Chris & Linda Cholas

Email: cscholas@hawaii.rr.com

For Mahogany – Feature Article Part I

Expedition to Gracias A Dios, Honduras --July 2001

Gracias a Dios, which translates to “Thanks to God” in English, is the name of the second largest Departamento in Honduras.  It borders the Caribbean on the north and Nicaragua on the southeast.  Most of it is pure jungle, with rivers that flow into lagoons that empty into the Caribbean.  One travels primarily by motorboat or caiuco (dugout canoe) in Gracias a Dios; the rivers are the roads.

The few 4-wheel drive pickups in the area provide some transport within some of the villages and along the shoreline, but the ride is rough. Air service exists between larger villages, such as Palacios and Puerto Lempira, connecting with La Ceiba, which is the larger regional city in the Departamento of Atlántida.

Gracias a Dios, sometimes better known as the Mosquito Coast, hosts several indigenous peoples, the Mosquito and Garinagu (or Garifuna) principal among them.  The Garifuna arrived on the Honduras Coast via the Bay Islands in 1797 and have since dispersed along the Honduras north coast to Livingston, Guatemala and into Belize.  Migrations of Garifuna also have taken them to US destinations, such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The history of the Garifuna begins with the shipwreck off the coast of St. Vincent of two Spanish ships in 1635 carrying slaves from West Africa, probably from Nigeria.  The surviving Africans, presumed to be mostly or all men, took refuge on St. Vincent with the Carib Indians, also known as Calíponan.  The intermarrying of African men and Calíponan women created the Garifuna people.  The Garifuna made a pact with the French to share the island of St. Vincent. For the next one hundred years, life was relatively calm on St. Vincent, until the British began recolonizing St. Vincent, which had been ceded to them in the Peace of Paris in 1763.

The Garifuna under their supreme chief, Satuyé, formed an alliance with the French against the British.  In 1795 Satuyé’s troops attacked and killed many of the British residents living on Saint Vincent.  Satuyé, according to some reports, felt he was invincible, and he wanted to rid Saint Vincent of all British citizens. He felt that the arrival of the British would soon mean the end to the freedom that the Garifuna enjoyed on Saint Vincent.  However, on the night of March 14, 1795 he was assassinated.   In June of the following year British General Sir Ralph Abercrombie arrived and defeated the Garifuna. The British exiled the captured Garifuna and their families, numbering 4,584, to the remote island of Baliseau in 1797.  Lacking adequate food and fresh water, and subjected to severe treatment by their captors, more than half the Garifuna on Baliseau died within a month of their arrival. 

The British decided to move the 2,000 survivors to Guanaja on one of the Bay Islands of the northern coast of Honduras.  Along the way, the Spanish captured one of the British ships and released the exiled Garifuna in the coastal town of Trujillo where the Garifuna soon excelled at farming, something the Spanish did not do well at. Later, the Spanish captured Roatan Island from the British. The remaining 1,700 Garifuna were able to join their expatriates on Trujillo.

The September 2001 issue of National Geographic magazine carried a photo essay and brief article about the Garifuna in Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.

Garifuna scholar, Salvador Suazo of Honduras, has published several excellent books about Garifuna history and culture in Spanish and Garifuna.  For information about ordering his works, send a fax to CEDEC (Centro de Desarrolo Comunitario) 011 (504) 38-5327.

My family and I have been acquainted with the Garifuna from when we lived in Belize from 1987 – 1994.  We made friends with Garifuna throughout the country.  One of our daughters, Bienshirni, after high school graduation, decided to offer several months of voluntary service to the Bahá’í-sponsored rural Hospital Bayan in Palacios, Honduras.  It was there that she met Santiago, whom she married several years later.  They now have two children and reside in Palacios. 

Palacios is situated on a laguna that flows into the Caribbean.  Garifuna, Mosquitos and ladinos (meztizos) are the primary residents of Palacios.  Small settlements of Garifuna and Mosquitos exist along the Caribbean shoreline and around the laguna.  

In July of this year my wife, Linda, and I ventured to Palacios with another of our daughters, Roshan, to spend time with Bienshirni and her family—Santiago, Santiagito and Katalin (who turned 7 months old during our visit).  They have a small house built alongside the airfield, which is a former pasture for cows and horses, now limited to a landing field.  Five times in the morning, planes land and take off in front of their home. 

I hoped to encounter some of the natural wildlife in addition to seeing Bienshirni and family.  I hoped to see a boa constrictor, which Roshan did see during one of her boat expeditions with the Laguna Environmental crew—an eight-foot long boa resting on a log.  I also hoped to see the white-faced howler monkeys that sometimes appeared in the forest just behind Santiago and Bienshirni’s home.  Linda saw them one morning early; I heard them many mornings, and never saw a single one.  I didn’t see any sand flies either, but the myriad spots on my arms and ankles attested to their daily presence. 

I had an additional challenge—I use a wheelchair.  Honduras is not a wheelchair-friendly country, especially in the Department A Gracias de Dios with its lack of roads.  The last fully accessible bathroom was in the San Salvador International Airport where we changed planes to head to Honduras.  However, lodging at the Project Bayan turned out to be adequate, though I had to basically crawl up and down the stairs to our room, while someone carried up my chair after me.  Inaccessibility became part of the adventure.  For three weeks I figured that I could suffer some inconveniences.      

Santiago’s family all came by during our stay to introduce themselves and to welcome us to Palacios. The Garifuna culture blends Africa with Amerindian.  Drums are a big part of ceremonies, so we decided to try to buy some Garifuna made drums.  Roshan and Santiago walked early one morning to the village of Sangrilalla three hours by foot along the coastline to find a well-known drum maker. They agreed to a fair price and caught a ride on a four-wheel drive truck heading back to Palacios in what turned out to be a hair-raising ride. Several times, passengers seated on the hard, wood benches in the back of the truck had to get out while the driver negotiated steep sand dunes along the Caribbean shoreline. 

Santiago and Roshan arrived home in the afternoon with two authentic Garifuna drums—one large one used for the beat, and a smaller one, known as the segunda (the second), which does “the talking.”  One day at Bienshirni and Santiago’s place, we had the drums initiated with Santiago’s brother, Peter, and a neighbor playing for about an hour, while Santiago’s mother, and our Belizean friend, Therese, showed us some of the traditional dance steps.  We drew a small crowd for the lively performance.  The drummers were exceptional, and we wished we could have taped their performance.

Our Garifuna Bahá’í friends, Alejandro and Therese Martinez, gave us a tour by boat one day to the Mosquito village of Belen, where another Bahá’í family fed us and showed us around.  The Garifuna and Mosquitos live together quite harmoniously.

Life is simple and hard – water must be hauled between 5 – 7 a.m.; no electricity, so everything, such as laundry is done manually.  The insects are a daily challenge—mosquitoes and sand flies, bed bugs and other types of biting flies and ants.  Bienshirni told us that one day they came home from a buying trip in La Ceiba to find large black ants had built a nest in one of their suitcases. They had to take everything out of the house to rid the place of the unwelcome squatters.  If life is hard, it also has its simple pleasures and rewards—tranquility, friendly neighbors, good food and clean air.  We look forward to visiting Honduras again.