Noble: The Highlanders road—how Robert Hernandez builds community through pan

“They say mih country so stressful, so tense/ With race hate, young jail bait, too much violence.

Girl, pack up and go, this sweet Trinbago/ I tell dem no way (no way)/ How de people small-minded, macocious and loud/ Of bobol and scandal they boastful and proud/ Yet somehow I see, all this foolery/ As window dressing, dey still ah blessing.

You see ah just eat ah curry-cue, peas, rice and cascadou/ Blue crab and callaloo, mih neighbour just gimme/ Nah leaving (nah leaving)/ Meh navel string so deep and freedom doh come cheap…”

Denyse Plummer, 2009.

It is easy to abandon our country when things appear to be heading down. But not everyone is thinking this way.

Meet Robert Hernandez, the man behind Highlanders Steel Orchestra of Laventille. Born on Erica Street, when it was called Fourth Street, he recalls his mother telling him that his navel string was buried there.

As the old folk would say to you, burying your navel string is to tie you to the land in which you were born. You can go wherever you wish, but you will come home!

Robert left these shores as a young man in the early 70s and returned to the same house where he was born. He chose to do so. Robert grew up in the shadows of Bertie Marshall’s band. Now, he is rebuilding the band and the community.

I first met Robert in 2015 when he was busy with the community’s primary school and the renaming of its main street. Long known as the Old St Joseph Road, the road is now called the Bertie Marshall Boulevard. I revisited him a few weeks ago to see what had become of his efforts at reforming the community.

He is still lamenting the lack of community spirit among the businesses there. “They are locked into their businesses… they do not participate in any community activity… they are parasites that live off the community.”

Pretty tough language. But he is also upset with the community members since their “standard is so low” as they accept garbage strewn all around.

But he is not prepared to give up.

“I believe that at the end of the day, good will always overcome evil.” Robert affirms, “I am determined not to be run out of town!”

That spirit led him to desire a better site for the steelband. The site was an old National Petroleum gas station. He got a 99-year lease, and the East Port of Spain Development Company Ltd built the infrastructure. He sees himself as ‘an instrument’.

His source of satisfaction is “not derived from monetary gain”. He wants to demonstrate a new way for the young leaders to build the community. For Robert, the drive is to do well and succeed.

The leaders must ask: “What can I give to add value?”

Music is the tool to break down “boundaries”. The job of the leaders is to “get them to remain focused on the music”. The competition or the music festival is the means to have them forget the “boundaries”.

“The children are not carrying the burden or bringing the baggage of their parents. We told the parents that these were young musicians, so I did not want to lend them sticks. I want this to come out of your pocket; be responsible and put a stick in their hands.

“When they come to practice, they walk with the sticks. We are letting them know that they are young musicians now. We are instilling in them something they did not think they were before.

“They are part of something that is contributing to the song.”

This mindset permeates. Robert sees himself in Bertie Marshall’s tradition—a man passing on a tradition.

“What we are doing here is community building. Music is the avenue. My biggest challenge is convincing my youths to run things, hold on to this, and continue.

“If you show them something and have them experience it, it will have a bigger impact on their memory.”

The children in school must get their homework done upstairs in the panyard. Volunteer teachers help in this area. Digicel Foundation recently awarded a grant to help with the homework centre. The programme is not only about a panside.

“The parents who bring their children see this as an opportunity to raise better human beings. The children come in with an empty cup, and we start to put something in their cup. If we put sufficient in their cups, it will begin to outweigh the negative things. Overwhelm them with positives and push the negatives to the back.

“They become positive and say, ‘Wait, it’s a better life’. We then give them short-term goals with rewards.”

Robert sees the panyard as a means of reclaiming the streets. He understands that the youths turned on to music will have less time for crime. Good is happening in the panyard.

Will we see it? Will we help nurture it? May we encourage the lighting of many candles. Nah leaving!

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