The following, our dear readers of this column, is a sensitive issue which to me is educational. The term “Creole” was introduced by the invaders and conquerors of this continent we call America, who were the masters of an enslaved people brought from Africa and also of the indigenous people of this land, which caused a “boil up”, and out of that a new race was born. Sometime ago, while I was filling out an official document, the officer asked what my race was. I wondered at that moment, what race am I? Such a question had never been asked to me before and I said to her, “I don’t have a race”. She answered, saying, “you must have one; you’re either Creole or Mestizo”.

Once more, I started to wonder, where did she get the information that Creole is a race? Creole was used many years ago during the time of the conquest; when Europeans had their children here in America, they were called Creole. The same was true for the Africans that were brought here, their children were called Creole, which means to say that whether the father and mother were European, or the father and mother were African, children born in America were called Creole. But that was many, many years ago, and I had forgotten all about it, but it so happens that, coming to Belize, I knew about a Creole tongue (language) that is derived from English. It’s a broken and an ungrammatical english, which is called Creole and spoken by Belizeans on a whole. But a Creole race? I never heard about it before, so I went and tried to do some research to see if such a thing exists, and no—it doesn’t exist.

The other word is Mestizo. Mestizo is not a race; it is a mixture of races. They were called Mestizos here in America, which means a mixture between Europeans and Indigenous people. In the case of Belize, it would be the Maya, since Belize is part of the Maya world. So, it would be the Maya mixed with Spanish or Spaniard; that’s where the Mestizo came from; it’s not a race, it’s a mixture, it’s two races. So, I do not know how it is that Belizean intellectuals, those who form the think tanks and make laws and constitutions and all those things, have not realized that there is a big mistake; it is a myth and it seems that this country, they love to live under myths, under lies, under made-up things. There’s no such thing as a Creole race or a Mestizo race. These are mixtures of races on both sides.

When I look at myself, I had to start thinking, now which race am I, since I’ve been asked that question. I’m a mixture of African, Maya and European. Those genes flow through my veins. I’m a mixture of races, I am a product of the clash of races, and I was born here in America, here in Central America. I was not born in the Caribbean, no, in Central America. Of course, here the shore is part of the Caribbean Sea, but that does not make me a Caribbean, I’m not part of the Caribbean. One thing is the agreement and the formation of CARICOM countries that came together and formed themselves, but to say that I have a tie, or a family tie in any of those islands, no, and I think the majority of us don’t have. Now, we are also part of the Central American Integration System (SICA), and it so happens that, taking that in mind, it reminds me of the first time I took out my passport. It was in English and French, and I wondered also, why French? There is no French country close by. We are surrounded by countries of Spanish- speaking people, and Spanish is also widely spoken in Belize, and many of us speak spanglish, which is a mixture of the English and Spanish languages. Going back to the topic of the passport, I remember writing an article about why such a document in Belize is written in French and English, since we are surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries.

Fortunately, afterwards, it was changed, and now it comes out in English and Spanish. The other thing that I observed arriving here, back in ‘93, ‘94 was that the justice system would always mention the term “Spanish”—that the Spanish had committed such crime, the Spanish did this or the other, and I also wrote another article, which was published in this same newspaper, in which I stated that were no Spaniards here in Belize. There were Maya and there were Mestizos. Lately, I have been trying to do a little research on the words Ladino, Latino, Hispanic, etc. They are all the same. It’s a mixture of races, it is not a race. Now, ethnicity, we have to go on the word ethnic and its definition is as follows:

“A group of people who share a similar culture (beliefs, values, and behaviors), language, religion, ancestry, or other characteristic that is often handed down from one generation to the next. They may come from the same country or live together in the same area. Examples of ethnic groups include Hispanics and Han Chinese. Some diseases or genetic conditions may be more common in certain ethnic groups than in others.” – (https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/ethnic-group).

[email protected]
February 26, 2022
Finca Solana
Corozal Town