Leela Vernon
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
(21 October 1950 – 19 February 2017)
was a Belizean cultural icon noted for her contributions to preserving
Creole culture in the country. She was awarded the title "Queen of Brukdown", received the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
for promoting Creole culture and music, and was named the Brukdown Artist of the Year in 2004. She was honored as National Hero in 2016 by the National Institute of Culture and History.
Early life
Lila Genus Martinez was born on 21 October 1950 near
Punta Gorda in a disputed border region, now known as the
"adjacency zone", between
British Honduras
British Honduras was a British Crown colony on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony, renamed Belize in June 1973, and
Guatemala. Neither country wanted to issue a birth certificate, but eventually, her parents Gladys Matilda Genus and Alfredo Martinez Jiménez were able to secure a birth certificate and passport from Guatemala. Her father was a ''
chiclero'', traveling in chicle camps along the border to gather the natural gum and her mother was a cook. Her father was descended of Jemima Hariniah Hause, a runaway slave originally from Sierra Leone, who fled Mexico to Belize and married a Belizean named Harrison. His mother, Secondina Jiménez was of
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
heritage and married a Spanish-Italian baker surnamed Martinez. Her mother's father, Henry Genus had migrated from Jamaica to work for
United Fruit
The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...
in 1897, before settling in British Honduras with his Belizean wife, Jemima.
Leela, as she was called, grew up traveling around the small villages of southern British Honduras(Belize), until around the age of five, when she moved to Punta Gorda to live with her maternal grandparents. She attended
St. Peter Claver School from her primary levels through three years of high school before marrying Mario Samuel Vernon, a baker, who later operated the town Texaco station. The Vernons had four children before Mario was murdered in 1981: Juliette, Mario Samuel Jr., France Kevin, and André Robert. Her final child, Danika Sierra, is the daughter of Narmo Sierra.
Career
In 1987, Vernon formed a dance troupe known as the Ibolites (aka Ebolites) with four other dancers. Their goal was to express Kriol culture in traditional music and dance and promote the education of
Brukdown
Brukdown is a genre of Belizean music. Its best-known performer and innovator, Wilfred Peters is regarded as a Belizean national icon. The word ''brukdown'' may come from ''broken down calypso'', referring to the similarities between brukdown a ...
and cultural pride in the rich heritage. The group performed at schools all over the country, expanding to over seventy members, and toured throughout the Caribbean, including performances in
Dominica, the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
,
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
and
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
. In 1991, she performed a song she had written, ''Ah Wah Know Who Seh Creole No Gàh No Culture'' (I Want to Know Who Says Creoles Have No Culture), at the Belize Games. The performance, backed up by the Ibolites, was memorable and the song has become one of her most beloved works.
In 1993 she composed and performed, at the
Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC, ''University of San Carlos of Guatemala'') is the largest and oldest university of Guatemala; it is also the fourth founded in the Americas. Established in the Kingdom of Guatemala during the Spani ...
's International Peace and Protest Project, ''Blackness in the Sunrise''. The song, about slavery in the region, was recognized with a ribbon. In 1994, the group was selected as one of the artistic performances for
Queen Elizabeth's visit. Vernon composed a song, ''Welcome to Belize by the Sea'' for the special performance for the monarch. The following year, they toured internationally, performing in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and
Vera Cruz, Mexico. In 1997, the group joined with the
Belize National Dance Company on a trip to France and Spain, where Vernon worked as a cultural choreographer for more than fifty performances.
In 2001, she released a CD ''Kriol Kolcha'' with the lead song, ''Ah Wah Know Who Seh Creole No Gàh No Culture''. In 2011, her fifth CD was launched featuring a translation of the Belizean National Anthem ''
Land of the Free'' into the
Kriol language as ''O, Lan a di free''. Because Kriol is the ''
lingua franca'' in Belize, Vernon felt that better understanding of the words among the country's diverse ethnic groups would result from having the anthem available in Kriol.
Vernon co-founded, along with one of her daughters, the first Creole Council of Belize in Punta Gorda. When in 1995, The National Kriol Council was formed in Belize City, Vernon was one of the drivers of the organization and was elected the inaugural vice president. Among their many projects are language standardization, and publishing books such as dictionaries and the Bible in the Kriol language.
In 2004, Vernon won the national Brukdown Contest and was crowned Artist of the Year. In 2007, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her efforts to promote Kriol music and culture. In 2011, she received the title Woman of the Year in a cultural award given by Flavors Entertainment and in 2016, Vernon was designated as a National Hero by the Belizean National Institute of Culture and History.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, Leela
1950 births
2017 deaths
British Honduras people
Belizean musicians
Belizean women
Afro-Belizean
Belizean Creole people