Category: Culture

Radio continues to be a key medium for news, public announcements, information, and entertainment in Belize. Even though the internet and online broadcasting have gained popularity, radio still has a loyal audience. In this week’s edition of Kolcha Tuesday, we spotlight three radio personalities. Two have transitioned to other media, while one has been a staple on the airwaves for an impressive thirty-one years. News Five’s Marion Ali brings us their stories.

Marion Ali, Reporting

The iconic intro that signaled the start of the 12:30 radio newscast every afternoon is something many people from the 1980s and 90s remember fondly. The Broadcasting Corporation of Belize, which ran Radio Belize and Friends FM, was a government-operated station that closed its doors in 1998. By then, two private stations, KREM and Love FM, had already made their mark, with KREM being the first privately-owned station. Although Albert Anthony Wright, better known as Tony Wright, has since moved on from KREM FM, he’s still a beloved figure in the entertainment scene, spinning your favorite Belizean tunes that celebrate our rich cultural heritage. Tony shared that it was this very music that first drew him to radio decades ago. His big break as an announcer came after the release of his second album.

Tony Wright, Former Radio Announcer, Krem FM

“ My first time really there on radio. And that was back in 1995. Actually we start there, the show the 3rd of February.”

Marion Ali

The show’s name is –

Tony Wright

“Belizean Musicians Past and Present and we started that the 3rd of February  and then the 10th of February, this was where we first get the first and guests really. And the show take off from there. Then I created Belizean beat. And then, um, the following year, they wanted something for the Christmas, a Christmas program. And so they call me up and they say, Well, what are you doing? You have a show, you got two hours, you know, and the radio, and so do a show, and so we do. I begin Saturday morning special.”

Wright now hosts his own show, the Saturday Morning Special, on his Facebook page every Saturday from 9:30 AM to noon. George Tillett, now a well-known videographer with News Five, started his career back in 1980 as a technician for the now-defunct Radio Belize. He was responsible for servicing and managing the transmitting sites. When Friends FM launched, George joined their maintenance team. He recalls that the training and equipment back then were worlds apart from what we have today—like night and day.

George Tillett, Former Technician, Broadcasting Corporation of Belize

“I was a part of the maintenance team, servicing, oh, you can name it, the tape recorders, it was cassette recorders. You have, um, reel to reel. You have, um, amplifiers and turntables, you know, that play the thirty-three and a half and forty five records. What I was trained to do back then, is, I would be lost right now, if I, if I ever try to repair anything that is modern.”

We caught up with Lisa Kerr, better known as Lisa Love, broadcasting live from her home today. After nearly thirty-one years, she’s still a beloved host at Krem Radio. Lisa’s journey into radio began while she was working as an overnight dispatcher at another company.

Lisa Love, Radio Announcer, Krem FM

“ We were not allowed to have radios for destruction.  We were supposed to be focused and I took in a little radio to keep me company when my guys are not calling in to give their report. So I had my little radio there and sometimes at 5 a. m. somebody would be on Krem Radio and sometimes nobody would be on Krem Radio. So there was a morning JC was on, so I called the station and I said, you know, how come somebody’s there sometimes and then  Um, there are other times nobody is there and the music you guys play are very good. I like the music. It’s music that I grew up on.  And he said, well the person, the late Sweets the Lord Bennet, was the one who had the ship at the time. And Sweets was not too well all the time.  So, JC was like, why, you want it?  I’m like, okay.”

As George and Tony Wright mentioned, the transition over time has been remarkable, thanks to advancements in technology.

George Tillett

“All mistakes you have to cut and paste. And this was time consuming to get it ready for a broadcast.  You know, and  the next thing, it was the same thing with cassettes. You have to find that spot that was that was a bad, sometimes the, the tape would chew up, you know, and you have to, you have to splice the tape, join them, and it would take a while, you know to get it ready for that broadcast.”

Tony Wright

“1981 was when I did my really first recording, and that was a read of the years. I did a, I did a, um, song about independence.  We were just getting our independence, and I did that at Redo Belize. But at the time, they were recording this thing. I’m so big, real, whatever it is. So, we did the recording.”

Lisa Love shared that now, as the one in charge of the music and program planning, she continues to play the same beloved cultural tunes. She also makes sure to highlight the unique aspects of the different parts of the country she broadcasts from.

