Sweet Faces

Belize is a diverse place. There are the Maya who have lived there forever. In the 1700’s it was settled by the Baymen, ex-pirates who decided that they could make more money, more safely by logging than they could by hijacking Spanish ships in the Caribbean. Many of the Baymen were Brits and after some fussing by the Spanish, who had never gotten a secure hold on Belize anyway, Spain and Britain signed a treaty giving the Baymen the right to log in Belize. The descendants of the Baymen are still around in Belize City, on the Cayes, and in the north of the country as Creoles.

In the 1830’s the Garifuna arrived. The Garifuna are a mix of African and Carib peoples who had originated on the island of St. Vincent but had been driven out of there in the 1700’s. A significant Garifuna population still exists in southern Belize. In the 1850’s a flood of Maya, mestizos, and others moved into northern Belize from Mexico, fleeing from the disruptions caused by the War of the Castes. More recently, there has been an influx of Spanish speakers from both Mexico and Guatemala. There are also East Indians, Chinese, Arabs, and Mennonites.

In short, the ethnic mix of the people around you in Belize can vary tremendously depending on where you are in the country. (Until independence in 1981 Belize was British Honduras, so most people speak English, although many also speak Creole, Spanish, or one of several Mayan languages.)

All of that is a preface to what I am about to say and a warning that one shouldn’t generalize too broadly…

In San Ignacio – in the far west of Belize, so therefore mostly Maya, mestizo, and recent immigrants from Guatemala – there were many men with sweet faces and the most wonderful smiles, very different from what I am used to seeing here in the States.

The gentlest face was Mison, a breakfast-time waiter at the San Ignacio Hotel. (His father’s name, he explained, was Simon.) He had an absolutely lovely smile. Alas, he was only marginally competent as a waiter.