Siparia, Trinidad and Tobago
Back in Times

PAYING HOMAGE TO SIPAREE- KAI -MAI on HOLY THURSDAY
- Credit Angelo Bissessarsingh.

Beginning in the 1870s, thousands of pilgrims would flock to the tiny village in the forest to pay homage to the Divine Shepherdess. To the first peoples, the Warao of the Orinoco Delta, she was a mixture of indigenous religion and Catholicism, while to the Catholics, she was a tangible representation of a saintly messenger. To the many Hindus who also added colour to the Siparia Fete, she was Siparee Mai, the Mother of Siparia. Possibly, the small, dark statue, with its wig of real human hair, appealed aesthetically to the Indian indentured labourers who worshipped her in their own way. This was not always welcomed by the parishioners, who attempted to lock out the Hindu element, but were forced into tolerance when the IndoTrinis devotees threatened to burn down the church.

Back in the 1850s, Siparia was a sleepy little village lost in the high woods with a population of a few dozen people of mixed Amerindian and African descent. There were no public buildings since it fell under the administration of the Ward of Oropouche which had its seat at St Mary’s Village, in the County of St Patrick. In a humble tapia church, however, was a little wooden statue placed there, for the purpose of devotion. This statue may have come to the town as early as 1808. By the 1870s, the Feast of La Divina Pastora was already attracting thousands from across the island as a French priest, Father Armand Masse noted in 1875:

“At Siparia there is a virgin of great renown in the whole of Trinidad. She is called La Divina Pastora. When they were obliged to leave Siparia, to save this statue from profanation, the Spaniard hid her in the nearby forest where she was found later. She was taken back to the village and placed in a shrine, and then the church. Like all Spanish Virgins, that of Siparia was dressed in bridal attire. Remarkable graces were obtained by the intercession of Our Lady of Siparia.”

Among the devotees were Warao, people from the Orinoco Delta and hundreds of Indian indentured labourers who identified with the little brown image and called her Siparee-ke-mai. Father Masse recorded the hodgepodge of humanity in his memoir:

“All along the way yesterday, on the eve of the feast, I met pilgrims of all colours going towards the sanctuary. They were counted in thousands…The road is very difficult and extremely uneven. Among the vehicles which try to come to Siparia, several broke down on the road. One cab tumbled into a ditch; many horses took flight and refused to go further. All eventually arrived at Siparia though. 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 maie). 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. The old sacristan captures the cock which the cure will soon eat.”

The road described by Abbe Masse is none other than the Siparia Old Road which wends its way towards Oropouche, through Avocat Village. The presbytery was an elaborate spired wooden edifice which stood opposite the church. It was constructed in 1850, and demolished in the 1960s. In this period, the church itself was nothing more than a simple wooden structure. It is believed that people of East Indian descent began making pilgrimages to Siparia in search of this dark Madonna’s healing power in the late 19th century, soon after their arrival in Trinidad.

There was no grotto for housing the image of the saint, instead a contemporary of Abbe Masse describes the statue as having been placed on a large mound of dirt, and adorned with flowers. There is no river near Siparia, so the pilgrims would have washed in one of the several wells in the area which were opened by Abbe Masse. One at Well Road still exhibits its original paving.

Abbe Masse describes a later episode of the feast as such:

“The road from Oropouche to Siparia was full of coolies. The savannah of the church, the huts, the church, and the village were full. Without precautions being taken they would have set the church on fire with the numerous candles they were lighting. The lamps, though there were huge numbers of them, were not sufficient; the oil spilled all over the floorboards. They were disputing among themselves, jostling to obtain the oil , which was burning in front of the virgin.

“The coolies have a noisy devotion. They pray at the top of their voices but then they are distracted. When they prostrate themselves with their forehead on the floor, it seems sometimes they will split their skulls, so hard do they hit their heads against the planks.”

Holy Thursday is still known by some older people as the “Coolie Fete” .Every year, on Holy Thursday, the image is taken from its shrine in the parish church and exposed to public devotion in the presbytery, after which she is clad in ornate garments and jewelry by specially appointed ladies of the parish , to whom service is a sacred duty.

First Photo : Original Painting by Rudolph BissessarsinghThe old Siparia presbytery which stood for almost a century before it was demolished in the 1960s.
2nd Photo: La Divina Pastora - Patron Saint of Siparia
3rd Photo : Vintage Photo 1950s - Hindu woman with her son taking his first hair cut.

