Trinidad and To­ba­go is blessed with a rich mix of cul­tures that have shaped our food, lan­guage, mu­sic and fes­tive tra­di­tions. One such tra­di­tion is parang, whose Span­ish lyrics and ori­gins may not be ful­ly un­der­stood by all, yet its sound un­mis­tak­ably sig­nals the start of the Christ­mas sea­son.

The St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion Coun­cil re­cent­ly host­ed its first parang cel­e­bra­tion, fos­ter­ing much-need­ed in­ter­ac­tion and ca­ma­raderie be­tween the po­lice and the com­mu­ni­ty. Sgt Paul Joseph de­light­ed pa­trons by teach­ing the Castil­ian Waltz and the faster Gav­i­lan dance, while re­mind­ing the au­di­ence of parang’s tra­di­tions and song types. A typ­i­cal parang per­for­mance be­gins with the Ser­e­nal, an­nounc­ing the ar­rival of the mu­si­cians, fol­lowed by Aguinal­dos such as Ave O Maria and Can­tan­do Glo­ria, and ends with farewell De­s­pe­di­das.

Parang dates back to the late 18th cen­tu­ry, when co­coa farm­ers known as co­coa Es­pañols were brought from Venezuela to de­vel­op lo­cal plan­ta­tions. The word parang comes from the Span­ish par­ran­da, mean­ing spree or fête. These mi­grants main­tained their tra­di­tion of par­ran­da navideña, where from Oc­to­ber to Jan­u­ary, groups of singers, or par­ran­deros, vis­it­ed homes to share aguinal­dos—mu­si­cal “gifts” ac­com­pa­nied by string in­stru­ments like the cu­a­tro and mara­cas, along with food and drink.

Over time, non-re­li­gious songs such as Rio Man­zanares, about a Venezue­lan riv­er, and An­ge­lo, a song about young lovers, were added to the reper­toire. The genre has since evolved, giv­ing rise to so­ca parang, which blends so­ca rhythms with parang in­stru­ments and Eng­lish lyrics, and chut­ney parang, in­flu­enced by Bho­jpuri cul­ture. To­day, parang has moved be­yond house-to-house vis­its to con­certs and pub­lic events, be­com­ing an in­te­gral part of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cul­tur­al land­scape.

Trinidad and To­ba­go is the on­ly coun­try in the world with a Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion and is unique­ly blessed to cel­e­brate Christ­mas with both parang and tra­di­tion­al car­ols and songs about San­ta Claus and rein­deer.

Sylvestre Ma­ta, who mi­grat­ed from Venezuela in 1916, led the Ready Mix Parang Group to vic­to­ry in the first Na­tion­al Parang Com­pe­ti­tion. In 1972, he was award­ed the Pub­lic Ser­vice Sil­ver Medal of Mer­it for his cul­tur­al con­tri­bu­tions. More re­cent­ly, Irvys Juarez, al­so a Venezue­lan mi­grant, be­came the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion’s pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer in 2020.

We owe much to our Venezue­lan neigh­bours for this cher­ished Christ­mas tra­di­tion. Over the past decade, T&T has be­come a refuge for many Venezue­lans flee­ing harsh con­di­tions at home. As we en­joy parang this sea­son, per­haps we can be in­spired to bring cheer to strug­gling mi­grant fam­i­lies among us.

The St Joseph com­mu­ni­ty em­braced the fes­tive spir­it with per­for­mances by Los Par­ran­deros de San Miguel, Vi­va Je­sus, and the TTPS Parang Band. The event was at­tend­ed by Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment De­vesh Ma­haraj and se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro was the man of the mo­ment, sur­round­ed by well-wish­ers ea­ger for pho­tographs. Ad­dress­ing the au­di­ence, Gue­var­ro spoke of grow­ing up in Moru­ga and be­ing ex­posed to parang from an ear­ly age.

His ap­point­ment has re­stored hope af­ter what many de­scribe as one of the dark­est pe­ri­ods in the Po­lice Ser­vice, marked by the ar­rest of a for­mer com­mis­sion­er, the col­lapse of the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency, pub­lic dis­putes in­volv­ing na­tion­al lead­ers, brazen at­tacks on po­lice sta­tions, and es­ca­lat­ing crime.

As a for­mer se­nior su­per­in­ten­dent in Spe­cial Branch, Gue­var­ro de­vel­oped strate­gic ties with key US agen­cies, in­clud­ing the FBI, Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and the De­part­ment of Jus­tice, and worked close­ly with the Transna­tion­al Or­gan­ised Crime Unit. His ap­point­ment sends a strong sig­nal in an era of grow­ing transna­tion­al crime.

When the State of Emer­gency has end­ed, the true test will be his re­sponse to kid­nap­pings, ex­tor­tion, po­lice-in­volved killings, school vi­o­lence, home in­va­sions, white-col­lar crime and hu­man traf­fick­ing. Mea­sures such as manda­to­ry body-worn cam­eras, on­line crime re­port­ing, GPS track­ing of po­lice ve­hi­cles and im­proved re­sponse times can make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence.

His ap­proach­able pub­lic pres­ence and the good­will shown by cit­i­zens sug­gest he is on the right path to restor­ing pub­lic trust and re­claim­ing the coun­try from the grip of crim­i­nals. My Christ­mas wish is that he is grant­ed the health, strength and wis­dom to see this task through.