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Belize History, Ambergris Caye History

This is a map of the original land grants and the 83 families who received them. Courtesy George Parham.

The indentured system continued to flourish, as many of the cocals, or work areas, were
too far away for workers to get home at night. Thus the bosses built sheds for the
workers, and charged them to live there, for food and provisions, and the same old story
was repeated.

Since the Blakes and the Alamillas owned the entire island, they were able to prevent any
competing businesses on the island. Their ownership of most of the boats travelling to
and fro the island completed their hegemony of the island's trade.

Workers were paid
very poorly in the
early 1900's, around $12 a month plus a few
rations. The coconut farms were heavily hit
and eventually destroyed by a series of
hurricanes between 1942 and 1955. In 1942 a
hurricane made a direct hit on Caye Caulker in
November. It is estimated to have hit with
winds at 110 mph but as Wikipedia says that
may be a conservative estimate. It left only 7
buildings remains in San Pedro, destroyed the
northern settlement (the village that was
north of Rocky Point) and all of the coconut trees.

The attack at Pearl Harbor had happened less than a year before and World War Two was raging across the globe.
The men of Ambergris Caye were jobless (no coconut palms, no jobs) – and many left the island looking for work.
America was looking for male labor (Mito Paz’s uncle went to work in a factory in Pittsburgh, later to return). A
few joined the war effort (we were still British Honduras at that point), one or two went down to Panama to help
with expansion and lock work on the canal, some went to the mainland. And after the war many returned.

By then lobstering was on the upswing, and labor for coconuts became scarce.
The farms were abandoned in the 1960's when speculation made the land
worth more for real estate than farming.

The islanders enjoyed a life of freedom but it was by no means an easy one. In
the late mid 1900s the villagers claimed that the Blake family in the person of,
Anita Alamilla the great, great grand daughter of James Humes Blake, was
charging outrageous amounts of money for land rental. This was money that they could not possiblyafford. The
first settlers had been squatters and had not been charged rent until the Blake/Alamilla/ Parham family had come
into possession of the Caye. On several occasions they petitioned the Governor to render whatever assistance he
could. Through very short correspondence the Governor responded that because the land was privately owned
there was nothing that he could do. This continued until Belize became self-governing in 1964 and the Peoples
United Party came to their assistance by purchasing land, having it surveyed and issuing lots to the settlers.

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