Celebrating the 50th Anniversary as Belize

Francis Fonseca

Prior to independence, Belize had been a British colony since 1862. But in June of 1973, the country changed its name from British Honduras to Belize. That name change was not without conflict, as we found out from Minister of Culture Francis Fonseca, who today gave comments as the country celebrating its fiftieth anniversary as Belize and having our own identity.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Culture

“Was the official name change from British Honduras to Belize – I think vitally important, vitally important. A people without their own identity are lost. It’s critically important for people to understand their culture, their history. And I think it may have been a symbolic feature at the time and people may not have fully appreciated the critical importance of the change from British Honduras to Belize. In fact, some people were opposed to the change, strongly opposed to the change; they wanted to remain British. And so I think a strong national identity; that begun that process of us identifying ourselves as Belizeans and over these past forty-two years, we have come to learn and appreciate what that really means – what is being a Belizean, what does that mean to each and every one of us. So I think that is a critically important milestone, fifty years as you said. It’s a good time for us to reflect on our national identity and our history.”