Siparia and La Divina Pastora are synonymous and the very identity of the little country town is associated with the presence of its patron saint. There are many myths and legends surrounding the origins of the statue which has such deep spiritual and temporal significance for so many. Since time immemorial, the plateau of Siparia had been home to a large community of Warao native peoples from the Orinoco Delta region of Venezuela. Their primary landing place was Quinam beach from whence a narrow footpath led to the settlement and other parts of the island.
In 1758, a party of Capuchin monks from Spain, founded a Mission here, complete with a small ajoupa to serve as a chapel. One of the major monumental events of this period is that in 1795, Pope Pius VI decreed La Divina Pastora ( The Divine Shepherdess) to be that patron saint of all Capuchin missions. There is no mention of the statue of La Divina Pastora from this period of the Mission. One unsupported claim is that it was brought to the chapel circa 1800 by a dying priest from the Cumana Mission in Venezuela who claimed it saved his life. A popular story concerning the statue was recounted in 1887 as follows:
“Tradition says that this statue was picked up by Spaniards in the depths of the forest ; it remained here for some time, and was then removed to Oropouche Church. It made no stay there, however, for on the morning after its arrival it was found to have mysteriously disappeared during the night, and, on search being instituted, it was discovered in the precise spot of the forest where it had first appeared.”
Fr. Poirier, the Padre in the 1840s, does not write of the statue’s existence, but by 1878, the feast of La Divina Pastora was already being celebrated two Sundays after Easter. The image of the Divine Shepherdess resided in the little tapia church , resting on a mound of earth where homage was paid. Waraos from the Orinoco, local Catholics and a new element, Hindus, made the feast day boisterous and lively. Pilgrims would encamp and stream into the chapel to make offerings to La Divina . In 1878, Fr. Armand Masse, a French priest , wrote this observation:
“Some Waraoons dressed in nothing are at the door of the church. A band of coolies arrives. They sing all night long. At dawn they go to bathe and then come to the chapel .They have brought two cocks which they will offer to the virgin ( they call her Siparee Mai) . To make this offering they go to the foot of the altar with the cock and saying their prayers in a loud voice with arms extended , they go to the back of the church , untie the cock and set it free in the church . “
La Divina Pastora after an extensive restoration undertaken in 2010-2011 by conservation specialist, Judi Sheppard. (Source:  Virtual Museum of TT, March 2022)

Dr. Rudranath Capildeo was a Trinidadian scholar who made contributions in the fields of applied mathematics and physics. He studied the nature of space and time and this sparked his interest in understanding Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. His work resulted in new theories, such as the “Theory of Rotation and Gravity” or “Capildeo’s Theory” for short. This theory had applications in early outer space expeditions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Capildeo was a gifted educator who spent most of his teaching life at the University College, London. He also taught at other institutions including the University of Khartoum, Sudan and he was the first principal of Trinidad Polytechnic School. He wrote a mathematics textbook entitled “Vector Algebra and Mechanics: Theory, Problems, and Solutions”.
Rudranath Capildeo was born in Chaguanas, Trinidad on February 2nd 1920 at “The Lion House”. He attended Queen’s Royal College (QRC) and won an Open National Scholarship in 1939. He began studies in medicine at Oxford University, but due to illness, he switched to mathematics at University College London.
He completed an intermediate bachelor of science degree and followed with a BSc Special Degree in Mathematics. He copped several prizes and graduated in 1943. Capildeo returned to Trinidad and taught Mathematics at QRC for a brief period. He furthered his studies at University College London and gained a Master of Science degree in 1945 and a Doctorate in Mathematical Physics in 1948.
His ability to manipulate mathematical techniques enabled him to solve any problem. His logical mind, skill in debating, and clear understanding of his subject assisted him in explaining complicated mathematical theories to his students and laypeople. He proceeded to clarify and fortify Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity because he “knew it inside out, upside down, and sideways”.
Apart from his achievements in science, Dr. Capildeo studied law in London and was admitted to practise as a Barrister-at-Law in Trinidad. He founded and led the Democratic Labour Party and became Leader of the Opposition in the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament when the country became independent.
He was considered an outstanding scholar, yet, the full potential of his work is not fully understood.
For his great achievements in science, he was awarded one of the inaugural National Awards- the Trinity Cross- from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in 1969.
He died on May 12, 1970. (Source:  Caribbean Hindustani, Marrch 2022)

