Voices of the Village

CHAN CHEN
Elizabeth Pridgeon
Just a few miles north of Corozal is the little known village of Chan Chen, nestled close to the Northern Highway, and within a short distance of minor road networks between Patchakan, Santa Rosa and the Santa Elena northern border with Mexico.

Chan Chen was founded in 1880 by various members of Belize’s northern community, migrating out of Corozal and nearby villages, and settling a new agricultural area.  Unlike many villages in its vicinity, Chan Chen is not principally a product of the Caste War, but rather a product of development and growth of Belize, and perhaps for this reason it became the new home of a divergent group of young families and entrepreneurs.   At the time, most people relied upon agriculture as a source of sustenance, and the village became renowned for producing successful yields of citrus, salad and vegetable crops.  Once the sugar industry established itself in Belize, many Chan Chen residents focussed predominantly on the production of sugar cane, but after the closure of the Libertad factory, villagers were once again forced to diversify to protect their vulnerable livelihoods.  Those who remain involved in the sugar cane industry have to endure one of the longest commutes to the BSI factory at Towerhill as any cane farmer anywhere in the country, and so profits and wealth from the cane industry are minimal for Chan Chen villagers.

Since the establishment of Corozal Free Zone, many Chan Chen residents have found work in the numerous shops and casinos at the border, and thus daily commutes have increased exponentially.  Increasing demand has given rise to more village taxis being established, and Chan Chen now hosts at least six full time resident taxis, providing public transport for villagers heading to and from the Free Zone and Corozal.  This hasn’t gone unnoticed by members of Corozal’s various taxi unions, who believe that the continued ‘giving out’ of taxi licences to all and sundry from various villagers is destroying the town’s taxista economy.  However, with no public transport alternatives servicing Chan Chen, as the population continues to expand, if anything village taxis are likely to grow in number.
The village population remains small, with less than 1000 residents, around 200 of which are primary school students.  The village welcomed the recent construction of a new Government Primary School building, which was inaugurated at the end of October last year, having been financed predominantly by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
Currently, the southerly access road from Corozal to the village is under repair, which is another initiative aimed to assist with the overall challenge of poverty reduction in the village.  This may all seem like leaps and bounds in the records of village development, but residents reveal that while perhaps they were ‘lucky’ to have been chosen for international support, internal affairs of the village have a  somewhat more blemished record.  The biggest complaint at the moment is due to the village council’s inertia in just about all matters of village concern.  The village council had barely been elected when the chairman and his councillors found themselves divided for political reasons: although recognised as a UDP council, only half of the committee support the work and opinions of Area Representative, Acosta, whilst the other half have segregated themselves from their counterparts.  Thus any village initiative is hard to accomplish, which could not be more clearly demonstrated than in the current fiasco involving land lots.  Shortly into their term, the village council announced that needy villagers would receive parcels of land thereafter to relieve the pressures on numerous households in the village which are overcrowded (some to the level of insanitation).  However, even today there is no sign of land lots being distributed among Chan Chen’s needy, and with village elections just a couple of months away, it seems that – in true UDP style – the promise of land lots was mere rhetoric: just another promise that will be left unfulfilled when the term ends.
Despite internal conflicts, however, Chan Chen maintains its longstanding reputation as a village which does not tolerate crime, and thus the need for a community police officer only rarely arises.  Even then, most of the occasions requiring law enforcement revolve around the two geographical ‘divisions’ of the village, whose residents split into opposing gang-like groups decades ago, and whose segregations and conflicts have ever since been continued by younger generations.   However, aside from alcohol-fuelled fighting and on-going verbal ‘threats’, more grave issues rarely arise.
An issue which is often cited as seeking attention, however, is the health provision for the village, as the Health Clinic is rarely staffed by trained medics.  However, the proximity to Corozal Community Hospital, and the reasonable taxi fare to travel there, means that most villagers with medical needs seek assistance at the district centre; the problem arises for the village elderly, many of whom are immobile, and are forced to wait for infrequent visits by medical personnel.  When other villagers in other districts can boast doctors and nurses every week in their village health clinics, it seems unimaginably difficult to understand why Chan Chen village is, apparently, not worthy of such attention.
All in all, however, Chan Chen residents are descendents of those who weren’t satisfied with urban life over a century ago: people who moved to live a more simple life in a more rural setting.  Perhaps this inheritance explains the attitude of contemporary village residents, who are happy with their ‘lot’ (no pun intended) of life in Chan Chen.

| | | | | |