Last year, Angelys Marelys Boada Munoz left behind her children in the failing city of Cumana, Venezuela, and joined the exodus.
She travelled across the peninsula to the mainland’s Gulf of Paria coast and paid her way to Trinidad, following the uncounted thousands who came to the island by boat, driven by hunger and hopelessness.
Angelys found work, hawking vegetables for a vendor in Freeport, her salary paying for a bare apartment near the Solomon Hochoy Highway, the rest sent home to the children, aged nine and 11.
She was a ghost when she got here, undocumented and, like so many others, trying every day to earn money by whatever means —sales, skills, sex—while trying to avoid police attention, detention, and deportation.
Her lifeline came in May of 2019, when the State called on Venezuelans, here legally and illegally, to register for the card that would allow them to stay and work for a year, for at least the minimum wage.
Angelys received her registration card months later. 
Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened, and the world’s reaction to the virus with a 99 per cent survival rate, destroyed the lives of countless.
The lockdowns, regulations and restrictions in Trinidad and Tobago disproportionately affected the working class, and many of the lowest wage earners ended up jobless and desperate.
Angelys was among the migrants left on the fringes, people who could not leave, had nothing to go home to, and no opportunities here. The vendor could not afford to keep her.
Downward spiral
Six months ago, Angelys began a downward spiral.
This 32-year-old single mother, who worked at a horse riding school in that other life, ended up dead on the fast lane of the Solomon Hochoy highway last week Monday.
Police were told she walked into the path of a pick-up truck heading north at daybreak, and then was run over by a second vehicle.
Before the highway was blocked and her body covered, the Facebook videographers captured close-ups of what remained of her partially unclothed, broken body.
The traffic and inconvenience her body caused became the topic of discussion for those caught up in it.
“Lovely way to kick off your morning,” commented one.
Angelys had no relatives in Trinidad.
But the Express found a girlfriend who led us to the dead woman’s brother and sister in Venezuela.
As of Saturday, six days later, they had not told Angelys’ children that she was dead. How could they? It’s Christmas all over the world.
This woman was loved.
“Here she was very dear, because she was a very humble and hard-working girl. She helped those who needed…because she offered everything to those who didn’t have. Good sister, good daughter and good mother. Friend of the whole world,” her sister communicated with the Express using an online translation tool.
“She had two children, one 11 and nine years old. Her life plans were to give them a decent home,” said her brother, who added he was told of what had happened to her in her final months in Trinidad.
“She was not working there because of the pandemic. And some evil men took away her desire to continue living. They kidnapped her, they mistreated her, they did much, much damage and then they left her abandoned and she went mad, on her way to places that led her to her death,” he said.
Mental health issues
Those who remember seeing Angelys in Freeport said she appeared to have mental health issues over the past few months, seen on the streets shabbily dressed, late into the night, blocking cars, and walking into properties.
The police were called at least once and she was taken to the Couva Hospital, then transferred to the San Fernando Hospital.
Those holding registration cards are entitled to emergency medical services. A mental health evaluation is not considered an emergency. In any event, her torment would have been lost in translation.
The Express was told that she fled the hospital, and would stay at random places, just trying to stay alive, the Express was told.
The night before her death, she stayed late at a back road “party’’, then stumbled away, people in the area said. What she did in those final hours, however, no one could say.
Her body is now on a slab at the Forensic Science Centre in Federation Park. The girlfriend identified her by a tattoo.
The autopsy result will be a formality.
What happens next with Angelys’ body, no one can say.
Her siblings are asking authorities in Trinidad and Tobago for information on how the body of their sister can be returned to Venezuela for a funeral.
Whether this is possible is unlikely.


Bureacracy maze
Co-founder/coordinator of the La Romaine Migrants Support (LARMS) Angie Ramnarine told the Express the family could expect a maze of bureaucracy made more complicated by the pandemic restrictions, and that fact that Angelys had no relatives in Trinidad.
The most likely outcome would be that Angelys Marelys Boada Munoz’s “unclaimed” body would be the State’s responsibility, and taken away to a crematorium for disposal.
Ramnarine says there have been instances where deceased Venezuelans caught in the document/illegal mess in Trinidad and Tobago got a more dignified end, when friends paid a funeral agency.
This was bound to happen “in the absence of a clear policy framework of what to do and now (migrants) are to be handled. There were never clear parameters laid out,” said Ramnarine.
Angelys’ siblings just want to know what to do. They have to tell her children what happened to Mama.

