Queen of a Forgotten People By Mychelle Loubon April, 2003: Residents of Mt Pleasant, Arima, are especially proud and fond of their famous Amerindian neighbour, Carib Queen Valentina Medina. Relaxing at her Wattley Street home, Medina, 69, said: "We don't have a place at all for the Caribs to settle in. We don't think we are treated fairly. "They look at Caribs with scorn. Things kind of tough. We want land to make a reserve up on the Blanchisseuse Road (at the back of Calvary)." She is one of many indigenous people's celebrated by the United Nations on Friday, International Day of the World's Indigenous People. While she was born in Caura, Medina has lived in Arima for several years with her 72-year-old Carib husband John Bertie Medina, whom she married at 18. The couple has five children - one girl, Loretta Medina-Grant, and Octave, Herbert, Camelus and Zachary. Medina remembered an old Arima of "thrash houses, timite, (a bush from the forest). "People travelled in buggies because there were no cars." Her husband, who has lived in Arima all his life, remembered "going to the river to catch fish; going in the garden for firewood, since it had no stove." He and his friends "played rounders, and danced." As a young man, he went to the Princess Theatre and did his studies by flambeau light. He echoed his wife's sentiments that Government should grant them land for a reservation. Medina said: "If we had a place to call our own I feel other Caribs would come out, too. "We are not into the Indo-Afro thing. We mingle with everybody. The Caribs from Dominica are Negro and we mingle with them. They like the way we cook our breadfruit. "They said that is why we live so long and are so strong. "The Caribs from Guyana dress like wild Indians but they are Caribs. We mingle with them, too. "There were even some very tall ones from Africa who beat the 'Our Father' on drums." The Medinas are proud of their rich tradition and culture and aspects of it like agriculture, basketry, house-building skills and the planting and processing of the favourite staple, cassava. While they have lost the native Amerindian tongue, they speak snippets of Spanish and patois. They both enjoy the corn, cassava breads, fish and buccaneer meat which dominates local Amerindian cuisine. Meanwhile, she is eagerly looking forward to the annual Festival of Santa Rosa, where she will head the procession. It marks the most important event in the life of the Carib community and is central to its sense of historical continuity and unique ethnic construction. The legend stems from a young girl, Rosa, who was born in Arima and taken to live in South America. Her family eventually settled in Peru. Three hunters of the Carinepogoto tribe were in the high woods (where Santa Rosa heights is now). Near a beautiful spring they saw a girl they thought to be dumb. They took her back to their village (now Calvary Hill). Three times the girl disappeared and the third time, the village priest said she was not of this world. He said the girl was really Rosa's spirit and instructed them to make an image of her while she was still among them. They did this and the girl disappeared forever. That statue is cherished by the community to this day. While they are both looking forward to the celebrations, Medina said: "I have to see all the flowers, ribbons, and everything is in place. "The men will have to go the bush and cut bamboo to decorate the Santa Rosa Park (in front of the church). "We will use pink and white, yellow and white to tie on to the bamboo," she said. "There will be flags all along the road to the Carib Centre, where they are keeping the fete. "Eight days after the fete the church would be undressed and then they will head back to the centre for eats and drinks." The festival is also an opportunity to trade, since handicraft like necklaces made from "jumbie beads" and foodstuff like paime, farine and pastelles would be sold. However, despite the strides the Carib community has made towards national recognition, the land issue is pressing. Medina said: "If we get the land we will plant cassava, corn, too. "We want a place for agouti and deer to run. It will boost our heritage and culture." She joked: "We do not eat people - only wild meat like agouti, deer and tattoo."