LYDIA VILLANUEVA

Elizabeth Pridgeon

There are frequent talks of how Placencia has changed beyond all recognition over recent years, from a small fishing village to an international destination on the tourist map, and a popular residential retreat for North American ex-patriots.  Few people have been as positively involved with the whole process of change as Lydia Villanueva, who has proved an invaluable human resource and community contributor on the Peninsula.  It is for this dedication and hard work that this week, Lydia Villanueva deservingly receives the Belize Times title of Nation Builder.

Lydia was born in Monkey River, raised in Independence and arrived in Placencia as a young independent adult, aged 18 years.  At the time, her parents were employed in Maya Beach, to the north of Placencia, and Lydia accompanied them to work for several years to assist with secretarial duties in the office.  Once settled in Placencia, however, Lydia found work nearby in The Cove, which later became the Turtle Inn, where she was a talented Head Chef for the resort.  Upon marriage to a village fisherman, Mr Conrad Villanueva, Lydia settled into domestic duties and mothered six children.

Throughout the schooling of her children, Lydia was an active committee member for the school, volunteering as treasurer for many years, and accepting nomination as Chairperson too.  But her involvement in the improvement of her local community far exceeded her work with the school.  She devoted much of her time to working with youth groups for the Anglican Church, arranging and supervising numerous activities including game nights, sleepovers, dance clubs, and sports activities.  Lydia is well aware that parents’ responsibilities for entertaining their children are being neglected across the country, and she reminisces of a time when parents would play ball or hopscotch with their children in the evenings, rather than leaving their offspring to wander the streets and fall into trouble.  Undoubtedly, Lydia followed the more old-fashioned principles of parenting, which accounts for her children’s professional success in adulthood.

During her time working for the betterment of the village, Lydia became well known throughout the community, and was elected to serve on the village council for the best part of twenty years.  She was a prominent member of the committee when they undertook the repair and extension of the village sidewalk (which now, ostensibly, is one of the longest continuous sidewalks in the world), she was elementary in establishing potable water for the village (and indeed, was a long-standing member of the village Water Board, which accounts for the village’s pristine record for water distribution and supply).  Her respect of the natural environment prompted the encouragement of the village community to petition for a new rubbish dump when the old premises, in the centre of the village, far exceeded the capacity of the site, and this activism also produced a successful result.  As a member of the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA), Lydia understood the importance of improving the village as a holistic entity first, in order to prompt improved tourism later.

Lydia was always aware that damaging and disrespecting the environment was not only counterproductive to the tourism industry, but also harmful to the local community too, and in the late 1980s the diminishing fishing yields were already supporting her hypothesis.  And so in 1990, as a means to supplement her husband’s dwindling income, the couple opened a small guesthouse, which became “Lydia’s Guesthouse” after her husband’s untimely passing in March 1998.

A budget option on the Peninsula, Lydia offers excellent value accommodation underlined by environmentally friendly practices, which she says are well respected by her guests.  In 2005, she enrolled her premises in the Environmental Walk-Through program, which enabled her to learn and adopt various sustainable practices including recycling initiatives, environmentally-friendly waste-water treatments, and improvements to the energy efficiency of the guesthouse.  Lydia is well aware of the worsening problems on the Peninsula with flooding and drainage, and she believes that excessive development nearby (using harmful practices such as dredging) is responsible for this deterioration.  She is a fervent follower of development proposals, and is a regular attendee at community meetings, such as that held by representatives from the Department of the Environment last month.

Yet Lydia’s phenomenal contribution to her community doesn’t stop there.  For the past five years, Lydia has been an active Rotarian, thoroughly enjoying her enhanced ability to assist those less fortunate than herself.  Her most recent project was assisting in the donation of dictionaries for Standard III students along the Peninsula and to villages as far beyond as Monkey River.  She is always one of the first to volunteer for any community initiatives, and last St. George’s Caye Day she assisted with preparing vast pots of rice and beans, chicken and potato salad to donate to the village’s primary school children.

She has decided to step down from several committee boards in the village since the involvement of her children in various community decision making processes.  Although she remains passionate about several issues, she believes that it wouldn’t be democratically acceptable to exert her authority alongside her children, as together they would become lead decision-makers in the village [UDP politicians please take note].

One of her few unrealised ambitions is to improve the guesthouse’s profitability in order to be able to financially assist her sons in their tour guide company, Pelican Tours, also based on the Peninsula.  There is no personal focus with Lydia, for she is always thinking of improving circumstances for other members of her local community.  Every community could use a selfless resident such as Lydia, and her status as a role-model would be a fine template to young people across the country who are searching for a ‘better route’ in today’s troubled world.

Last month’s issue of the Placencia Breeze described Lydia as “a delight, full of hospitality and hard work”.  And that extends far beyond her role as the manager of “Lydia’s Guesthouse”.  In all that she does, Lydia gives her best, and of all the people nominated for Nation Builder, Lydia certainly deserves to realise her final ambition of further assisting her children to be successful, responsible citizens of Belize.  It can only be hoped that they – as well as other local residents – take a leaf or two out of Lydia’s book, for if anyone achieves half as much as Lydia has through personal participation in local committees, the community would be a better place.  And if each community could follow this example, Belize would certainly become a nation built on stronger foundations to carry us into the future.

| | | | | |