Interview with Granny - Escape from Venezuela (Part I)

Trinidad is a small island in the Caribbean. It is the most southerly island in the Caribbean chain and is so close to South America that on a clear day you can see the hills of Venezuela in the distance.

Independent since 1962, it was peopled for thousands of years by tribes who had originally come from the South American mainland. In the tumultuous birth of the new world, it was wrested from the native peoples, who were powerless to the European diseases and weapons, became a colony of Spain, then Britain, until eventually gaining its independence. Like most colonies, its history is a painful one, and the people of modern day Trinidad are descended from peoples who were thrown together from all corners of the globe. Sadly, many stories of arrival to the island were obliterated during the period of colonization and transatlantic slavery.  It is a terrible reality of our history, but sadly, it is what happened. I know that I am very lucky to know at least one strand of my family's story, the one that has been at the centre of my family folklore from as long as I can remember, and for this I am grateful. Though I must admit it does fill me with shame that so many other stories of arrival were lost along the way.

With this in mind, I offer you the only story of arrival that I am personally aware of. It is my maternal grandmother's story, and it is in her own words.

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My name is Trina Martinez. This is the story of my escape from my country, Venezuela, to this beautiful island of Trinidad and Tobago, where I have made my home. It all started because I happened to be the great niece of the president, Juan Vicente Gomez. My grandmother was his youngest sister, and my mother was an only child.  I was born in Venezuela, in Caracas, and when I left Venezuela I was seven years old. 

So where did your family come from?

All my ancestors came from the Andes. The Gomez family came from the part of the Andes called Tachira. That is where they were born and grew up till they were adults, and then they went to Caracas.

When did they move to Caracas?

When my grandmother and my great uncle were young, they lived there…and my grandmother’s father died very young so Juan Vicente Gomez, who was one of the older sons of the family, took over the whole family. 

He was the eldest?

He was…no he wasn’t the eldest …actually I can’t tell you because I am not sure. I know that he was one of the older ones and my grandmother was the youngest of the family. Tantine might have been older than him. They dealt with, I believe, in cattle. They lived in a ranch with cattle…but my great uncle, even though he wasn’t a highly educated man…he was very strong…a ruling type of person…and after my mother was born, and she was a couple months old, the whole Gomez family decided that they would move to Caracas because of my great uncle’s best friend was involved in...

He was in politics?

Yes he was a big fella’…Castro was his name…My great uncle’s very good and close friend, his name was Cipriani Castro, and he was in politics. They were starting to get, very restless I think, in the Andes, and he, Castro, decided to lead a whole contingent from the Andes to Caracas over the mountains. That’s how they went to Caracas, because they didn’t have any proper roads or anything at that time…and I know that my mother was about three months and they, they travelled with mules, you know, and donkeys…and my great uncle, from what I hear from my family, stood by Castro head and head, with the revolution, or whatever it was that was taking place then, and they, they became the rulers…

How?

They overthrew the government, and…I hope that I’m giving the right Venezuelan history eh (laughs)…but anyhow I have to go and check it after (laughs)…Well that is just about my family part, because that is what I know... I know that my great uncle was one of the top people in the whole thing. But it so happened, as has happened so many times in South American countries, that Castro had to go abroad, for some reason or the other…and even though my great uncle was his closest friend… his dearest friend from what I hear…my great uncle decided to take over when he was gone. He betrayed him.

He betrayed him and took over, and Castro was not allowed to return to his native land. That is how my great uncle became the ruler and president of Venezuela. He ruled for thirty five years. During which time my sister was born, and I was born.

Gomez ruled with an iron hand, because that was the type of way that people used to rule in South America at the time…and he had…by the way that he ruled the country he…put it on the map. I think it was the time when oil came into the picture…and Venezuela though his term of president became very…became known and wealthy, but…

But?

But because of the way he ruled he had a lot of enemies, and a lot of people were against him…I mean he ruled eh and…I mean…us the family never knew what really went on, especially because we were women, and we only heard parts of everything, we were never told any details…but we knew that he was not a favorite of a lot of Venezuelans…people say that he did a lot of bad things…I think they even attempted on his life a few times, I’m not sure…but he ruled till he died. He died a president.

Well, my history really more starts from when he died…because…we had a house…he mostly lived in a part of Venezuela called Maracay because that is where he loved; that’s where he had his home…and he liked there because…he didn’t like living in Caracas, the capital, because it was too, too…I’m not sure what, but he like living in Maracay, which was more country…and because he lived there, all of us, the family, had to have houses there. My grandparents had a house there, and that’s where my sister, and my brother, and my mother lived…and that is where I lived.

When he died, there in Maracay, for a few days nobody wanted the masses to know that he had died because there were rumours that as soon as he died they were going to have an... uprising, and the uprising was going to be against the Gomez family. 

And, his funeral... there was a grandiose funeral... and I remember that right after the funeral my grandparents packed us up, and we were told we had to go live in Caracas. At the time we were not told why, because we were young children, but I realized when I got older, that was because they were expecting a lot of trouble…and they were expecting, you know…

What were they expecting?

Well, they were expecting to have a revolution, and they were expecting that the Gomez family were going to be sought out…and killed.

…and being that my grandmother was the youngest of the Gomez family, and it so happened that my great aunt, Regina, who was my grandmother’s oldest sister, and she was very close to Gomez himself, and ruled a lot when Gomez was ruling, you know like the woman part of it…and she herself was not very popular…not my grandmother, because my grandmother apparently was never in politics…but it so happened that Regina, when we came down to Caracas…came to stay in our home in Caracas, and, I really don’t know how long we were in Caracas before the big trouble really started…in Venezuela…because it wasn’t only Caracas, it was all the other states and everything. 

But…I…I didn’t know anything…because we weren’t allowed to know anything about politics or anything but afterwards when I got older I was told that the reason that we came to Caracas was that they were going to try and find all the Gomez family, and deal with them… 

We had more protection in Caracas than where we were in Maracay, we were with someone called Lopez Contreras, who was the one that was going to take over after from Gomez, and he was his very good friend, and a family friend…and my grandfather felt that because of that, we were protected also…from the mobs that were coming to destroy and burn our houses and everything else.

So he sent a…a policeman to…to be like a bodyguard for us…but as far as I…when I came into the picture is the actual day that I can remember of the time…is when they came to attack our house and destroy it, that's what I actually still remember…and…actually it, it (stutters) I presume they were going to kill us…from what I was hearing…and what happened is that when my grandfather called for help to Lopez Contreras…he never sent the help that he said he would send…he betrayed us in the same way that Gomez had betrayed Castro... so the mobs did come into our home. 

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I remember I was on the upstairs floor…I was in bed with my sister because I think we had…we had mumps or something, we were not well…and what I remember of that day was…that my mother came into the room and said “you have to dress…and you have to…we have to leave, we have to leave. “ and she was telling the person that was looking after us “get them ready, get them ready, because we have to get them out of here now, right now.” and I remember being picked up, and taken to the back of the house…in those days the houses in Caracas were walled in all around…

We were very lucky that the house that was next door to us was where the parish priest lived…and he was very close to my family…my grandfather, my grandmother, and my great aunt. And he, when he realized what was happening, that they were coming to, to attack us, he told my grandfather to get a ladder, put it at the back of the wall, and he would organize one over on his side for us to escape into his house, priests still had a lot of respect and power back then...and he would protect us and hide us…till whatever…whatever happened…

(to be continued)