Lisa Love

“ If we go to Dangriga, we highlight Dangriga. We go to Fiji, we highlight the culture. We do our research, do what we need to do, and we broadcast that. If we, I mean, we could be in Hattieville doing something. You would know about Hattieville. We go to Crooked Tree each year, Cashew Fest. You know about Crooked Tree, Cashew Fest.”

Marion Ali for News Five.

Is there a right or wrong way to spell words in Belizean Kriol? Opinions vary on this. The short answer is that spelling Kriol words isn’t easy. Depending on who you ask, there is a standardized way to write in Kriol. Despite the publication of a Kriol dictionary, many Belizeans believe that if you can understand the word, it’s spelled correctly. In tonight’s installment of Kolcha Tuesday, News Five’s Paul Lopez hits the streets to see how well we know how to spell words in our common tongue.

Paul Lopez, Reporting

No matter where you go in Belize, you’ll hear people speaking Kriol. It’s different from Haitian Creole, Louisiana Creole, or the various patois found across the Caribbean, though there are some similarities. Belizean Creole is a vibrant mix of English, Miskito, Spanish, West African, and Bantu languages. Some Belizeans describe it as broken English, insisting there’s no right or wrong way to spell words in Belizean Creole.

Andrew Reynolds, Belize City Resident

“I went to some people at the Jehovah Witness Church, and they try to write in kriol, they try to read in kriol and it does not work. I could not understand nothing. I am sixty-five-years-old. I have been gone for thirty-five years. Still when I was growing up they was teaching us English in school. This broken English is not really cool. You cant go anywhere to talk kriol, nobody will understand you. Try and uplift yourself. I nuh down with the creole language.”

Silvaana Udz, the Chairperson of the Language Committee of the National Kriol Council says otherwise.

Paul Lopez

“There is this phrase, “the wronger ih wronger, the corrector it correct”.

Silvaana Udz, Chair, NKC Language Committee

“That dah just jokey talking when they think that kriol does be bastard English or so. Kriol as a language was born from the grammar of primary west African language pattern with whatever words the English mih the use. Deh the beat yo if yo nuh the chop the yard or whatever. Because of that the thinking of these great people from West Africa that were forced to come, our enslaved ancestors. Their pattern was different. All the creole languages, whether they are French based like Haitian Creole or Louisana Creole, they all have preverbal tense patterns.”

Even though Kriol is the lingua franca of Belize, reading and writing it isn’t straightforward for many Belizeans. We decided to put it to the test with a Kriol spelling challenge, using words with long vowels like ‘bone’ (spelt ‘boan’), ‘fight’ (spelt ‘fait’), ‘soup’ (spelt ‘soop’), and ‘water’ (spelt ‘waata’).

Paul Lopez

“The first word dah fight and you spell it fite. The second word is bone, as in a dog bone, chicken bone.”

Erick Garnett, Belize City Resident

“If you want you can say boan. I will ask you one, how do you pronounce no in creole?”

Paul Lopez

“Nuh?”

Erick Garnett

“Hmpmm.”

Paul Lopez

“The first word dah fight. The second word is bone. The third word is water. I’ll throw in a little bonus since you look like you really good at this. The final word is soup.Try spell the word leaf for me, like a long ee, the leef dah come from a tree.

Spell the word soup for me in creole.”

Ari Dorado, Belize City Resident

“I think dah wah good language for the people that can’t talk English good and they could understand that a little better.”

Paul Lopez

“The first word I have for you is fight, spell the word fight in creole. Second word in creole is bone, spell the word bone in creole.”

Benita Keme-Palacio, Belize City Resident

“House, house? Hous..”

This challenge showed that while some words might be easy to spell in Belizean Kriol, people generally struggle with spelling and reading the language. The University of Belize’s Intercultural Indigenous Language Institute aims to change that with a four-week course on Belize Kriol Literacy.

Delmer Tzib, Coordinator, UB Language Institute

“The whole idea here is that we develop a rooted citizen that s able to also develop appreciation for the local language and at the same time engage with global culture. So these languages and communications systems allow us to learn from each other, not only the language, but our cultural practices, nuances and different expressions that represent our identity.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez

Christmas is that special time of year when we gather with loved ones and create heartwarming memories. One of the highlights for every Belizean is the delicious food. For many, a traditional Belizean Christmas dinner means rice and beans, turkey, and ham, but that’s not the case for everyone. In tonight’s edition of Kolcha Tuesday, we traveled to San Jose Palmar in Orange Walk to explore the tradition of making and enjoying Christmas tamales. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with the story.

