So, Do You Speak Spanish?

One of the most common questions I get asked when I tell people that I am going to Belize is "So, do you speak Spanish?" The short answer is no, which is an entirely different matter all together. However, that's mostly irrelevant since the official language of Belize is English! "Why?" do you ask? Well, because Belize was founded by British pirates, silly!

     While most of the territories in the Americas were originally granted to Spain (with the rest going to Portugal) by the Pope in the Treaty of Tordesillas, Britain had other plans for the wealth coming from Iberian colonies. By hiring English and Scottish pirates such as Sir Francis Drake, Britain quickly got a foot hold on the Caribbean from which to plunder Spanish (originally American) loot. Eventually, the British pirates made their way to what would one day be Belize, a little swamp in Central America that was protected from large, clunky Spanish warships by the lonest barrier reef outside of Australia. The Spanish saw the area as being not worth their effort, since the Mayans in the area were fiercely anticolonial and there was no sign of gold anywhere. Therefore, it was safe for such pirates as Captain Henry Morgan and Blackbeard to seek refuge in the reefs of Belize before embarking on adventures to pillage and plunder from Charleston to Panama City. Whereas most colonies were settled by conquistadors and colonial administrators who were out for a profit at almost any cost, Belize was settled by cursing, licentious, drunken scalawags who were out for a profit at almost any cost.

     

     In a decisive victory at the Battle of St. George's Caye (pronounced "Key") in 1798, the Spanish left the area for good after being defeated by British buccaneers. The pirates, who called themselves Baymen, soon discovered that the wood in the area was quite valuable and decided to stay and capitalize on their newfound wealth. The Baymen thrived on the mahogany trade because of its usefulness in making dyes, and eventually settled in the area permanently. Even today, the mahogany tree and its black and white loggers have prominent places on the Belizean flag (the only national flag in the world with people on it). It was not until 1862, that the territory officially became a colony of the British Empire, under the name of British Honduras. 

     The British treated their only colony in Central America much like their other colonies in the nearby Caribbean. The Mayans in the area had no intention of working for any white colonizers of either the Spanish or English variety, and so the English brought black slaves from Africa and Jamaica to work the sugar cane fields and logging. The Kriol population of descendants of whites and blacks grew rapidly and settled largely in Belize City. The British also had a similar relationship to Belize as to other Caribbean colonies in that it largely used the colonies to extract major resource wealth without funding much in the way of infrastructure or even thinking much of the local inhabitants at all. British Honduras was finally granted autonomy in 1964, and only gained full independence in 1981. In 1973, the colony officially changed its name to its historical name of Belize, which is believed to be derived from either the mispronunciation of a pirate named Wallace or the Mayan word beliz meaning "muddy water". I prefer the later and think it is more likely, but if it is, in fact, the former, that means that Belize is the only nation in the world named after a pirate. Aaargh! Because of its close history with the rest of the British Caribbean, many Belizeans (especially Kriols) consider Belize to be more integrated culturally and economically into the Caribbean than Central America. 

     So there you have it, both Belizeans and I speak English. Or at least we both pretend to speak English. I usually just mumble and use wild hand gestures to get my point across to people. Belize has developed its own English Kriol which uses vastly more phonetic spelling and a slightly different grammatical structure. For example, one of my favorite marketing slogans in Belize is "Dis da fi wi chickin!" For a while I thought this meant "This the for real chicken", but it actually means "This the for we chicken" or "This is our chicken". "Dis da fi wi" is actually a common nationalistic phrase for Kriol Belizeans, claiming ownership for a very proud people. Kriol is, in fact, a very important part of the reclaiming of English away from the often negligent colonizers of the recent past, putting a uniquely Belizean stamp on the language. A growing number (about half) of the population speaks Spanish as more refugees pour into the West. However, for now, Queen's English is still the language of government, the media, and tourists like me. Yay for colonization!