by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Jan. 16, 2025

Belize celebrated its second public and bank holiday of 2025 by honoring the birthday of the “Father of the Nation”, George Cadle Price, on Wednesday, January 15.

Born in 1919, Price was the first minister and premier under British rule until independence in 1981, and was Belize’s first Prime Minister, thus earning him the title, the “Father of the Nation”.

_{Photo: Mayor Bernard Wagner and Governor General, H.E. Dame Froyla Tzalam plant tree at Botanical Garden in honor of Hon. George Cadle Price}

Price entered the political arena in the early 1940s when he was elected to the Belize City Council and co-founded the People’s United Party (PUP) with other prominent individuals in Belize’s history – Leigh Richardson, Philip Goldson, and Nicholas Pollard – in 1950.

Throughout his political career, Price fought for Belize’s independence, development, social justice, and unity until his retirement in 2003. Price resided at his family home at 3 Pickstock Street, Belize City until his passing in September 2011, at 92.

_{Photo: Governor General, H.E. Dame Froyla Tzalam; Prime Minister Hon. John Briceño and family members of Hon. George Cadle Price}

Price has been recognized annually on the anniversary of his death through civil service and laying a wreath at his resting place at the Lord Ridge Cemetery. Last year, a 16-foot statue was revealed to the public, displaying Price in his iconic Guayabera shirt at the Battlefield Park on Albert Street in downtown Belize City.

Also, last year, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) and the Price family turned the Pickstock home into a botanical garden.

“This is an exciting project, initiative we’ve been working on really for more than two years. We had to engage with the Price family. Their support and approval were critical to the entire project,” said Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca. “He was way ahead of his time in terms of environmental consciousness, he’s legendary for picking up garbage, loved to plant trees. So, we thought, we conceived this project of establishing a botanical garden right here in Mister Price’s family home in his backyard,” he added.

Along with launching the botanical garden, a compilation of Price’s letters preserved at the Belize Archives was released, titled “Good Belizeans”, featuring a compilation of letters during his life as a political leader.

“We want to continue to promote and preserve the legacy of George Price, especially for young people. This year will mark 14 years since Mister Price died, so we have a whole generation now growing up, young people who were born after the death of George Price. It’s easy in any country for historical events [and] the legacy of people to be lost. So, we have an obligation at NICH to preserve and promote the legacy of this great man, the father of our nation, and one of the ways we’re doing that is to produce booklets… We have tons of material; boxes and boxes of materials that we are just going through, un-covering more and more about the legacy of George Price that we want to share with the Belizean people,” he mentioned.

The national holiday was first recognized in 2021.