Britney Gordon, Reporting

While many people are busy wrapping gifts in the weeks before Christmas, Isabel Chi is wrapping banana leaves. She’s making tamales, one of her family’s favorite holiday treats.

Isabel Chi, Tamales Maker

“For Christmas, right here at my home, we do a lot of cooking. Especially for the twenty-fourth night so that people come in, come here to visit you. We are ready for anybody, anybody who visit us. We have tamales, we have pibil, we have relleno, escabeche whatever. We have this traditional foods for entire people who come and visit us for that day and that day is, especially for our family, we get together on the twenty-fourth the night and then we get together and we have fun and have eating different kinds of stuff.”

For some Belizeans, Christmas isn’t complete without a hearty plate of rice and beans. But for Isabel, the holidays have a different flavor. In her backyard stands her beloved fire hearth, and that’s where the magic of her Christmas tamales happens.

Isabel Chi

“ It is not so much difficult because I get helping hands from my daughter- in-laws. I don’t have no daughter, but my in-laws, they help me a lot, my son, we come together and we prepare ourselves one day before. We cook together. Like the tamales, we get the leaves one day before, get it prepared, the chicken, and then in the early morning we get up and do the rest because sometimes we want to eat fresh tamales. We don’t want to eat the tamales one day before”

Isabel’s tamales are legendary, enjoyed by more than just her family. She also caters and her meals are sought after by people all over the country. The secret to her irresistible tamales lies in her homemade recado, a recipe passed down from her late mother, Juanita Caseres. She grows, dries, and grinds the seeds herself.

Isabel Chi

“I was taught that way by my mom. She said, never do tamales using foil because it won’t give you a nice taste. You will only use a little piece of leaf and it won’t give you the taste that you want of tamales because it’s the leaf that gives you the taste and your ingredients that they put on your chicken like your own ricardo that you do, like how I explained to you, I do my own ricardo and have it there save so that I can, when I want it, I can use it. Because it’s a lot of work to do, Ricardo. Every minute it’s a time. It’s two days that take you to make your own ricardo.”

Isabel is now passing these techniques down to the rest of her family.  Her daughter-in-law, Erica Balam, says that learning these techniques is a privilege she is forever grateful for.

Erica Balam, Isabel’s Daughter-in-law

“First when I was welcoming a family, I didn’t know a bit of cooking. I didn’t know how to cook rice, how to cook beans, but I want to say I’m so appreciative of miss Isabel Chi, who is my mother-in-law. I’ve learned a lot from her, and from her, along with her mother, Miss Juanita Caseres. Actually, it’s a great opportunity, and it’s a privilege for all of these traditions that we have been together as a family. And I’ve learned a lot when it comes to the cooking, .”

Chi explains that making tamales is a family affair. Her husband and sons gather banana leaves from the backyard, while her daughter-in-law and grandchildren help prepare the corn.

Isabel Chi

“From younger age, it we started to do it like this because together with my mom and my dad, they teach us this way to be like family reunion, be together. sons, granddaughters, grandsons, and whatever. So we get used to it and we continue our culture the same way continue it until God says I’m not here again and we will, they know how to handle theirself.”

These special moments allow Isabel to remain connected to her family. Now, she gets to recreate those cherished bonds she once had with her mother, with her loved ones.

Erica Balam

“We as her daughter-in-law’s we are part, we are like her daughter also because we help her in what we can, and at the same time, we learn, and that is what I learn a lot from her. It’s a great privilege for me to share all of these secret ingredients that she always makes, and and that is the which is the love, and the care, and how we do the food. And they say, Oh, it’s nice. So what do you put on it? And it’s just a love that how we do it.”

For those wanting to try Isabel’s Christmas tamales, she can be reached by cell at the number 6-6-9-6-2-1-9. Britney Gordon for News Five.

Miss Universe Belize, Halima Hoy, faced backlash from the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) over her national costume and presentation of the Deer Dance on stage. SATIIM called her presentation sacrilegious, explaining that the Deer Dance is a sacred religious ceremony for Maya communities. They emphasized that no Maya person who follows their traditions would wear a Deer Dance mask or clothing outside of the rituals. Hoy has since apologized, stating she meant no harm or offense. Today, Kim Vasquez, Director of the Institute of Creative Arts, shared her perspective, highlighting that as a melting pot of cultures, Belize’s diversity and inclusion mean we can embrace all aspects of our heritage without disrespect. 