 PLAYWRIGHT Eric Barry said it’s an honour to have been chosen as the regional winner of the BBC’s International Playwriting Competition 2020. His play, Delisa Brings Home the Rainbow, was selected as the Caribbean winner.
Barry said many people had called him about it when the announcement was made.
“It was interesting that so many people are happy, I can’t believe – some are more happy than I am, in some cases, at the win. It feels good that in these terrible times we have some good news for a change.”
He said this was the first time he had entered the competition, though friends had sent him the ad and urged him to enter for many years. This particular time there was "almost an avalanche" of people suggesting he enter. He said the deadline was midnight on January 31, and he had sent in his entry an hour before the deadline, as he began late.
In Delisa Brings Home the Rainbow, Barry tells the story of a family whose lives are disrupted when their daughter brings home a friend from university.
“It’s a double-header party: the husband and wife...have been married for 25 years, he becomes regional manager of a Caribbean bank, and the wife is a writer whose book is on the school syllabus and she gives herself airs. Their daughter who has been away at university is coming home for the first time after graduation and she brings home a friend. She has changed and this is causing a friction in the home, especially with the mother, as everything the daughter is now, the mother is not, and the friend even worse.
"That’s all I can say right now.”
Barry said he wrote the play many years ago for a friend as part of an inter-bank competition, but wasn’t used.
“I just brought it up and transformed it into a radio play. It was a ten-minute sketch, and I did it on stage when I began staging my own productions.
"The radio play is 45 minutes long, so I expanded the story and changed things here and there and that’s where it sprang from.”
He said there is no prize attached to the award “other than the honour of being the region’s best for the year, and the BBC will only produce the top winning plays I believe.
"If I can, I will produce it myself, because I have the experience. This is the first prize of its kind for me in terms of a radio play, but my work has won seven Cacique awards in the past.”
Barry said friends who read the script before he submitted it were thrilled with it.
“I think it’s something audiences would like to hear, not because I wrote it, but because it’s a good story. I would love to produce it sometime next year and have it on the air.”
He said while he wasn’t sure he would enter the competition again next year, he might enter the Commonwealth Short Story competition.
“I have a story I’ve been writing for the last five years. Prose is not my strength. So I’ve been very slow with that. It is quite a story.
"So (with) the adrenaline I have from this win, I want to go back to that story and finish it and enter the Commonwealth Short Story competition as well.
"I don’t know if I’ll have another radio play for January, but we’ll see what could happen.”
Barry is an award-winning playwright, film-maker, actor and advertising copywriter.
His play Better, Better Village won second place at the 2017 Prime Minister's Best Village Trophy Competition. 
He is the writer of radio plays The Rough Season (2004), a ten-part soap opera on hurricane preparedness for the English-speaking Caribbean territories, and Hush (2009) a six-part radio soap opera on child sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS.
He has written and directed numerous television ad campaigns, including a four-part Women at Risk awareness campaign for the Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment of St Vincent and the Grenadines, sponsored by the European Union. Source: Newsday, December 10, 2020

A Trinidadian doctor who was among the historic first round of healthcare workers to get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is advising citizens to put their fears aside and get vaccinated when it becomes available.
Mateus Fernandez, 28, an Internal Medicine Resident attached to the New York City hospital network, has witnessed the devastation of COVID-19 over the last seven months first hand. On Thursday, he was among those first in line to receive the Pfizer vaccine which became available to front line workers days ago in the US.
Fernandez said while there remains a level of mistrust and hesitancy when it comes to the vaccine, there was no cause for concern.
“I think in Trinidad, the population is very wary about taking vaccines. A lot of that has to do with a loss of trust with health care system, so what we should do as health care professionals is set the example and show people of Trinidad that we trust the vaccine and taking it ourselves which has worked pretty well for us in the US.”
During a zoom interview with Guardian Media, Fernandez explained that apart from the customary pain associated with being vaccinated he had not experienced any adverse side effects.
“I feel a sense of relief that I have some form of protection, some form of antibody forming inside me as we speak. Honestly, that needle that we use to give a vaccine is literally the same needle, the size of it, the same small one we’d use on newborn babies so it’s really not like a big scary needle.”
Government continues to work with the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization to determine which vaccine will be most effective.
However, arrangements have been made to receive them when they become available. An order for roughly 400,000 vaccines has been placed.
Meanwhile, the young doctor explained that he will be stationed at the Hospital’s ICU ward on Christmas Day and that while his heart remained heavy from being away from his family over the holidays, he has comfort knowing that he is able to attend to patients with the added safety of being vaccinated.
“There are so many studies on the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, I definitely feel it’s the responsible thing to do especially being exposed to so many sick patients.” Source: CNC3 December 19, 2020

