Читать книгу Voices from the Hills - Ancil Neil - Страница 15

The community was found to have inherited a social stigma, said to have originated because of the violence in the area. From all accounts the community was said to be a peaceful one, until the early forties when steelband members in the community began fighting with steelband members of other communities.

The community became known as the most lawless in the country. The members of the steelband in the community were deemed barbaric and primitive. The area was avoided by members of other communities who held themselves to be "decent people," that could not associate with the hooligans from the hill. This stigma permeated the community and surrounding communities. It became a destructive, dehumanizing element devouring the social fabric of the Trinidadian society. The problems of poverty and unemployment in the community helped to perpetuate the stigma. As a result, the people from the Laventille community suffered from a negative self-image, a high degree of frustration, aggression and isolation.