Piparo is a village in Central
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
on the southern edge of the
Central Range. The village has three main claims to fame:
# Piparo was the base of operations of
Dole Chadee (born Nankissoon Boodram), a notorious
drug lord who was
executed
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
in 1999 for the
murder of four members of the Baboolal family.
# Piparo was the home of
Ras Shorty I
Ras Shorty I (6 October 1941 – 12 July 2000), born Garfield Blackman and also known as Lord Shorty, was a Trinidadian calypsonian and soca musician, known as the Father of Soca and The Love Man.
Biography
He was born Garfield Blackman in ...
(born Garfield Blackman) during his self-imposed break from the
soca world. Living simply in this rural community Ras Shorty-I developed
Jamoo, a fusion of
soca and
gospel music.
# Piparo was the site of a large
mud volcano
A mud volcano or mud dome is a landform created by the eruption of mud or slurries, water and gases. Several geological processes may cause the formation of mud volcanoes. Mud volcanoes are not true igneous volcanoes as they do not produce la ...
eruption on February 22, 1997. The eruption covered an area of 2.5 km² and displaced 31 families. The mud volcano now lies active where the eruption took place ( as of October 2019).
During the early twentieth century, Piparo was an important
cocoa bean
The cocoa bean (technically cocoa seed) or simply cocoa (), also called the cacao bean (technically cacao seed) or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substance ...
producer.
The small village is mainly inhabited by people of
African and
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
descent. There is a
mandir, two mosques, and three churches.
Since the eruption in 1997, an alternate road to the village has been established through the village of Guaracara or a detour around the volcanic site through Panchoo trace.
Image:Piparo_Volcano_April,2008.jpg , Remnants of the damage, 11 yrs later
Image:View_of_the_Piparo_area.jpg, Piparo damage
Image:Piapro_Main_Vent.jpg, Main vent at Piparo
References
Villages in Trinidad and Tobago
Mud volcanoes
{{Trinidad-geo-stub