Before I began reading “Capitol of the Caribbean” by … I thought that he was referring to some actual spot in the Caribbean that all Caribbean people recognized as their capital. I was excited to read this paper because I thought that Parker would tell us that all the Caribbean had finally gathered its sense and chosen the country that the sun is happiest to great, Guyana, to be its symbol of power and general commonwealth. To my surprise, this was not the point of Parker’s writings at all. In his paper, Parker rightly asserts that, for the first half of the 20th century, Harlem, New York was indeed the capital of the Caribbean.
The newest piece of information that I found in this paper was the information regarding the West Indies’ significance in World War II. Up until this point, my entire educational career has neglected to inform me that the West Indies were affected by, let alone involved in, the Second World War. I fear that this gap isn the dialog about the world’s history has led to a great misconception about the significance of the West Indies. Even today when one reflects on the Caribbean, the words “political machine” and “game changing element” do not come to mind. In my experience as one of West Indian decent, I have noted that Caribbean people are often cast as being separate from the rest of the world’s problems. It’s as if, no matter what is going on outside of the Caribbean, the people inside of the Caribbean will still be walking barefoot on white sand beaches while consuming cannabis and singing “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley. Keeping the real history of the Caribbean out of the minds of students has given the Caribbean a slothful and aloof reputation.
Another note-worthy aspect of this reading is the way that Parker consistently uses small, isolated incidents to illustrate the state of affairs in the world at large. Consider, for example, the way that Parker takes a great deal of care in describing the diplomatic strategy that Roosevelt used to gain the trust of Caribbean natives. By listening to the radical leaders in the West Indies at the time, Tausig was able to establish a great trust between the United States and the Caribbean that remains to this day.
Another great example of how isolated events drew in the global attention is when Bustamante was imprisoned in Jamaica and all his West Indian supporters in Harlem were able to rally together and demand his immediate release. I think that Parker uses these kinds of stories to highlight the state of the world at this time. In the 1930s and 40s, during WWII, we see changing communication and the strength of global immigration coming together to insight radical change on a scale that had never been seen before. Though global communication was a major player in the First World War, we did not see people rallying for specific causes and inciting change in international governments until World War II.
