The year 2025 marks the 45th an­niver­sary of Los Par­ran­deros de UWI —a mile­stone that is re­mark­able by any stan­dard, but par­tic­u­lar­ly in the mu­sic world, where groups and artistes of­ten fade away with alarm­ing speed.

In 1980, a group of en­thu­si­as­tic stu­dents at the St Au­gus­tine cam­pus plant­ed the seed for what would be­come one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s fore­most parang groups. Their sim­ple ini­tia­tive—form­ing a cam­pus parang band—found fer­tile soil in the ded­i­ca­tion of suc­ces­sive stu­dents de­ter­mined to keep the art form alive. Not on­ly did the band sur­vive, but it al­so grew, earn­ing recog­ni­tion far be­yond the uni­ver­si­ty halls.

From 1993, when Los Par­ran­deros en­tered the an­nu­al Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NPATT) Com­pe­ti­tion, the group at­tract­ed a wider au­di­ence in the parang com­mu­ni­ty. De­spite plac­ing sec­ond for sev­en con­sec­u­tive years (1999 to 2005), the band re­mained un­daunt­ed, ul­ti­mate­ly claim­ing the ti­tle of Na­tion­al Parang Cham­pi­ons in 2006. Their pop­u­lar­i­ty was fur­ther ce­ment­ed through stu­dio record­ings, re­sult­ing in four ac­claimed CDs: Mi Par­ran­da (2003), Va­mos A Cel­e­brar (2005), Par­ran­da Ta Nos (2010), and Nues­tra Can­ción (2025).

Over the decades, Los Par­ran­deros de UWI has evolved from a cam­pus en­sem­ble in­to a cul­tur­al in­sti­tu­tion. Ever mind­ful of its roots, the group chose to stage its 45th An­niver­sary ‘Thanks­giv­ing Ter­tu­lia’ at the Learn­ing Re­source Cen­tre (LRC) on the St Au­gus­tine cam­pus on Sun­day, No­vem­ber 30 — a de­lib­er­ate nod to the orig­i­nal cam­pus ter­tu­lia that in­spired the group 45 years ago.

The evening be­gan with a bless­ing from Fr Brent Alex­is, parish priest at Our La­dy of Fa­ti­ma RC, fol­lowed by re­flec­tions from found­ing mem­ber Farzan Ali and for­mer group lead­ers Sharon Be­har­ry (1985–86), Kei­th Dalip (1987–90), and Miguel Browne (1999–2024).

Then came the mu­sic. Los Par­ran­deros did not dis­ap­point the in­ti­mate au­di­ence, which in­clud­ed past mem­bers, for­mer lead­ers, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from both the uni­ver­si­ty and parang com­mu­ni­ty. In­stru­men­tal­ists and vo­cal­ists were in fine form, with lead singers Robert Per­saud and Joanne Brig­gs tak­ing cen­tre stage.

The care­ful­ly cu­rat­ed reper­toire took guests on a jour­ney through four decades of sweet parang mu­sic, while Per­saud, who al­so served as MC, pro­vid­ed in­sight­ful in­tro­duc­tions that high­light­ed the band’s role in pre­serv­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s rich His­pan­ic her­itage. Trib­utes to parang stal­warts Glo­ria Al­cazar, Hen­ry Pereira, and Willie and Tito Lara were wo­ven seam­less­ly with many of the group’s orig­i­nal com­po­si­tions.

No an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tion would be com­plete with­out ho­n­our­ing ded­i­ca­tion and loy­al­ty. Five mem­bers were in­duct­ed in­to the group’s Ho­n­our Roll: Keisha Mark, Camiv­el Co­va, Jer­ry Ram­dass, Bran­don Akai, and Kha­dine Bovell. Spe­cial awards were al­so pre­sent­ed to Tony Nar­ine, who has pro­vid­ed sound sys­tems for the band for 29 years, and Eliz­a­beth Mc­Comie, re­tired prin­ci­pal’s as­sis­tant, recog­nised for her ef­forts to in­clude the group in all ma­jor cam­pus events. For the first time, two awards were pre­sent­ed to the longest-serv­ing mem­bers, Miguel Browne (1983–present) and Des­dra Bas­combe (1984–present) in recog­ni­tion of their ster­ling con­tri­bu­tions over the decades.

The evening con­clud­ed with a vote of thanks from cur­rent mu­si­cal di­rec­tor and leader Mar­lon Bel­montes, cap­ping off a mem­o­rable cel­e­bra­tion of 45 years of parang, pas­sion, and en­dur­ing lega­cy.