I grew up in Trinidad and Tobago during a time when everyone treated each other like Family. When you always had to speak properly when you were with your parents or adults but could "leh go" with your friends. If someone got you angry, you would tell them "how yuh mudda make yuh" with a variety of cuss words. If your mom found out, she made you wash your mouth with soap. Blue soap, sunlight or carbolic. If you can't take "fatigue", don't start. Everyone had a nickname. The Chinese boy was "chin"; the African boy was "blacks"; the Indian boy was "lal", the fat kid was "fat boy", the skinny boy was "bones". We went outside to play; we got dirty. We used to bathe in the rain, sometimes by the standpipe. I am yet to find anything as satisfying as a cup of creole chocolate or hot porridge on a rainy day. We went to the river or springs on a hot day. Our fast food was corned beef and rice; sometimes, even hot rice and butter. We ate breadfruit, dasheen, yam, eddoes, cassava, boil corn, roast corn. From the bakery we ate belly full, currants roll, coconut drops, milk cake, pan bread, bun, butter bread and hops bread. We loved bread and condensed milk or hot bread and butter; sometimes red butter. We sucked paradise plum, brittle, kazer ball, dinner mint. We ate bene balls, tollum, chataigne, sugar cake, tamarind ball, tamarind stew, red mango, mango chow, plum chow. We got dirty and we didn't eat fast food....we ate cooked food. We got ice cream from the ice cream man or if mum was in a good mood and had the money, we had homemade ice cream on Sunday. The best was when barberdeen was in season. When mum made cake, we licked the bowl clean. Cassava pone or bread pudding was a treat. Redifusion had two channels. To this day I remember "Portia faces life." We listened to auntie Kay on a Sunday. In later years, if you had a tv, you saw auntie Hazel on twelve and under, you watched Mastana Bahar and an Indian movie on a Sunday afternoon and watched Scouting for Talent on Tuesdays. Panorama was time to be quiet. We loved snow cone on a hot day, preferably with guava syrup and condensed milk. We climbed trees, picked mangoes, Chennette, pommerac, plum, pommecythere; whatever was in season. We suck and ate cane with our bare teeth. We played Simon Says, Red Rover, Mother May I, 1,2,3 Red Light, Hide & Seek, Jacks, Marbles, Tag, Hopscotch, Cars, Checkers, cricket, moral, rounders, pan cup, football; we raced against each other in the street and even played jockey in the canal with a piece of stick. A tennis ball and a good piece of wood was enough to start a cricket game, and if somebody window break, game done. The only time we stayed indoors was when we were sick or as a punishment. If you were sick, it was not uncommon to get a "bush bath" with some "buccano leaf" and whatever bush mum thought would make you better. Castor oil or sena pods during vacation was the worse. The boys flew kites that we had made ourselves; sometimes we made a mad bull and hope it wasn't so big that it took you flying. We made zwill with flour and grounded glass; put razor blades in your kite tail and when you battle, who lost, saw their kites "hi-yo". The first one to reach the kite is the new owner. We drove carts we had made from wood with old bearings for wheels. An old bike wheel with the spokes removed was a toy. Who never tried to get "laglee" from the breadfruit tree to try to catch a semp? There was no bottled water, we drank from the pipe. We walked to the corner store and rode our bikes (if we had one) for hours without a cellphone. We weren't AFRAID OF ANYTHING. If someone had a fight, that's what it was...a fist fight. Kids didn't have guns when I grew up. The street lights were your curfew. School was mandatory. Police used to take you to your school when they find you on the road during school hours. We watched our mouths around our elders because we knew if you DISRESPECTED any grown up you were gonna get it with whatever was close and get a second one when your parents found out...!!!

Here is quick abbreviated summary & first impression of the NEW for 2019 Koito bi-LED 2.0. It is a *fan-less* version and ever so slightly more compact. It may be difficult to see in the photos but the 2.0 has a slightly different beam pattern. For the US version they have shifted the peak intensity right over the 75 meter test point (roughly 12-15% more intensity). What does that mean? Well, you will see farther at that angle than the previous version. They really have that peak dialed in right up against the cutoff edge. I’m talking maybe around half a degree under. And while far distance vision has improved, the center vertical test point at 50 meters has gone *down* in intensity. This is a bit of a bummer as I would have liked for Koito to at least mirror the same performance at this test point as the previous version. None the less there is still plenty of intensity at centerline.

Width is still good for this LED projector with no apparent loss on the edges.

The lens appears to have a somewhat odd shape. It is not a perfect semi-sphere. At certain angles when the light hits the lens (to my eyes) the top portion looks as if its indented slightly. It's hard to describe. I don’t believe this be stylistic in nature so I’m assuming it's an optical characteristic. It is also shorter in its peak than the previous version.

High beam shape is nearly the same as previous version while being slightly different. I have not yet measured intensity for the 2.0.

The Nichia LED chip *appears* to be the same on the outside but I believe this to be a more robust version. I say this because after powering the 2.0 for about 10 minutes the heatsink body is very hot to the touch. Enough that you probably won’t be able to hold it in your hands for very long. The 2.0 runs at about 23W while the previous version was about 26W. I have not yet used my thermal imager over the chips but I can’t see that Koito designed the 2.0 to be easily overheated (especially in a controlled environment). So the new chip must be much more tolerant to heat. And this was so that they could do away with the active cooling which more automotive lighting manufacturers are moving away from. Less mechanical parts to fail.

Is the Koito bi-LED 2.0 better than its predecessor? That all depends on your perspective.

More thorough testing to come in the future!

One of us still has our picture taped up on the dash
One of us took that one from Mexico, threw it in the trash
One of us don't even notice when the radio plays that song
One of us breaks down and has to pull over whenever it comes on
Nah there ain't no in between, when it comes to her and me
One of us moved on, one of us got stuck
One of us is drinkin' just for fun, one of us drinkin' to get drunk
One of us sleeps good, and one of us hates to face the night
Just depends if you're talkin' about her world or mine
There's a number on a phone that one of us erased
There's a "late-night can we try again?" call one of us wants to make
'Cause one of us can't even think about bein' in another's arms
And there's a car in the drive that stayed all night, where one of us used to park
One of us moved on, one of us got stuck
One of us is drinkin' just for fun, one of us drinkin' to get drunk
One of us sleeps good, and one of us hates to face the night
Just depends if you're talkin' about her world or mine
For a while we had forever in our hands
That's why one of us can't understand
How one of us moved on, one of us got stuck
One of us is drinkin' just for fun, one of us drinkin' to get drunk
One of us sleeps good, one of us hates to face the night
Just depends if you're talkin' about her world or mine
Yeah that's the difference between her world or mine

Trip Down Memory Lane.
Vintage Postcard of a Woman cutting cane on a Caroni Estate. We salute those women who worked hard toiling in the canefields to ensure a better quality of life for their families.

My body moves
Goes where I will
But though I try my heart stays still
It never moves
Just won't be led