Editing Guinea Grass (section)

==History==

The area presently Known as Guinea Grass village limits, Tower hill area, and the San Juan Corridor were inhabited by the Maya through a number of linked Mayan settlement known as " Posito" or wells because of the vast amount of wells build by the Mayas on the area especially by the San Juan Corridor and along the river bank of the New River by the Guinea Grass main road. Some wells can still be seen up to today and are used by farmers to water crops. Villagers of Guinea Grass have also spotted a tunnel made by the Mayas which runs from near the Catholic Church to a hilltop going to Ship Yard village by where the Pech family resides. As in most cases after the Europeans came to the Americas the population of the indigenous people declined and many settlements were abandoned which is exactly what happened in Posito.

Based on Oral History passed on by the older generations. The village started when a few runaway slaves from Crooked Tree and Belize River Valley and many light skinned (red skinned) who were half British and children of slave owners or daughter of English men ran away with black slaves or workers and settled by a stem of the New River not the main river which is presently Guinea Grass Village to not be found as marriage with a dark skinned person was not allowed. They settled in the community with the remaining Mayas of the area returning to the location. Later on came the Waiika and Mosquito people from the British Owned Nicaraguan Coast and a few families settled in the village along with a British farmer from the Belize Estate to cultivate the land.

Then in the 1800s after slavery was abolished in the British West Indies the British recruited indenture servants from China and India to come and work in agriculture at British Honduras. Then a British man opened a banana plantation and brought a couple of Indian labourers to cultivate and work on the plantation at Guinea Grass. After a short period of time in 1847 came the Mestizos (mixture of Spanish and Maya), the Yucatec Mayas and the [[Caste War of Yucatán|Yucatecos]] (Spaniards born in Yucatán Mexico to Spanish Parents or grand parents from both sides) to the north of Belize escaping La Guerra de Castas (the Caste War) of Yucatán, Mexico. The settlement composed with different ethnicity and different language speakers had to find ways of communication and soon used English creole as a means to communicate with different ethnic groups.

The mestizo population soon grew and outnumber the other cultures through intermarriages and high fertility rate. Although presently the number of households is lower in the village the Mestizo population is still the largest ethnic group followed by those identifying as mixed race. The community had no law officials or form of governance so justice was taken by their own hands and many white Spanish "Yucatecos" were feared because of that and many altercations with the wiika population arose due to cultural and economic differences.

=== Colonial Days, WW1 AND WW2 ===

In the mid-1880s the Settlement was officially recognized by the colonial Governor of British Honduras as Guinea Grass and a representative of the crown, Mr. Price and Belize estate, the Ayuso and Disus family were relocated in the village along with a militia Edward Alamilla from Corozal and a Primary School along with a catholic church with a teacher Mr. Martinez a carib/ Garifuna from Silk Grass were established. The villagers did subsistence farming in order to have food on the table as they were only paid BZD $10- $12 per month as chicleros and log wood cutters<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25765830 | jstor=25765830 | title=Historical Geography of the Belizean Logwood Trade | last1=Camille | first1=Michael A. | last2=Espejo-Saavedra | first2=Rafael | journal=Yearbook. Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers | date=1996 | volume=22 | pages=77–85 }}</ref> and had to camp in the Yalbac Hills for months. The job and ways to have an income were based on a complex scheme as in order to use the lands for living and farming they had to pay taxes to the crown, in order to afford and maintain the household and be able to pay taxes they had to get a job it was a complex scheme used by the colony's government in British Honduras as subjects were always in debt with leased land in order to be eligible to get a salary and do subsistence farming. Mr. Desiderio Perez clearly describes his time working on the forest and while at camp they received weekly rations by the coronel; 7 quarts of flour and four pounds of pork meat.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://amandala.com.bz/news/rise-fall-chicle-industry/ | title=The rise and fall of the chicle industry &#124; Amandala Newspaper }}</ref>

The river served as the main rout for exporting and importing thing from and to the village. The colonial area of the village was only three blocks from the river bank in size. Going through the lush forest especially at night was dangerous as wild animals such as jaguars and pumas and snakes roamed freely. 
On the northern side of the village was a banana plantation owned by an American Mr. Mason. On the southern end of the village lived the east Indians and the Waiikas who after working on the banana farm would collect cohune nuts to make cohune oil. There was a small Cohune Oil factory with an industrial machine, Mr. Florencio Garcia and Mr. Donatilo Bustillos recall that at the small plant, the East Indians crushed the kernel and extracted the oil to be sent to Belize City for exportation. The plant was later abandoned and the piles of metal ruins were removed and used by Mennonites from Shipyard in the 1960s.

After [[World War One]] tragedy struck the village, the Yellow Fever and influenza epidemic struck the north of Belize which wiped out 2/3 of the then Orange Walk District capital San Esteban and due to that the District Capital was relocated to Present day Orange Walk Town. Many people were killed by the disease and the death rate out numbered the pace of coffin making hence a big hole was dug to place in the dead. Many count the times when they were playing with their friends and then they dropped dead in the middle of the game with their ears, nose and mouth bleeding. Many women while cooking dropped dead on the floor and infants while being breast fed started bleeding and died. It was a catastrophe in the community and across Belize. This along with the devaluation of the Belize Dollar in 1949 after WWII and the scarcity of food caused by the war delaying food product shipments to British Honduras and the rest of the West Indian territories brought in economic distress and greater dependencies to self sustainment as England was going through an economic crisis. In the 1950s a new set of people came to Belize running from religious persecution the Mennonites whom after various consultations and agreements with the Governor had their first settlement approved and it was in Shipyard Village about 4–5 miles away from the village which brought employment to the people of Guineas Grass.

After [[Hurricane Hattie]] hit Belize many Belizeans were granted residency to the United States and many people from Guinea Grass migrated to the US along with many other Belizeans back in the 60s and 70s 
In the 1960s during the rebuilding of the colony Guinea Grass was finally constructed a road connecting it to the presently Philip Goldson Highway.
In the early 1980s Guinea Grass along with San Felipe, August Pine Ridge and San Lazaro got electricity thanks to the newly elected Area Representative Hon. Onesimo Pech who resided in the village at the time.