A tourism plan for southern city

TERRENCE HONORÉ

THERE ARE many things that make the city of San Fernando great, but few seem to know them. We have been failing in our efforts to show them. The sites and scenes to recall our past remain in our hearts and minds, but we need to do more to preserve and promote the heritage of our much-loved city.

A look into our history revealed that a famed tourist came to our shores on the eve of Christmas in 1870. It was the English novelist Charles Kingsley who visited the then small town of San Fernando. He wrote about his experiences in his book At Last a Christmas in the West Indies. The publication was described as "a book by an ordinary tourist."

Kingsley went on to give a detailed and colourful account of his ride on the Cipero tramway drawn by long-legged mules and his visit to the nearby Cedar Grove estate with its tall palmiste palms at the entrance to the great house. Much was seen then and even more should be seen today of the sites and scenes of the quaint town that has grown into our thriving southern city.

We no longer have the sweet fragrant scent of sugar cane lingering in the air, or the site of the nearby Pointe-a-Pierre refinery glowing brightly in the night. But there is still much to share about the paths we have passed, the old places and stories of those who went before us.

Yes, we have a few historic remnants to remind us of our past and other places for an eager tourist to see. But it will all remain a distant memory if we don’t outline a tourism plan to guide our visitors, local and foreign, who gather around our famous hill.

A few years ago I took the time to identify 15 heritage sites in the city, to add to an earlier listing of eight or nine locations, including the Carnegie Library and the railway station. A quick tour map revealed some interesting routes. I shared my thoughts with a south-based tour guide but was disappointed to hear him say, "There’s little to see and know in San Fernando." How sad.

Today we have the advantage of several new vistas and much more to share about how we came to be as we are today. Our ethnic groups have merged into our culture, eager to tell the tales of our heritage in cuisine and festivities.

Meanwhile, the faithful San Fernando Hill looks down at the small, spreading metropolis as old cane fields gave way to housing schemes, shopping malls and new businesses. But the legacies are there, hidden in plain sight or buried under a few layers of clay.

The little town has risen to modern times, but with its growth there is a concern. We have been busy creating history but leaving little for others to see. Many are overwhelmed with passion for the place of their childhood, but we are failing to document our accounts or even recount the narratives of the past.

As a grateful son of the Sando soil, I must trumpet the need for a tourism plan for the city. One that we will share with tourists who come our way. A plan that chronicles and displays our heritage, from the days of the aborigines to slavery and indentureship, to modern enterprise and the festivities, and all those who worked hard to get us where we are as a city.

Over the years I looked for signs, statues, streets and monuments to identify our past. Most are missing and old stories are not being told. What we offer is a modernised vintage of our history that has bastardised our past…our heritage is strewn across the rolling hills of the Naparimas. We must fix this as a product worth saving, one that fits into a tourism plan that is well thought out and appreciated.

We must bring back special events of our past, like the San Fernando sailing regatta, a feature for many years that had even governors in attendance. We can highlight our art heritage with murals and install historic markers as guideposts to tell our stories.

But we cannot let our heritage belong only to festivities, reduced to a string of jam-and-wine events devoid of the cultural substance that highlights the true Sando spirit. While the special activities have their place in cultural expression, we cannot continue to fete and fail to preserve our history for all to see.

A detailed map of our heritage places will show where the aborigines landed to begin their religious pilgrimage up High Street, then past their Carib Street homes and on to their "sacred" San Fernando Hill. Also, Embacadere, the place where ships loaded sugar cane products from the surrounding estates in the days when sugar was king. The adjacent bank at the mouth of the Cipero River where the great Palmiste estate began...no remnants preserved there for tourists to see.

Then there is Cipero Street, named after the river, that also gave the name to the town of Siparia. And the site of the first tramline in the country from Bay Road to Golconda, near Corinth Hill, birthplace of the famed painter Cazabon. The place off the shoreline at Vistabella where the steamer, the Lady McLeod, sank in 1854, and the sites where the Hosay riots/massacre occurred – where blood was shed.

And, of course, Carnegie Library corner, former central market, where a Uriah "Buzz" Butler supporter lost his life. No signs recall the unfortunate incident when 17 men died in the coal mine disaster on Jarvis Street in 1904, or the first black African priest who was "killed" for doing his pious duty.

All these things and more continue to be hidden from the eyes and hearts of the people of our city and visitors alike. Like a dark mask over our past, we are playing jab jab with our heritage. Time for the tourism plan to be given some priority.

The old railway station rotting over the years, the Carnegie Library in decay. Why can’t we all see it’s all part of the demise of our legacy. We pass the library every day and can only say what a shame. Our leaders honour our heritage only by word and not deed and we continue to stand for that. We treat our place with such distain…valuable legacies going down the drain. No pride of place, no system in place to preserve what we callously dismiss. What is this? What will the tourists really see?

And so, we will continue to try and cry that the soul of our nation will be preserved by those who truly love this land. South people must make a stand. We are famed for our hospitality, and this augurs well for tourism too. Some even say we have the best tourist destination in our nation.

Recently I was heartened to hear that new San Fernando mayor Robert Parris is working on a tourism plan. I wait expectantly. The people of the city and environs should be assured and prepared for the tourists when they arrive like the English poet Kingsley did so many years ago. It’s about time we had a tourism plan for our southern city.