The Untold Stories of our Local Heroes and Heroines

​THE STORY OF FELICITA VIDALE , A WOMAN WHO TAMED PART OF THE JUNGLE IN PALO SECO TO CREATE HER OWN GARDEN OF EDEN.
Author : Rudolph Bissessarsingh

Too often when we drive through the Southland of Trinidad, we still encounter at the sides of rural roads, vast tracts of virgin forests. Hugh patches of bamboo, terite, huge, giant flowering trees and tangled undergrowth of shrubs and vines. We fail to pause for a moment to ponder on the herculean efforts of the early settlers, their tremendous energy and resourcefulness that they expended in the taming of these tropical jungles.
This is the story of one of the unsung heroines of Palo Seco whose name was Felicita Vidale. Felicita made her first journey across the seas by canoe from Tucupita, Venezuela to Trinidad when she was only twelve years old. By that time the spark of adventure had already ignited her restless spirit and the quest for becoming an accomplished business entrepreneur. Felicita was of mixed ethnicity, part Amerindian, part African, part Spanish and other mixed heritage. She was a formidable woman to behold. Strong, tall, domineering, witty and with a keen sense of observation she would brave the perilous ocean many times back and forth from Tucupita to Trinidad, lured on by the prospectus of profitable trade.
She was the proverbial tinker, selling each and everything from donkeys, shotguns, cows and even whiskey. Her covert trade involved coming ashore at Palo Seco with her goods and traversing forested trails through the Vidale Cocoa estate to escape the scrutiny of the police. From this base she would then quietly travel by donkey to San Fernando to purchase with the money she had traded her good for white cotton shirts and khaki pants to sell back on the mainland of Venezuela.
The estate owner Clement Vidale often admired the beauty of Felicita. His enchantment soon led to love and Felicita and Clement got married at the Erin Roman Catholic Church. Theirs was a marriage that lasted well over fifty years and together they had five children. Her nuptial home was a humble tapia hut with a clay floor and a thatched roof. In the corner of their dwelling abode was a hole in the floor where she made coals to sell to the villagers. Soon the estate became known as Ma Clem Estate in Palo Seco. Cocoa, coffee, fonka bean trees, bananas, yam, cassava, citrus trees flourished in the rich virgin soil as slowly the jungle began to recede replaced by her husbandry. The village folks claimed that her spirit walked unseen through the Estate and this deterred unwanted predators from stealing the produce of the land. The Cocoa Estate became a hub of activity and an economic salve for many of the villagers.
Felicita soon earned the respect and love of the villagers in the Palo Seco area. With knowledge gained from her childhood days she soon became the village mid wife, delivering hundreds of babies. In recounting her story , her grand son-in law revealed that on a visit on one occasion to visit his wife ( Felicita’s grand –daughter) who was expecting her first son , Felicita overheard a conversation that the patient next door would have to undergo a caesarean section because her baby was breached. He said Felicita without asking permission from anyone quietly when to the woman’s bedside, pulled the drapes around the bed and began rubbing the woman’s stomach so that the unborn child would turn in the direction so that the woman could have a normal birth. Afterwards she told the nurse at the station that the baby had turned so the woman could now have a normal delivery.
Her knowledge of herbal medicines acquired from the mainland soon spread through the village and many came seeking relief of their medical ailments. Her religious dogma was formed in the cauldron of the Waraho Amerindian Tribe. At the heart of her religious belief system was a consciousness that Mother Earth was an eternally fruitful source of everything. The source of all life and nature too, the rivers, the birds the animals. She never made any decisions in life without being guided by her inner spirit. First thing each morning she recited this mantra “PAPA GOD YOU OPEN MEH EYES THIS MORNING “.
There are many more stories waiting to be told about this woman everyone called “Ma Clem”. Felicita lived a long , healthy life and was one hundred and twelve (112) years old when she died . The Cocoa Estate of 29 acres is now lovingly preserved as a heritage site in her honour by her Grand-daughter Elizabeth Mohammed and her husband Imtiaz Ali. They are now the custodians left to carry out the legacy of Ma Clem, who had a vision of creating her own bit of paradise in the midst of an untamed tropical jungle . A woman who driven by sheer determination and hard work lived to see her dream come true her own Garden of Eden planted with exotic fruit trees, flowering plants and a productive cocoa estate. More importantly Ma Clem was able to carve out indelible memories in the minds of all who knew her. WE SALUTE YOU FELICITA VIDALE. A LIFE WELL LIVED.
(Source: Vitrual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago, March 2, 2024)