of Hipolito junior?s older brothers.

After Dorla won, the rumours had it that the Bautista family felt that the race card had been played, and that Evan X Hyde was responsible. I was glad for the opportunity a few weeks ago to discuss that with Hipolito junior, thirteen years after the fact. I reminded, or informed, him that a very wealthy and very powerful PUP leader had financed and supported Dorla.

I suggested that Hipolito junior interview his dad, who is still alive, and write something for the newspaper. Hipolito senior should get some respect while he is still with us. Junior Hipolito told me, in fact, that senior had fought the famous Slim Terror (Roy Cadle). Listen to me now, if you got into a ring and fought Slim Terror in the days, you must be given maximum respect.

On a whole, I want my Latin countrymen to know this, that not because I love my own people, that means I disrespect yours. Nobody could have gotten me into a ring with Slim Terror. As men, we respect all real men.

Our Latin brethren and sistren should begin to talk out more, to help educate us. I dedicate this column to the honour, or memory, of Soccorro Bobadilla, one of Belize?s greatest heroines ever. I understand she disappeared some ten years ago, and her American husband claimed she was on a trip to Belize. Tell me more.