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Monday, July 7, 2025

Alicia Jaggasar, Parang Queen of T&T

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20151206

Ali­cia Jag­gasar is the vi­va­cious and per­son­able com­pos­er, lead singer/cu­a­tro play­er/board mem­ber of the nine-time and cur­rent­ly reign­ing parang cham­pi­ons Los Alum­nos de San Juan. She is the 11-time and reign­ing parang queen of T&T.

A for­mer in­sur­ance agent, Jag­gasar start­ed her singing ca­reer at the age of five per­form­ing all types of mu­sic from ca­lyp­so to reg­gae, jazz, spir­i­tu­als, Latin styles and even clas­sics. Up­on en­ter­ing school, she won many singing com­pe­ti­tions with com­po­si­tions on so­cial is­sues.

Com­pos­ing and singing Span­ish songs to pro­mote peace, love and uni­ty led to her be­ing fea­tured on four al­bums–Can­tan­do Glo­ria and Es Navi­dad, Ex­pre­ciones de Amor, Ex­pres­sions of Love and La Ded­i­ca­cion. At present, she is record­ing her fifth com­pact disc ti­tled La Prome­sa, The Promise, and her Latin CD.

In 2012 she was a win­ner at the Na­tion­al Song Com­pe­ti­tion with her song ti­tled Di­a­monds in the Sun as part of the 50th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tion of our In­de­pen­dence. Her love for the parang art form has seen her con­duct re­search on the ori­gin of parang mu­sic and on the stal­warts of the genre.

She has taught parang mu­sic to schools in­clud­ing St Jude's Home for Girls; New­town Boys' RC; New­town Girls' RC; Sa­cred Heart Girls' RC; San Juan Girls' Gov­ern­ment; San Juan Boys' RC; Ari­ma Girls' RC; Barataria Girls' RC; St Joseph Con­vent, St Joseph; El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary; and Mt Hope Sec­ondary. She al­so en­joys play­ing the tenor steel­pan.

Jag­gasar has rep­re­sent­ed T&T as a cul­tur­al am­bas­sador on many oc­ca­sions, the lat­est be­ing in Bu­dapest, Hun­gary, at the World Mu­sic Ex­po (WOM­EX) in Oc­to­ber 2015. She has al­so been to Puer­to Ri­co, Cu­ba, Pana­ma, Seat­tle/Wash­ing­ton and Austin/Texas, and per­formed at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the 5th Sum­mit of the Amer­i­c­as held in Trinidad in April 2009, for a for­eign con­tin­gent which in­clud­ed Pres­i­dent Oba­ma.

The tal­ent­ed Jag­gasar has al­so added to her list of achieve­ments fi­nal­ist in Scout­ing for Tal­ent, Prime Min­is­ter Best Vil­lage Tro­phy Best Fe­male Vo­cal­ist, 3rd Place Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen, 2nd place Stars of To­mor­row Ca­lyp­so Show, and San Juan Ca­lyp­so Monarch.

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: I grew up in Sun Val­ley Road, Low­er San­ta Cruz.

At what schools/in­sti­tu­tions did you re­ceive your ed­u­ca­tion, in­clud­ing pri­ma­ry?

Bourg Mu­la­tresse RC School; Mt Hope Ju­nior Sec­ondary School; San Juan Sec­ondary Com­pre­hen­sive; Venezue­lan In­sti­tute; Mu­sic Grade 4 pri­vate; cur­rent­ly at UTT.

Who have been the biggest ear­ly in­flu­ences in your life? Tell us about your in­spi­ra­tion and en­cour­age­ment to do the type of "work" you do.

My nat­ur­al love for mu­sic has brought me to en­joy­ing and lov­ing the mu­sic and voic­es of Daisy Voisin, Glo­ria Al­cazar, Hen­ry Per­reira, Car­mili­ta Thomas-Williams, Lara Broth­ers and Shar­lene Flo­res lo­cal­ly. In­ter­na­tion­al­ly, I have spent many hours ro­manc­ing with the mu­sic and voice of Juan Luis Guer­ra, my favourite singer. With my God-giv­en tal­ent these peo­ple have in­flu­enced who I have be­come mu­si­cal­ly along with com­posers and arrangers Wayne Jagdeo, Desmond Wait­he, Julio Tor­res and Jose Her­nan­dez.

