Belizean cultural icon Myrna Manzanares was laid to rest today - with a funeral service at All Saints Church and burial in Gales Point, Manatee.
And, tonight, as the country mourns this warrior for culture, we take a look back at Myrna's life's work in her very own words. Cherisse Halsall reports.
This was Myrna Manzanares in her element, dancing in her beloved Gales Point Manatee. She's playful, but also serious, locked in on the Kriol wavelength.
This was a lady who drummed to her own cultural beat, a Bembe for the preservation of music, language, and history.
That was her message all her life and it continued to be in 2017 when she appeared in a tribute to her friend Leela Vernon.
Myrna Manzanares
"Lot a time di Belize Kriol deh, they act like you're not kriol so I really don't want that to happen. You know how important it is that you hear what Leela said. Read that thing there for me. Our children don't know in the schools, they don't know their culture, they don't know anything and so we will teach them through the Kriol council."
At the heart of all she did was always a focus on educating the young, fully immersing them in their own creole culture, and making sure that no matter what they maintained, what she thought of, as that sacred link to the past. She said as much in 2018 when she was honored as N.I.C.H's Artist Emeritus
Myrna Manzanares
"My creole culture, well you know how I go about creole culture, well you know how I go when it comes to the creole culture. I am from Manatee and so I have all of my African ancestors and things that we did. We do it a lot because we were straight from Africa and we ran away and so it is very important to read. That's why I came home because I was in the states, 25 years I lived in that country, but I wasn't feeling good. I wasn't getting what I wanted but when I came home I did. This was my country I went to teachers college and I told my teachers you've got to teach the children who they are."
"In the elementary schools we need to be able to let our children know what our culture and our lifestyle is. As teachers, as parents, we need to teach our children, our lifestyle and our history. That's very important."
Myrna carried out that teaching as a storyteller….
Myrna Manzanares
"And you know what? Who was happy, and the boy was happy and daddy and the whole village because did that bird come back every year to steal a girl?"
"Did the bird come back to steal a girl?"
"No, no, he couldn't come back because he was dead, that's right, that's right."
"And that is how the little girl got saved, and that is how the little girl got married to this young man and the whole village was happy, they were happy, happy. And everybody clapped, come on clap. If the pin neva bent the story neva end."
And up until her last days She continued to champion culture,
She did it with her whole being, a creole woman who spoke old words, and sang old songs, but with renewed vigor and the zeal of a cultural evangelist.
And as she's laid to rest today, all of Belize's cultures - not just Kriol are poorer for it. But, like an inheritance left in the bank, her legacy and lessons live on in these kids who will remember Mr. Martin and Ms. Mryna as parts of the kriol Canon.
Myrna Manzanares
"Mr. Martin gah wah leaky old Dorey peel and bail ah till ih get dry, Mr. Martin gah wah leaky old Dorey peel and bail ah till i get dry oh the roly roly turn over, peel ah bail ih dry, oh the roly roly turn over, peel ah bail ih dry. Mr Martin why you dorey so leaky peel ah bail ah till ih get dry."
Manzanares's home was purchased by the National Institute of Culture and history with initial plans being to convert it into a cultural museum, however, there is no word yet as to whether that will indeed be the case.
