This is part one of two episodes on The Caribbean Mosaics: A Home Away from Home in which Fiona Vernal, professor of History and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut, explains how West Indians became the largest ethnic group in one New England State. In this episode, Dr. Vernel takes us through the history of the West Indian Social Club and the migrant workers from the West Indies who founded it when they settled in the region in the 1940s.
They came as guest workers from all over the Caribbean. Facing discrimination, they founded their own social, religious, and athletic organizations as autonomous cultural spaces and networks beginning with the West Indian Social Club in 1950, followed by the Caribbean American Society, the Barbados American Society, the Trinidad & Tobago American Society, the Jamaica Progressive League, the St Lucia American Society and the Cricket Hall of Fame among others.
The Social Club is a veritable treasure trove of memories that documents the lives and experiences of the farmworkers. Dr. Vernal started preserving these memories through an exhibition in collaboration with the Connecticut historical society.
"It has been a long-term goal of mine to build on that experience from the 1940s and continue the oral history project and then share and showcase the oral histories. So that's what we are doing now, " said Dr. Vernal.
She added: "This pandemic has demonstrated to us how critical foreign guest workers are to the infrastructure of this country. And I think that with renewed attention on the fact that folks are coming here, a lot of them are invited here and they make really important contributions to our food security and to our economic prosperity and productivity. And I want to do something to showcase the origins of those programs in the 1940s.
The latest exhibit called the Caribbean Mosaic opens on June 23, 2021, at the West Indian Social Club in Hartford Connecticut.
If you are interested in supporting the Oral History project or would like to borrow the exhibit for your own showing, contact:
Dr. Fiona Vernal Associate Professor History and Africana Studies Director, Engaged, Public, Oral, and Community Histories (EPOCH) University of Connecticut (203)-687-3479 http://history.uconn.edu/faculty-by-name/fiona-vernal/
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