Sebastian Cayetano seldom makes boast of the five languages he knows. He is a humble educator, historian and farmer, but more than that he has spent decades of his life working to share and preserve the Garifuna culture. On Thursday night he teams up with the legendary Pen Cayetano and his wife, Ingrid, to put off an exhibit of Garifuna works at the House of Culture in Belize City. His segment of the exhibit will be called Garifuna Realia, as he will include some Garifuna implements and artifacts from the Luba Garifuna Museum which he and his wife established in the 90’s.
Many know “Mr. Caye” as an educator, as he has taught several hundreds of people in many corners of Belize over the course of his career. What many do not know of is the hard road of sacrifice he traveled to get where he is today.
Sebastian Cayetano was born in Monkey River, Toledo, on January 13, 1947. He arrived here 15 minutes after his identical twin brother, Fabian. He had 13 siblings in all, born to his parents, Francis Cayetano and Florencia Lucas Cayetano, both deceased.
Two siblings have died and the surviving ones are Bernard (who lives in Hopkins), Fr. Callistus Cayetano (the Associate Pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish), Nathaniel “Shortie” Cayetano - a farmer of Midway, Fabian (who works in Dangriga as assistant local manager for RC schools), Joseph Cayetano (who works as high school teacher at TCC), Alfonso (a social worker in New York), Fatima Cayetano (of Punta Gorda), Robert (a security officer of Belize City), Ignacia Reyes (a teacher of Barranco), John (a member of the Maritime Wing, Belize Defence Force), and Claudia Arzu (a teacher of PG).
Mr. Sebastian Cayetano recalls that when he was a boy, 4 years old, his father was transferred to the Maya Ketchi villages of Dolores and Otocha, Toledo. They lived there for 10 years, and that’s where his schoolmates taught him Ketchi, which they spoke on the playground.
Cayetano said that at the age of 5 he had mastered three languages. At home they spoke Garifuna. At school they were taught in English. On the playground he spoke Ketchi with the village children, and they taught the language to their parents.
He learned his fourth language, Spanish, in high school, while attending Claver College, P.G., and he learned his fifth, Mopan Maya, when he went to teach in San Jose Village in 1965.
After his first year of high school his father unfortunately got ill and was retired on medical grounds without proper benefits, so he could not provide for the family. Sebastian had to “ketch and kill,” to help take care of his mother, send himself to school and help take care of his siblings.
“I struggled for four years in high school, economically, and I had to sustain myself,” he said.
Mr. Caye recollected that he had learnt the skill of building small houses from the Ketchi community, so he built foul coups and small kitchens for the town’s folks and cut their grass. He also mastered the art of climbing trees for coconuts, which he sold for 5 cents apiece.
They lived with his aunt, Augustina Lucas, who was extremely patient, said Mr. Cayetano, who credits God for their survival through this ordeal.
After Sebastian Cayetano completed high school in 1965, he became a teacher.
“I suppose I had no choice. At that time teaching was the only readily available profession and I needed a job. I had no second thought, [but] I’ve enjoyed it since,” said Cayetano.
“When I began teaching I had to take care of myself and the two younger brothers started high school,” he added.
Sebastian Cayetano started out as an assistant teacher to John Paulino and the following year he became the principal of Pueblo Viejo RC School, where he served for 2 years until 1968, when he began attending the Belize Teachers College.
He spent the required one year, and afterwards he had to undergo a one-year internship, which he did at Crique Sarco Village from 1970 to 1972.
Upon completion he attended Morehouse College in Edinburgh, Scotland, for one year on an intermediary diploma course in the teaching of English as a Second Language.
He came home in June of ‘73 and got married in December to Isabel Nunez, who was waiting for him while he was away.
Together the couple taught in San Jose Village, Toledo, up to 1975. He was the principal; she was his assistant.
The couple relocated to Belize City in 1975 and have lived here since—a total of 31 years. They have three children - Carlos, Isani, and Emeri.
