caribny posted:.I can only wonder why Trinidadians are proud of this diversity (they being even more diverse than we are as they also have Spanish creole and Afro French creole elements). They are proud of being a culture where the mosque, the Hindu temple and the Christian church exist side by side. Where an East Indian was instrumental in developing steel pan, a white Trini will gobble down a doubles and an Afro Trini will pick up a cuatro and sing parang at Xmas.
Druggie why do you negate societies like these and pretend as if cultural creativity doesn't happen? The essence of Trinidad is the soca chutney parang which pulls together the three main musical traditions of that island.
Its the fact that Trinidad recognizes this to the extent that Guyana doesn't is why that society, despite having a similar ethnic mix, isn't stuck as is Guyana. BOTH the PNM and the UNC must perform as neither can take their support base for granted.
And its not as if this cultural fusion and diversity doesn't also represent Guyana. I saw a group of Indo Guyanese American boys dancing some combination of chutney, hip hop, dance hall and soca. I think that this is how they culturally define themselves.
Trinidad is a different animal, people live in much more close proximity to each other rather than as in Guyana where people are spread out and villages are still predominantly defined by being Indian or African. It is akin to saying that GT IndoG represent the Indian community across Guyana. Being from GT and growing up in a mixed village, I see distinct differences between Indos in GT vs the rest of the country. This may explain T&T where there is less isolation by race geographically. That is of course if what you are saying is correct about Trinis. I know some Trini Indians that hate Black Trinis, this goes against what you are peddling here about an integrated culture there.