Ignacia Lopez, 88, sitting in her porch at the side of the old train line in Brasso on Monday, recited The Burial of Sir John Moore, an 1817 poem by Charles Wolfe–"Standard Four, West Indian Reader." When Lopez, who boasts of her amazing memory, finished her recitation,she bent down and touched her toes, for good measure, to show her physical agility as well.
There is a view by some that Brasso is a backward place "behind God's back," and that people who come from there are "mooks." But, Lopez, of Venezuelan roots, the eldest resident of the village, rejected the notion. "Some university students who once visited here told my deceased husband that they hear Brasso have plenty mooks. "He told them they (the mooks) so intelligent, they don't allow fools to see them." Lopez said she attended functions with her husband, a village council leader, at the Prime Minister's residence at La Fantasie in St Ann's, during the tenure of Eric Williams and George Chambers.
The Central village of some 400 people, mostly of "Spanish" descent, surrounded by Gran Couva, Flannagin Town and Tabaquite, only recently got pipeborne water. The main road remains in a deplorable condition. Business activity is nearly non-existent. There is no health clinic, community centre, police station or other government institution. There are, though, the primary school and the old Ministry of Works office. Lopez, born in 1922, and mother of 14 and great-grandmother of "hundreds," told of the days of trains and cocoa, however, when Brasso was a lively, populated village. "I born and grow in Brasso. Brasso, when I know it, had three Chinee shops. "It had no electricity, but there were plenty people and the village was developed.
"On a Saturday, the place was very busy; Brasso had a big market. The blacksmith made horseshoes and people came from Port-of-Spain with the train to sell fish and beef. "Villagers sold cake and sweetbread. The train was coming from Rio Claro, passing through here under Knolly's Tunnel and going to Port-of-Spain. It passed right in front my house. "From here to Port-of-Spain with the train was 24 cents." The price of food nowadays is killing Lopez, who survives chiefly off her pension. "The little money Manning giving me is only to buy food; I can't buy clothes." Lopez wistfully recalled that in 1933, two pounds of rice cost five cents, and a big loaf of bread was a penny. "You could get half-cent butter and half- cent lard in the Portugese shop to make bread."
She recalled the big cocoa estates that thrived in the era when cocoa was king, like Santa Severia, Corsica and Agostini. In those days people lived in unity, she said. "Neighbours shared with each other...We had hosay in Brasso, Wild Indian Carnival, big concert in the primary school." So what goes on in Brasso today? "Nothing much," Lopez replied. "The population drop. Plenty people move out." Only half of the 435-acre Santa Severia estate is under cocoa cultivation now. The rest of the estate, bought over by the Sants, is being planted with timber like Colombian cedar and mahogany. "The owners had to look for something different. They can't get labour," manager Ramoutar Singh said. Joycelyn Crawford, 67, a daughter of Lopez, lives and cultivates land on the Brasso Tamana Road, condemned because of numerous landslips.
There is no electricity or water in this part of Brasso. Inaccessible to vehicles, Crawford said she was forced to grow hard crops like coconut, plantain, citrus and zaboca. "The short crops can't take the roughing up on this road." Crawford said the Works office in the village told her they had no material to repair it. Bharath Ramoutar operates one of the old Chinese shops in the village at the beginning of the Brasso Tamana Road. The main business in Brasso, it sells everything–from bicycle tyres to Penlight batteries–and Ramoutar attended to a steady stream of customers on Monday. The only other business in the area is a parlour with three arcade games, run by Kelly Ann Alexander, where most of Brasso's young people hang out on evenings. Kevin Clarke, 20, lounging around in the parlour, said Brasso's football club, The Saints, can't use the recreation ground anymore, because of too many holes."We need a pavilion and lights there, too," he said.
?UNC Councillor and Vice-Chairman of Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Corporation,Henry Awong, in Brasso
Councillor for the area, Henry Awong, recently voted vice-chairman of Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation, said Brasso got a new primary school only three months ago, after numerous protests. Awong, who attended Brasso RC School, said the old building was condemned by Ministry of Works engineers. He said that last November, Works officials toured Brasso and promised to repair the main road. "Up to now, we haven't seen anything." Awong said Director of Highways, Roger Ganesh, told him recently there was a funding problem and, hopefully, by September, they could repair the road. He said, however. the ministry stated it was costing too much money to fix the Brasso Tamana Road. Awong said he was awaiting a report from the ministry about the recreation ground.