A Quick Glance at Belize - History and Its Peoples

Belize is located in Central America. On its northwest border, lies Mexico; on its southwest border, lies Guatemala; and on the eastern side, it boasts a long coast line facing warm blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, which hosts miles of barrier reef, coral reef and atolls (环礁).

It’s the only country in Central America where English is the first official language. The reason for that, of course, is historical. Unlike Mexico, Belize had been a British colony for a long time until the 1970s. Even now, they still recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their sovereign. Its current name - Belize - was only adopted in 1973. Before that, it was called British Honduras. How did the British end up there?

Similar to the rest of the American continent, before the Europeans ‘discovered’ this ‘new’ continent, there were Amerindians – in this area, the Maya – living here. The Maya civilization thrived for centuries, peaked in the 9th and 10th century, and suddenly suffered a mysterious decline around the 11th century. The first Europeans, the Spanish sailors, came to the shores of Belize in the early 16th century (1508). Their control over this area was crippled by repetitive attacks by the British, French and Dutch pirates, who started looting Spanish ships in this area in the 17th century. In particular, they raided Spanish ships for logwood, which was a high-profit commodity of the time, due to its ability to generate colors for dying wool. These different colonial factions fought over the rights to cut logwood. Later on, these wood cutters became known as“baymen,” who were mostly British nationals. In the late 18th century, they were able to negotiate themselves a sweet deal and push the Spanish rule away from that area, and eventually gained full control of the area after winning the Battle of St. George’s Caye in the late 18th century.

After logwood, mahogany wood became another hot commodity as a top choice for making luxurious furniture. To supply sufficient labor for cutting down mahogany tress, these white British settlers started bringing African slaves from Africa and other parts of Latin America such as Nicaragua. This practice, over time, also changed the demographic composition of Belize. When the British abolished slavery in 1833, these freed men stayed in Belize.

The 19th century saw Belize in the control of a couple of powerful British private companies. There were protests and riots against the racist British rule. One of the protests was launched by WWI veteran soldiers, who weren’t allowed to fight shoulder to shoulder with their fellow British solders in the trenches.

In the first half of the 20th century, Antonio Soberanis rose to be a leader of anti-colonial rule. In 1964, Belize achieved its self-governing status as a British colony. After a series of pro-independence movements, Belize finally achieved its independence in 1981.

The demographic mix of Belize is multiracial and multi-ethnic. The creoles used to be the majority of the population, now they account for about 25%. The Mestizos make up about 65% of the current population. The rest are the Maya, the Garifuna, the Mennonites and other ethnicities.

Trying to get a clear understanding of which ethnicity is which can be daunting at first. Here is my version of oversimplified interpretation:

• Creoles (Kryoles): descendants of Europeans and Africans (e.g. French/Spanish + African; sometimes they are called mulattoes)


• Mestizos: descendants of Spaniards and Amerindians (e.g. Spaniards + Mayan)


• Garifuna: descendants of Africans and Amerindians (e.g. Africans + Caribs/Arawaks)


• Mennonites: a Christian group (many of them are descendants of Germans and the Dutch) that came into being as a result of the Protestant Reformation in the 15th Century. Their beliefs are often characterized by emphasis on community, simplicity and Pacifism. They are also the best farm hands in the world. They move to wherever they can be allowed to have religious freedom and military exemptions. They are scattered in tightly-knit and predominantly rural communities in all four continents. Most of the Mennonites in Belize traveled all the way from Canada, and some migrated out of Mexico and other parts of the Americas.

OK, That's Belize's history in one page!

Augusto Pinochet, Jean Dominique and “the barrel of a gun”

Pinochet died two days ago, on December 10th, Human Rights Day. An interesting coincidence. He has long been criticized for violating human rights to achieve his political goals. Politically-motivated assassins, tortures and disappearances during his rule are in the thousands.

Pinochet, through a coup, came into power in 1973, just a few months after I was born, and stayed in power for 17 years. He’s been a controversial figure in Chile ’s history. His role as a leader has been debated hotly in the media. His supporters hail him as someone who brought democracy and free market economy to Chile , and nipped communism in the bud. His opponents denounce him as a political thief who stole power from a democratically elected President, Salvador Allende, and pursued his political agenda ruthlessly. No matter what the excuse was or is, a military dictator is a military dictator.

On Sunday, we watched a documentary, The Agronomist, directed by Jonathan Demme. (He also directed The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia , and the Manchurian Candidate). The documentary is about a Haitian journalist, Jean Dominique, who bravely spoke out against successive military dictatorships in Haiti . He also founded Radio Haiti Inter and started broadcasting in Kreyole, a language spoken by most of the populace, for the first time in history, in Haiti. He also started Haiti ’s first film club thinking that movies, with powerful images, can make positive changes to a society where most of the people are illiterate. Coming from the mulatto elite class, yet he spent his whole life passionately defending and promoting the rights of poor unrepresented peasants. His radio station was repeatedly attacked and shut down by political thugs and the Duvalier dictatorship’s secret police force, Tonton Macoutes. In the end, on a quiet April morning of 2000, he was shot to death in front of his radio station. Up until now, the assassin and the ultimate criminal who ordered the assassination were still not found.

Chile and Haiti both reside in the same hemisphere. Their culture and people are quite different. Yet, a history of military rule is something both countries shared. The interesting part is that, in both countries, the US had been involved in propping up, or unintentionally facilitated the rise of military regime. In Chile , the US ’ fear of a Communist government coming into power promoted its support for Pinochet. In Haiti, US facilitated the return of the democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, back to Haiti, with the US making huge compromises with the military general who forced Aristide off to exile. But only merely 3 years later, Aristide’s government was overthrown by paramilitary groups lead by an ex-US Special Force agent. What an irony! The US ’ military support of certain regimes and governments at certain times have buried bombs and seeds for a multitude of unforeseeable problems such as the Taliban.

It seems that Chairman Mao was right on the target when he said that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun (枪杆子里出政权).” But where does it end?! As long as only certain people have access to the barrel of a gun, the rule of law will be extremely hard to establish and take roots.