The Thing that Drives Us
Culture is an invisible force that drives people. It drives people to create, endure, and hope. Culture ensures a collective identity through traditions and information that are both intrinsic and acquired. It aligns the competing forces of past and future, natural and manmade, and the tangible and intangible. The word “culture” was originally defined as “the tilling of land”. Its meaning later developed to include concepts of “care” and “honor” until eventually, it came to imply a sense of cultivation through education and the collective customs and intellectual achievements of a people. Are we only Belizean because we are born here and if we remain here? Arguably, the most powerful parts of Belizean culture are the parts that cannot be seen or measured. Being Belizean is having a unique way of doing, being, and thinking. It includes everything, from the way we season meat, make our fry-jacks, tell Anansi stories to our children, speak entire sentences through our mannerisms, our intolerance for the boastful and ill-mannered, the way we find humor even in the worst situations, and especially our ability to welcome other cultures into our own. Our national symbols tell the world who we are, but it is our culture that reminds us of who we always will be.
Culture is not just a driving force of tradition; it is also a compass for navigating the way we take our traditions into the future. As one industry that directly benefits from the preservation of Belizeanism. the Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Relations (MTDR) actively works to safeguard all aspects of local culture, even as that culture changes to adapt to modern times. For example, last week the MTDR hosted member states of the Mundo Maya Organization at a four-day event in San Ignacio. The Maya, the ancient temples, and their agricultural practices are tied to some of Belize’s most ancient cultural inheritances. The event was to reaffirm the Mundo Maya Organization’s commitment to preserving Maya history and heritage through the development of a strategy for improving travel and trade connections between Belize and other member states such as Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The symposium was hosted under the theme “Sustainable Legacies: Exploring Ancient Maya Environmental Adaptations and Resilience”. Belize currently holds the Honorific Presidency of the Mundo Maya Region until December 2025. The Maya have always been environmentally resilient and innovative. It is no surprise that so much of their environmental ethos has become a part of the broader culture, purveying ancient tradition into our modern economy like seeds of wisdom. A resilient culture is a fluid and flexible culture and a resilient people is one that maintains its culture at home or abroad.
The Belizean diaspora remains bonded to Belize through culture. The Diaspora is attached to the Ministry of Tourism because the Ministry understands that Belizeans living abroad share a yearning for home and a need to remain engaged. What does it mean to any of us if ever we are away and there is a smell, a taste, a sound, or a symbol of something Belizean? Whether we go away to vacation, to study, or to live, our culture never leaves us. The diaspora feels the same need to protect and preserve all the tangible and intangible pieces of Belizean culture. The MTDR and the Belize Tourism Board (BTB) help to ensure that Belizeans abroad have the opportunity to remain connected to home and the culture. The Belizean culture is always the same and always changing because it thrives on creativity, endurance, and hope.
Chat again later.
Jasmine Anderson
For the Belize Tourism Board