A Parang for Granny Jean.

Christmas 2023 I threw a parang party for my 93 year old Granny, Jean, in the homeland that raised us , Trinidad and Tobago. And doing so, I gave a gift to the child in me who had dreamed of this moment for decades.

Parang music is traditional folk music from Trinidad and Tobago, rooted in Spanish and Venezuelan influences. It is always sung in Spanish but also English during Christmas time, featuring instruments like the cuatro, maracas, and box bass. Daisy Voisin was the undisputed Queen of Parang and the head of the renowned band La Divina Pastora Serenaders.

It's hard to explain to someone who did not grow up with it , how parang isn't just music, its memory. Its presence. It's the sound of Christmas steeped in music, rum, in laughter, garlic pork and sweetbread. It's Daisy Voisin's voice dancing through louvers, the endless talk about politics by the adults while we cousins play in our granny's front yard. It's the smell of my Granny's famous black cake baking in the oven. This was my Granny Jean's house in Siparia throughout my childhood living in Trinidad. My absolute love for Christmas 50 plus years later , loud, full of joy and very early (my Christmas tree goes up every year November 1st) comes straight from my Granny.

As a child, I spent every single Christmas at my Granny's home on Coora Road, Siparia, wrapped up in all the love of family and the cadence of Trini living. And even as life carried me far, different countries, cities, bigger worlds. I held onto to one dream: to bring the music back to her, while she could still sway to it.

That special Saturday in 2023 a few days before Christmas , I did.

My beautiful brothers, first cousins, aunties and I transformed her yard with all our love. I hired the famous La Divina Pastora Serenaders led now by Marina Marchan, who was once held as a baby by Parang icon Daisy Voisin. All our family came to celebrate my Granny Jean, including her great grand children now living in the United States.

As the La Divina Pastora Serenaders started singing and playing their instruments. Granny, 93 years, from deep in her chair on her verandah walked over to the band , her head held high, singing along, clapping along, with her sister Aunty Claire besides her, a light in her eyes that had everyone, including me , teary eyed.

In that moment. I remembered who I come from. The power of presence. The legacy of rhythm. The fact that joy ,true, deep, cultural joy, is an inheritance worth protecting, celebrating and passing on.

We parang'd for my Granny. And in doing so, we parang'd for us all.

What are the songs that built your joy?