​This was the man who created the first Police Steelband - Supt. Anthony Prospect. (His real name was actually Guillermo Antonio Prospect, but he was popularly known by the English version of his middle name.)
Born in Port-of-Spain on February 10, 1928, Prospect joined the T&T Police Force in 1944. In 1963, he became the first local musician to graduate from the Royal Military School of Music, where he won the trophy for Best Conductor and majored as an ethnomusicologist, with emphasis on the steelband and folk music.
Prospect came to public attention in 1964 when he was appointed Bandmaster of the Police Band, the first local musician in the post. He made an immediate impact.
He formed the first police steelband in 1964 and, at that year’s Independence Day Parade, he broke the tradition of playing exclusively European military marches, having the Band play his adaptation of Lord Kitchener's winning Road March calypso "Mama Dis Is Mas" to the military march.
Prospect went on to develop a long relationship with Trinidad’s steelbands. He composed the test pieces for Steelband Music Festivals: Intermezzo in E Flat (1966) and Maracas Bay (1972).
In 1978, he produced an album for Renegades steelband after touring South America with them. In 1981, he was the musical director and conductor of Desperadoes for its tour of England.
Further, he arranged Casablanca’s music scores for the 1980 and 1982 Music Festivals with "Zampa Overture" (2nd Place) and "1812 Overture" (1st Place), respectively.
Prospect was immortalised in calypso by The Mighty Sparrow, in a celebrated piece titled "The Governor’s Ball", which became more widely known for its chorus tag-line: "Shake Your Baton Like Mr Prospect".
Prospect retired as the Police bandmaster in 1982. During the ‘90s, however, he served as steelband consultant to the Inter-Cultural Music Institute (CIMI), a project mounted jointly by The University of the West Indies and the United National Development Programme. He was also selected as chief adjudicator at Panorama competitions for various Carnivals held in North America.
Prospect died May 3, 2000, at a hospital in Miami, Florida.
He was the recipient of a national award: Public Service Medal of Merit, Gold, for Music (1973).
(Source: Dominic Kalipersad, May 16, 2022)

This is the man for whom Woodford Square is named: Sir Ralph James Woodford, Trinidad’s longest-serving British Governor (1784-1828).
Woodford did much for the development of Port-of-Spain and the island, but he also maintained slavery and discrimination against non-white peoples.
He has variously been described as “one of the most progressive Governors” and “a vicious, racist early nineteenth-century leader”.
As Governor, Woodford was responsible for rebuilding the square (known as Brunswick Square) and much of the city after the 1808 fire. He improved trade by introducing a round-island steamer service (1818), initiated land reclamation which changed the Port-of-Spain waterfront (1823), and opened primary schools for elite children (1826).
He also bought the Paradise Estate and Hollandais Estates (1818), the former becoming the Queen’s Park Savannah, the latter to create a new Government House (now known as President’s House), the Botanical Gardens, and St Ann’s.
Both of the current cathedrals in Port-of-Spain have their origins in churches built by Woodford for the Anglican and Roman Catholic communities.
Woodford was also opposed to the abolition of slavery and created a system of institutionalised racism.
He enforced repressive laws against non-whites, created prescriptions against free black people, and sought to prevent marriages between white and black people.
Woodford felt that Trinidad’s free coloureds had too many freedoms, were too rich and too closely ingratiated to white society. He tried to set a legal limit on how much land they could own.
He even promoted the segregation of churches, cemeteries too, not wanting whites to mix with blacks even after death.
In an article published in Newsday on May 3, 2022, Shabaka Kambon, director, Cross Rhodes Freedom Project, said Woodford was the most notorious racist and white supremacist in T&T’s history.
He said, “(Woodford) publicly called on whites in this country to be exceedingly harsh with people of colour, and segregated everything from the pews of the churches to the cemeteries. Blacks and whites were never supposed to be equal or to sit together.
“And the work that Woodford did in his reign as the longest-serving colonial governor still affects the people of T&T up to today.”
Kambon said Woodford was opposed by Fr Francis de Ridder, the first coloured RC priest in this country, who set up the first desegregated primary school and church, in the time of Woodford. But T&T forgot and ignored him.
“The values that he represents we don’t think are worthy to be celebrated publicly. But the man who persecuted him to death, Governor Woodford, the litany of things Woodford did – that man is celebrated over the man who stood up for the values we say we celebrate today.”
Sources:
•National Trust of T&T https://nationaltrust.tt/contested-heritage-at-the-heart.../
•Caribbean History Archives: http://caribbeanhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/.../picton...
•Newsday: https://newsday.co.tt/.../cross-rhodes-freedom-project.../
(Dominic Kalipersad, May 7, 2022)

​Dr. Fidel Castro paid a visit to Mount St Benedict soon after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Here he is being greeted by the prior, Dom Hugh van der Sanden. He was accompanied by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, and several members of the new Cuban Regime. Dr. Castro was on his way to Rio de Janeiro. As he was about to leave Piarco International Airport, he looked up into the hills. He beheld the majestic sight of the monastery in the distance and immediately demanded that he be taken there before leaving Trinidad. The hills in the distance reminded him of the hills from which he orchestrated his armed revolt against the authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. He was warmly greeted by the monks, including Brother Bruno and the prior, who took him for an extensive visit of the monastery.
Dr. Castro who was educated at Havana's Jesuit-run Belen College and who belonged to the Catholic University Students movement while studying law in Havana University, said that Cuba is beginning a new era in which the Christian spirit will prevail. ( Credit Archives from Mount St. Benedict). (Source: Virtual Museum of TT , May 9, 2022)