The pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (NPATT), Ali­cia Jag­gasar has made a strong call for the sur­vival, re­vival, and preser­va­tion of the His­pan­ic art­form.

“Now is the time to unite our parang fra­ter­ni­ty and fight for parang,” she said at the re­cent­ly held an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing which took place at the San Juan Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School.

“Our ac­com­plish­ments over the past two years lie in our abil­i­ty to stand to­day un­de­feat­ed as an As­so­ci­a­tion, bat­tered and bruised but still stand­ing, tempt­ed and tried but still stand­ing,” she told the mem­ber­ship as she pre­sent­ed the Pres­i­dent’s Re­port for the 2023-2025 pe­ri­od.

Jag­gasar re­turned un­con­test­ed to the post fol­low­ing the elec­tion of of­fi­cers.

The ex­ec­u­tive for the new term al­so in­cludes:

• ↓Vice Pres­i­dent – Hen­ri­et­ta Carter

• ↓Trea­sur­er – Ker­rylee Chee Chow

• ↓Sec­re­tary – Je­nais Carter

• ↓As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary – Kervin Preud­homme

• ↓Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer – Joanne Brig­gs

• ↓Youth Of­fi­cer – Joseph Bertrand

• ↓Com­mit­tee Mem­bers: Shaquille Headley; Yarelis Touis­sant; Cheriese Pierre; Chevonne Pierre

• ↓Trustees: William Cal­liste; Lisa Lee

Re­flect­ing on last sea­son, the Pres­i­dent said 2024 was a very spe­cial sea­son as the as­so­ci­a­tion was able to part­ner with homes in dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ties for its House Parang Fes­ti­val.

“We had a vi­sion but did not know what would have been the out­come. The pa­trons and com­mu­ni­ties who ex­pe­ri­enced this fes­ti­val were in high prais­es,” she said. “Our 2024 House Parang Fes­ti­val was a hit in the com­mu­ni­ties vis­it­ed. We are al­ready be­ing asked if we are hav­ing a re­peat this year.”

“Spe­cial men­tion must be made of the St Michael’s Parish in Mara­cas St Joseph led by Fa­ther Mikhail Woodruff. Fa­ther and the en­tire com­mu­ni­ty work with us to pro­duce the most suc­cess­ful of the House Parang event. The parish is en­thu­si­as­tic to work with NPATT again.”

“Oth­er parish­es who sup­port­ed us last sea­son in­clude St An­tho­ny’s RC in Point Fortin led by Fr Cor­nelius Phillip and Mary Im­mac­u­late Queen of the Uni­verse RC in Bourg Mu­la­tresse, led by Fr Hasley King.”

But be­fore the 2025 parang sea­son gets rolling, NPATT is prepar­ing for its Christ­mas in Ju­ly event – Parang Un­der the Stars 4. This will take place on Ju­ly 26 at Es­tate 101, Mar­aval.

“Our Christ­mas in Ju­ly fundrais­er has been en­joyed from in­cep­tion by all,” Jag­gasar said. “We look for­ward to see­ing our sup­port­ers and new­com­ers to this year’s edi­tion. This year, it’s go­ing to be a cock­tail edi­tion.”

Al­so in the works are the Ju­nior Parang Fes­ti­val, un­der the theme Un So­lo Pueblo, and the pos­si­ble re­vival of the parang com­pe­ti­tion for se­nior bands.