Trinidad: taught "wiped out," while the Santa Rosa community still holds its festival (Arima, Trinidad, 1784–2005)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1784 · Places: Caribbean
SUMMARYTrinidad: taught "wiped out," while the Santa Rosa community still holds its festival (Arima, Trinidad, 1784–2005) [Connections: Latin America & Caribbean, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDAmerindians from the encomiendas of Tacarigua and Arouca were resettled to the Mission of Arima between 1784 and 1786, under Governor José María Chacón (1,000 acres; Governor Woodford added 320), opening their former lands to settlers under the Cedula of Population; as the mission dissolved, the state seized the lands (Wikipedia). Writer Tracy Assing (Caribbean Beat, 2005) recalls being taught at school that Caribs and Arawaks were "both tribes had been wiped out." She reports the Carib Community Centre's estimate of "between 300 and 600 Amerindian descendents living in Arima," and that Trinidad and Tobago's census questionnaires "ask no questions about Amerindian ancestry." The Santa Rosa First Peoples Community is "the major organisation of Indigenous people in Trinidad and Tobago."
PATTERNRemoval to a mission, land opened to settlers, then a school lesson of extinction and a census with no box to answer it
LENS (WW9)No box on the census, so the record says no people
OPENWhether later Trinidad censuses (2011 or after) added an Amerindian category needs checking
SOURCEWikipedia, "Santa Rosa First Peoples Community"; Assing, "The long walk home," Caribbean Beat 74 (2005).