Kim Vasquez, Director, Institute of Creative Arts

“I think when we look at Belize, we have to really reflect on the fact that we are very diverse. We’re blessed. We have a wealth of different ethnicities, and as we move forward, you are going to see that culture continues to be dynamic. Culture is alive at NICH we talk about living heritage. We don’t have any control over that. Culture, like I said, is alive. And it’s hard to really say you are appropriating what is yours? You know, like I said, if you look at some of our backgrounds, we are a mixture. Many of us, most of us – few of us can say, I am a hundred percent Garifuna, or I am a hundred percent, Maya. We share and we appreciate, and we elevate, but I don’t know if we are actively trying to or even intending to appropriate because it is Belizean.”

Belize is home to over twelve thousand Mennonites who migrated from Canada and Mexico in the 1950s. Drawn by our fertile land and the chance to practice their faith and culture in peace, they settled in remote areas and became cattle ranchers, dairy farmers, carpenters, and mechanics. In today’s edition of Kolcha Tuesday, we take a brief visit to Shipyard in Orange Walk, a Mennonite community deeply rooted in their Christian faith and traditional way of life. While many men engage in business and use cell phones and fuel-operated vehicles to transport their cattle for export, their lives at home remain simple. There’s no television to watch the news, no cell phones in use, and instead of a 2024 Ford SUV parked out front, you’ll find a horse and buggy. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Katarina Dyck, a Mennonite wife, mother, and grandmother, lives in Shipyard Village, Orange Walk. She has dedicated her life to her culture’s traditional lifestyle, embracing her role as a homemaker. For Katarina, this means staying home to cook meals, do laundry, clean the house, and sew traditional clothing for her family. She loves what she does, saying it’s simply her way of life.

Katarina Dyck, Mennonite Housewife, Shipyard Village

“Eso es mi vida.”

Shy of the camera and able to speak only Spanish, Katarina shared just a few words with our camera. The rest of her skills she showed us.

We arrived at the Dyck residence at 10:30, just in time for lunch—yes, lunch! Instead of the usual dairy-based Mennonite meal, we were treated to a delicious serving of traditional Creole rice and beans. Instead of having a single person lead the prayers, everyone individually offers their own thanks. Katarina’s husband, Cornelius Dyck, let us in during their mealtime hours.

Cornelius Dyck, Mennonite Businessman, Shipyard Village

“We eat seven o’clock a.m., and we don’t do snacks from seven to ten or ten thirty. Then from ten-thirty to two o’clock we eat again. The Mennonites do everything like Belizeans.”

We believe Cornelius when his daughter, Maria Thiessen lists off the dishes they also cook and eat.

Maria Thiessen, Mennonite Housewife, Shipyard Village

“We make rice and beans or relleno or barbeque.”

Cornelius shared that many Mennonites in Shipyard continue to uphold their traditions by avoiding television sets and speaker systems for home entertainment. Instead, they prefer the simplicity of horse and carriage for transportation, rather than fuel-powered vehicles.

Cornelius Dyck

“It’s for tradition and religion. We use the horse and carriage because it’s cheaper and our religion does not permit us to use cars and technology. We don’t use televisions, computers and cell phones at home. But there are other younger Mennonites who use these things. The family we visited are all Belizean-born, but they don’t speak much English. Their only languages are German and Spanish. Why? Their first language was Spanish from their Mexican ancestors and when they settled in Belize, the first people who they had interaction with were the Mestizos in neighbouring communities who they hired to work as farm hands. That too became a part of their Belizean tradition. I didn’t learn Spanish in school.”

Today, Katarina was making a pair of work pants for one of her sons. She explained through her daughter, Maria what occasions these outfits are used for.

Maria Thiessen

“We use this design for all occasions, but for weddings we use dark colours and for regular occasions we use purple and blue and other colours. For our head dress, married women use only black and unmarried women use white. When we go out of the village we use shoes with socks but when we go right in the village we wear our slippers.”

Maria’s husband, Peter Thiessen, who is also camera-shy, took us on a ride to a cattle ranch just a quarter mile away. A mechanic by trade, Peter shared that he crafts carriages for sale and is sometimes called to Belize City to repair heavy-duty vehicles. Although their family won’t be watching this story on a television set tonight, they warmly welcome Belizeans to their community for business. Marion Ali for News Five.