Sabia da existência de "outra" Arouca?, faz já algum tempo que tento descobrir algum conteúdo sobre a Arouca do outro lado do Atlântico, mas nunca fui muito feliz nessa minha pesquisa. De facto, não existe muita informação disponível online. O que arranjei de mais interessante foi este pequeno excerto da História de Arouca, povoação de Trinidad & Tobago, caraíbas.
"Arouca" is a slight corruption of the word "Arauca," which is the true name of the Arawak tribe and language which are spread over the northern regions of South America. In Trinidad, both a river and a region came to be called by that name - a region inhabited by these Amerindian people - and this was the district bounded on the east by the Arima River "Aripo", on the west by the Arouca River "Tacarigua," and on the south by the Caroni River. On the north, the boundaries of this district were ill-defined, but extended into the Northern Range.
The Amerindians of Arouca had been left in peace throughout most of the Spanish days in Trinidad until shortly after the Cedula of Population of 1783, which measure saw thousands of Caribbean French planters and their slaves crowd into Trinidad, Governor Jose' Maria Chacon, wishing to disperse the immigrant planters all over the country to open estates. They collected all the Amerindians from the district of Arouca, and settled them at one point, the Mission to Amerindians on the banks of the Arima River.
Although this drastic step, on a map of 1797 only two settlers were granted land in the vast Arouca district, Tablau and Chaumet. Together they occupied small holdings close together, not too far from the track which was in time to become the Eastern Main Road. This track was the Spanish royal road from Port-of-Spain to the Mission of Arima.
After the removal of the Araucas (or Arawaks) Arouca became a vast, silent place, the only activity being on the estates of Messieurs Tablau and Chaumet. The produce of these estates could not have been significant, and the authorities linked them with the Tacarigua estates for the purposes of statistics. The combined figures for these two districts,were 802 people ( 802 was one of the highest for a district in the Trinidad of that time.), of which number 603 were slaves. The other labourers were the free blacks, numbering 164. There were only 25 whites.
The works in these two combined districts, there were 14 sugar mills turned by mules, two coffee mills, and eight rum distilleries. For grinding the cane there were 12 cattle mills, and there were 18 distilleries which in 1811 produced 4,640 gallons of rum.
Arouca progressed fast. The general population had risen to 1,564. The number of whites was now 80. The free blacks were just 196 now, but the crucial labouring force - the slaves - was now nearly 1,300. Production matchedthis increase. The combined quarters of Tacarigua and Arouca were now heavy producers of cocoa and plantains and rum.
This village, the home of the slaves who cultivated the fields of Messieurs Tablau and Chaumet, woke to life a few years afterwards - at the abolition of slavery in 1838. At that point in time, the Tacarigua slaves, perhaps shunning the sugar-cane areas to the westward, or perhaps wanting to move farther away from the authorities, seemed to have crowded into Arouca.
When Lord Harris divided the island into counties and wards in1849, the old Spanish quarters of Tacarigua and Arouca were designated "Tacarigua Ward." When Lord Harris introduced the system of primary schools in 1851, Arouca was one of the few places to be considered. Based on Patrick Keenan in 1869 report on Trinidad schools, the Arouca Ward School had 176 on roll - the highest total for any Ward School in the Trinidad of that time.
When the Trinidad Government laid down a railway line for passengers and freight between Port-of-Spain and Arima, Arouca became a key railway station, one of the most bustling in the area. The population of this village at the end of 1880 was 2,847 one of the most populous.
Arouca, spreading well to the south of the main road, consisted of 509 domestic houses, and 53 commercial buildings. There were 743 agricultural labourers and 28 planters, showing that its economic base was still largely agricultural however 71 hucksters and shop-keepers gave an indication that it was also a centre of commerce.
There were children a-plenty in the village and census details for 1881 show that Arouca was the only village with two Government schools: Arouca Boys' and Arouca Girls'. Not only that, but it also had a Roman Catholic school and a school of the Church of England (E.C.)
With the lure of Sangre Grande as a new cocoa district and the extension of the railway line to Sangre Grande in 1898. Hundreds of people are said to have ridden the train eastwards to Sangre Grande from the Arouca and Arima districts. Population figures for 1900 show a drop to 1,947 from the 1880 figure of 2,847
Another severe drop was noted in the census of 1931, the population figure was 1,231. This might be explained by recalling that the 1920s marked a decade of steep cocoa decline.
The war years brought Arouca back to life. People rushed into the area to work on the American Army Air Base at nearby Comuto. By 1946 the district had stretched from the one-time Spanish royal road (now the Eastern Main Road) towards a brand new highway the Americans had built - the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway.
About the time the war was ending, the American soldiers withdrew from installations, which were on one of Arouca's old estates called Goldern Grove, and a "Prison without walls" was being established there. The old estate track that had become Golden Grove Road, and at this period it was running southerly past the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway towards where a modern airport was being built on the Piarco Savannah. The new airport was Piarco Airport, and the area had been used as a flying field since the beginning of the 1930s.
Today Arouca does not live on agriculture to any extent, and because of modern transport, a large section of its people, commute, and earn their daily bread elsewhere.
Many distinguished people have seen their earliest days there, and one of the most prominent, Lord Learie Constantine, lies buried in this district.
Etiquetas: Arouca, trinidad e tobago
.jpg)
