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Saturday, July 26, 2025

Ambassadors plant trees to mark Hyarima Day

by

JENSEN LA VENDE
650 days ago
20231015
Raul Simon, Shaman of the Warao community of San Fernando, leads the smoke ceremony at the First Peoples' land in San Raphael. Looking on are Ambassadors Tania Diego Olite, of Cuba, Hernan Nunez of Chile, Victor Hugo Morales Meléndez of Mexico, Alvaro Sanchez Cordero of Venezuela and members of the First Peoples.

Raul Simon, Shaman of the Warao community of San Fernando, leads the smoke ceremony at the First Peoples' land in San Raphael. Looking on are Ambassadors Tania Diego Olite, of Cuba, Hernan Nunez of Chile, Victor Hugo Morales Meléndez of Mexico, Alvaro Sanchez Cordero of Venezuela and members of the First Peoples.

JENSEN LA VENDE

JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter-In­ves­tiga­tive

Jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Am­bas­sadors who par­tic­i­pat­ed in a tree plant­i­ng ex­er­cise to com­mem­o­rate Hyari­ma Day yes­ter­day de­scribed it as a spir­i­tu­al ex­pe­ri­ence.

The tree plant­i­ng took place on a par­cel of in­dige­nous land in San Raphael. Roger Be­lix, pres­i­dent of the Part­ners for First Peo­ples De­vel­op­ment, said the event cel­e­brat­ed the ties that T&T main­tains with in­dige­nous peo­ples in Cu­ba, Venezuela, Chile and Mex­i­co.

The sig­nif­i­cance of the oc­ca­sion was high­light­ed by the plant­i­ng of dif­fer­ent types of trees by the am­bas­sadors in at­ten­dance. Cuban Am­bas­sador Tania Diego Olite plant­ed a poui tree, while Her­nan Nunez, Am­bas­sador to Chile, plant­ed a ch­enette tree, Vic­tor Hugo Morales Melén­dez, the Am­bas­sador to Mex­i­co, plant­ed a nut­meg tree, and Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador Al­varo Sanchez Cordero, plant­ed bal­a­ta and aloes.

Melén­dez, Diego Olite and Sanchez lat­er gave their im­pres­sions of the event, which in­clud­ed a smoke cer­e­mo­ny led by Raul Si­mon, Shaman of the Warao Com­mu­ni­ty of San Fer­nan­do.

“It is a spir­i­tu­al ex­pe­ri­ence that is strong not just for Trinidad but for Mex­i­co as well,” said Melén­dez, who added that Mex­i­cans are very spir­i­tu­al peo­ple.

“To be here with na­ture and the en­vi­ron­ment in a cer­e­mo­ny with deep spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, this is very im­por­tant to us.”

Cordero said, “It was a mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ence, very spir­i­tu­al, con­nect­ing with our an­ces­try. In terms of in­dige­nous cul­ture and her­itage, Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela are but one place.”

He said the two na­tions have no bor­ders—it is a com­mon space of love, cul­ture, ed­u­ca­tion and the en­tire ex­pe­ri­ence strength­ened the union be­tween the two coun­tries. He said the cel­e­bra­tion of Hyari­ma Day came two days af­ter his coun­try­men cel­e­brat­ed In­dige­nous Re­sis­tance Day, which added a greater lev­el of sig­nif­i­cance to the ex­pe­ri­ence.

Be­lix said the trees were se­lect­ed to show the con­nec­tion be­tween the First Peo­ples in the var­i­ous coun­tries. The poui, which flow­ers three to four times a year, sig­nals the be­gin­ning of the rainy sea­son. The bal­a­ta usu­al­ly has one seed and two in a leap year, while the nut­meg rep­re­sents the earth and its struc­ture, which he de­scribed as sig­nif­i­cant. The ch­enette rep­re­sents the moon as seen from earth.

Diego Olite said, “It was an amaz­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. The spir­i­tu­al­i­ty that we felt his morn­ing, the con­nec­tion with na­ture, with the moth­er land, it has been a very nice ex­pe­ri­ence. We are very hap­py to be here to­day and to con­tin­ue this ini­tia­tive and all that may arise from it.”


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