Toco Village, Trinidad & Tobago – Remote Fulcrum of Caribbean History

As the middle of three brothers with Trinidadian heritage, I truly love this photo captured in Toco Village, Trinidad. It was submitted to our Flickr photostream by UC-fan Marsh E. (aka: Curepian), whose amazing images of Trinidad are well worth your attention. (Click here for more.) Not only does the image remind me of endless, carefree days of goofing off with my brothers during our childhood years in Saint Croix, it also gives me hope for a special new travel adventure I hope all three of us can enjoy together.

The special destination I’m hoping we can visit is none other than Trinidad. The land of our ancestors. Home of our favorite West Indian foods and drinks. The place where the vast majority of our extended family still resides today. Taken together, these elements make Trinidad an obvious dream destination for our brothers adventure.

By my recollection, the last time we were all there together was in the summer of 1983. So yeah, you can say it’s been a wee-bit too long.

I’m sure that visiting with family and tracing our parents’ history will be big parts of the fun. Hopefully, though, we can also make time to explore Toco Village.

Why Visit Toco Village?

What, besides its name, is so interesting about Toco?

Well, for one thing, it’s the most northeasterly village in all of Trinidad. This makes it the closest village to Trinidad’s sister island of Tobago (just 20 miles north). As we’ve recently made a few friends in Tobago, it would be cool limin’ as close to them as possible from another island.

For another thing, it’s steeped in some serious history.

Toco’s Tumultuous History

This is the spot where the English secretly invaded Trinidad in 1631, marking the beginning of the end of the island’s initial 100 years of Spanish rule. When the Dutch expelled the Brits six years later, it was with the aid of Amerindians living in Toco. The Spanish eventually came back, pushing the Dutch out and paving the way for the French to put down stakes here with the 1783 Cedula of Population.

I don’t know about my brothers, but I’m excited to see how all these disparate European cultures shaped the area. Especially since Toco was, for a long time, one of the most isolated areas of the island.

Totally Isolated Toco Village

How isolated was it?

Consider this: From the earliest days of its colonization all the way up until 1930, there were no roads connecting Toco with the rest of Trinidad.

NONE!

Oh, you could get there from Chupara Point, Cedros Point, Galeota Point, and other points around the island. To do so, though, you’d have to travel by the round-island steamship.

The service was inaugurated in 1818 primarily to facilitate trade. As Toco was a prime center for cocoa and coffee production, it was critical to maintain some linkages.

Even so, Toco Village was so disconnected from the rest of Trinidad that for a lot of its history the main residents here were actually from Tobago!

Though sister islands and part of the same country, Trinidad and Tobago are quite distinctive in many ways. It’d be really neat to see if/how Tobago’s differences have manifested themselves in this relatively small and long isolated area.

So, Peter and Patrick, what do you say…? Have I enticed you to make plans for a trek to Toco? Even if you’re not as intrigued with the area’s history as I am, we can still have fun re-creating the photo above…

Last updated by Steve Bennett on 04/12/2023.