Over 100 Trinidad and Tobago nationals were expected back home last evening, as the Government continued its repatriation exercises for the Christmas period. In fact, over 400 nationals, some of them stranded abroad by the COVID-19 virus since the borders were closed in March, will be back before home before Christmas Day - although they will have to spend the festive season in quarantine.

During a COVID-19 media briefing yesterday, Principal Medical Officer Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards explained that several repatriation flights had been scheduled before Christmas Day.

She assured that the exercises to bring nationals back home will not burden the parallel health care system, as there are available spaces throughout state quarantine facilities.

She said at present, the Ministry of Health had 13 state and state-supervised facilities with two of the facilities being reserved for high-risk populations such as the elderly and persons who may not be able to quarantine amongst typical population.

According to Abdool-Richards’ timeline, hundreds of nationals from high and medium-risk countries were expected to be granted border exemptions over the coming days.

“It is important to note that we have three repatriation exercises scheduled for the next 5-6 days. This evening (yesterday), we have a repatriation exercise of approximately 132 persons from New York City. On December 18th, we have another repatriation exercise with persons from Barbados and yet another exercise on the 19th from Miami.”

Abdool-Richards said another exercise has also been planned to repatriate nationals from Canada.

Meanwhile, there is still no confirmation on which COVID-19 vaccine will be procured by the Government despite the fact that it is already making preparations for its arrival. Abdool-Richards said consultations were ongoing over which treatment will be the most effective.

Through the COVAX facility, the Government had allocated US$9 million to secure over 450,000 vaccines. A number of manufacturers have already begun rolling out vaccines but there are particular specifications that must be met before Government makes a purchase.

“The effectiveness of the vaccine will be dependent on the WHO and PAHO’s certification of that vaccine, so in summary, the Ministry of Health will be guided by the WHO for the selection of a vaccine. At present, the Ministry of Health has not ordered any vaccines so that will be dependent on advice for the WHO regarding several factors.”

Abdool-Richards added that there was currently no authorised over the counter COVID-19 test kit. Her comment came as US regulators recently gave the green light for home test kits to be made available on pharmacy shelves without prescription.

In its daily update yesterday meanwhile, the ministry said there were 17 news cases reported over the period December 13-15. This took the number of cases reported since the virus hit these shores in March to 6,917. It added that there were now 564 active cases, 259 cases at state quarantine facilities and 497 people in home self-isolation. The overall death toll remained at 123.
Source:  Trinidad Guardian, Dec 17, 2020

The Caribbean American Heritage Awards is a celebration of excellence.
Now in its 27th year, this event is the brainchild of the Institute of Caribbean and Studies and was conceptualised to pay homage to members of the Caribbean diaspora who have made remarkable strides in their respective fields and enjoy success at a regional and international level.
In a statement posted on the CARAH Awards website, organisers said the ICS started this event in 1994 to highlight to the American society at large, the "calibre of individuals that claimed Caribbean American ancestry and to provide a forum for honouring and recognizing their contributions to America and the world."
Given the rising anti-immigrant rhetoric, ICS said the awards are still relevant and just as important today. One of the 2020 recipients is our own:
​

Andrea McKenzie, Trinidad and Tobago (Vanguard Award)
The talented artist attributes her natural knack for creativity to her family's respected creative legacy. Throughout her young career, she has already exhibited works across the Caribbean, New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Australia. Andrea also had the opportunity to display her work at the BET network Twenties Tv Series showcase for producer Lena Waithe. She has collaborated with various celebrities including Akon & actress Sydney Sweeney from the award-winning HBO series Euphoria. Her work has also been featured at celebrity auctions. Andrea is also the winner of the “Black I AM Power, Art and Creativity Award” 2019 in Atlanta