Michelle Loubon

Even as mas mak­ers are busy launch­ing bands for next year's pre­sen­ta­tions, the rur­al vil­lage of Tal­paro in east Trinidad came alive with a cel­e­bra­tion of tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val mas last month. But this pa­rade had noth­ing to do with the 2011 street par­ty.

It was sim­ply a cel­e­bra­tion of the life of the late Ed­mund Ray­mond Le Blanc, who was pres­i­dent of the Tal­paro Vil­lage Coun­cil for 20 years. Le Blanc died at his home at Tamana Road, Tal­paro, on Sep­tem­ber 15.

One of the dis­tin­guish­ing fea­tures of Le Blanc's life was that he nev­er left the place of his birth, and con­tributed to it in all spheres–es­pe­cial­ly cul­ture. Through his ini­tia­tive, Tal­paro re­tained the tra­di­tion­al forms of mas and J'Ou­vert ex­pres­sions. And his con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of cul­ture in Tal­paro did not go un­no­ticed.

Dur­ing the fu­ner­al ser­vice at the Tal­paro Ro­man Catholic church, his son, Gary Le Blanc, eu­lo­gised him for pi­o­neer­ing cul­tur­al ex­pres­sions.Ac­cord­ing to the younger Le Blanc, "He was the fa­cil­i­ta­tor, or the 'go to' man for the so­cial pro­grammes and ac­tiv­i­ties dur­ing na­tion­al days and fes­ti­vals. There was al­ways an event for na­tion­al days and fes­ti­vals.

Dad­dy re­ceived a num­ber of na­tion­al, per­son­al, and pri­vate ac­co­lades, a few of which can be found in the walls of his home.

"Dad­dy en­joyed Car­ni­val, es­pe­cial­ly the Welle Welle Jab Jab. As my cousin Carl, aka Jim­my Brown, once said, 'Jab jab groups from Cen­tral vis­it­ed Tal­paro at a time when our main jab­jab men were vis­it­ing an­oth­er gayelle'," and, ac­cord­ing to Jim­my, "'he was the last man stand­ing'.

"Dad­dy went home and re­turned to the gayelle bare­backed, and whipped smoke out of his op­po­nents!"To Jim­my, and any­one who was a part of Car­ni­val, Dad­dy was a hero and he loved be­ing a part of all the ac­tion that was Car­ni­val."

Le Blanc wit­nessed the ex­ploits of for­mer vet­er­ans like the late Bab­wah Ram­dass, fa­ther of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment of­fi­cer Phillip Ram­dass. To date, the Tal­paro Kam­bule In Kan­dal group of drum­mers, stick­fight­ers and chantuelles are renowned and feared across T&T.

Work­shops on tra­di­tion­al mas are con­duct­ed at the Tal­paro com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre. Un­der the watch of Le Blanc and cul­tur­al am­bas­sador ex­tra­or­di­naire, John Cu­pid, tra­di­tion­al mas was launched at the Tal­paro Junc­tion a few years ago.