In 1977 Mr. Caye was transferred from St. Martin’s Primary School to Belize Junior Secondary School #2, now Gwen Lizarraga High School.
In 1980 he began his radio hobby with Sister Jean. They produced Garifuna Half Hour on Radio Belize, then the only radio station in the country. They found audiences among people in Honduras and Guatemala, but the program closed in 1990 and was never revived.
Ten years into his tenure at BJSS #2, in 1987, Sebastian won the first Dr. Dame Minita Gordon Scholarship, and attended the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC, Canada, where he attained a Bachelor’s degree in linguistics and social studies. He returned home in 1990 to continue teaching at BJSS #2.
He taught Spanish and Social Studies during regular class time, and introduced many students to gardening as an extra curriculum activity. They grew cabbages, tomatoes, sweet peppers, cassava, cucumber, etc.
It was not until 2004 that he retired from the high school, after having served 27 years.
Five years before his retirement, in 1999, he and his wife, Isabel, decided to use the Garifuna implements and artifacts they had been collecting for 30 years to establish a museum.
One of Mr. Caye’s favorite pastimes while abroad was to visit museums, and a visit to Field Museum in Chicago and a small museum on San Pedro convinced the couple that they could be successful with their idea.
Over the years they have received visitors from all over Belize, Central America, Europe, even as far as Japan, he told us.
As a reward for that effort, last year he was awarded the “Unsung Heroes” award by First Caribbean Bank.
They have not become complacent with their venture, but have kept maintaining and adding to the collection.
Mr. Sebastian Cayetano is a lay minister at the St. Martin De Porres Church in the Lake Independence area of Belize City, but he has also been one of the longest serving leaders of the National Garifuna Council (NGC), of which he is a founding member. He informed that in 1981 the NGC succeeded the Garifuna Cultural Association, which had emerged in 1975.
He was the executive secretary of NGC for 8 years and branch president for two six-year spans, from 1980 to 1986 in the first instance and from 2000 to 2006. Clive Lino and Walter Valerio served between 1986 and 2000. Elections were held every two years, and Mr. Caye said that at the last election he insisted on stepping down to give others a chance.
“I’ve always believed that there should be a succession of leaders and a continuous training of leaders. We build on what has gone before us rather than beginning from scratch; we build on the shoulders of those who have gone ahead of us,” he commented.
So whose shoulders did he build upon? He listed some of his predecessors, namely his uncles, Ted Palacio and Silas Cayetano, and Octavio Castillo, a Garifuna lecturer who served at the defunct Belize Technical College. He also acknowledged Dada Bernada Martinez and Olivia Santino, the very gifted gayusas or singers of the group.
Now that he’s stepped down from holding a leadership position within the NGC, he is refocusing his efforts on the Luba Garifuna Museum, the dabuyaba (dugu temple) complex in Dangriga and the family farm at Midway.
He is proud of his family. His son Emeri is into architecture, Isani is a radio personality at More FM, and Carlos is into fishing and has a spiritual inclination. He boasts of his wife’s hudut cooking. It’s the best, he says, informing of her hudut special, which will be available for sale at their home on November 17, 18 and 19.
We asked Mr. Caye for his reflections on this year’s Settlement Day theme: “We continue to move forward after 25 years.”
He noted that while Belize has now fully embraced the Garifuna culture, there continues to be a strong need to address the economic plight of our people.
He suggested that, “Our people also need to be better organized so as to benefit from the tourist dollar, because there is great potential for money making … we have to make an effort, invest and do our groundwork.”
As to the reference of “25 years” in the theme, Cayetano said that it is honoring their continuity and achievements as a Council since the birth of the NGC in 1981.
“I am very impressed and very happy that finally Belize has fully embraced the Garifuna culture, and I think it’s one of our great achievements as a people and as a nation coming of age for the past 25 years,” said Cayetano. “The challenge now is for the Garinagu never, ever to abandon their language and their roots and to continue – the idea now is to teach the language and to teach the culture to all Belizeans and that way, we preserve everything for all of Belize and for the world.”