Which of your work(s) do you rate as the most sat­is­fy­ing and mem­o­rable?

The work that I do is in­spired by God and en­cour­aged by fam­i­ly, friends and sup­port­ers. My love for shar­ing, es­pe­cial­ly with the youths, dri­ves me to con­tin­ue. See­ing my stu­dents ex­cel be­yond my teach­ing gives me the strength to con­tin­ue. See­ing them per­form af­ter work­ing hard are the most sat­is­fy­ing and mem­o­rable mo­ments.

Of all your shows, con­certs, per­for­mances, which would you like a first-time au­di­ence, lis­ten­er or view­er to ex­pe­ri­ence?

That per­for­mance will be our 2010 per­for­mance at the Na­tion­al Parang Com­pe­ti­tion where we did the Hal­lelu­jah Cho­rus parang-style, arranged by Pat Bish­op be­fore her pass­ing. We won.

What dai­ly mot­to/cre­do do you live by?

Nev­er try to be some­one else, "they are al­ready..."

What was the most dif­fi­cult de­ci­sion you ever had to make?

To work eight to four in one place or teach many schools, reach­ing many chil­dren, and do my mu­sic. I chose the lat­ter, def­i­nite­ly was the most dif­fi­cult de­ci­sion.

What is your favourite pas­time/in­ter­est/hob­by out­side of per­form­ing/play­ing?

Spend­ing time with my fam­i­ly...lis­ten­ing to my son and daugh­ter telling me sto­ries and giv­ing me slangs and try­ing to out­smart me with their log­ic is def­i­nite­ly my favourite pas­time.

What goals and or am­bi­tions do you still have? What are your 'parang' plans for the fu­ture?

The com­ple­tion of my Latin fu­sion CD, per­form­ing on the same stage with Juan Luis Guer­ra, and tour­ing the world pro­mot­ing our parang mu­sic and my coun­try, T&T.

If you could in­ter­view or dine with any­one alive or not, who would it be, why and what ques­tion would you be ea­ger to ask?

I did not have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to meet and know Daisy Voisin. I wish that I had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ask her what in­spires her, for I love singers who sing from the heart, it is man­i­fest­ed in their singing. I will ask this to see if we have sim­i­lar an­swers, for every­one tells me I re­mindthem of the great Daisy.

Where do you see the fu­ture of parang and the parang move­ment?

Com­ple­tion of The Los Alum­nos de San Juan Parang In­sti­tute where chil­dren from all around the coun­try can come to learn of the tra­di­tion parang. With God's guid­ance un­der my watch, parang will be on every stage around the world. T&T will be host­ing in­ter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals invit­ing many coun­tries with sim­i­lar mu­sic. Every school will teach the tra­di­tions of parang and form parang groups.

Which are your favourite pieces of parang mu­sic oth­er than your own?

A la Me­dia Noche–Daisy; Glo­ria en el Cielo–Hen­ry Per­ri­era; La San­ta Bib­lia–Shar­lene Flo­res.

Of all your ac­co­lades, prizes and awards which do you rate as ex­treme­ly spe­cial?

Hav­ing parang show­cased at SWSW 2015 and WOM­EX 2015. Hav­ing parang fea­tured in a ca­lyp­so tent at Car­ni­val Bar­rack Yard Tent Ex­pe­ri­ence by Kurt Allen. Our 2012 win­ning per­for­mance in the na­tion­al parang com­pe­ti­tion. Def­i­nite­ly a per­for­mance I my­self will love to ex­pe­ri­ence. Be­ing ho­n­oured in the na­tion­al ju­nior parang com­pe­ti­tion was def­i­nite­ly my most ac­com­plished mo­ment.

What is an in­ter­est­ing facet of your per­son­al­i­ty that most peo­ple do not know about you?

Peo­ple don't know I hate be­ing no­ticed, strange...but I pre­fer to stay in the back and sing and play with the mu­si­cians.

What is the best com­pli­ment you have every re­ceived?

One night I came off stage and a man ap­proached me with tears in his eyes say­ing, "'Your singing filled my heart and brought tears of joy to my eyes, thank you.'" Best thing I ever heard.

What ad­vice would you give to young peope of T&T?

To your­self be true, and to those who mean the most to you be true.

De­scribe your­self in two words one be­gin­ning with A, the oth­er with J, your ini­tials.

Al­ways Joy­ful.


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The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

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