San Juan/Laventille: Where Steelpan Was Born

Sah-wah

San Juan is named for San Juan Bautista — St. John the Baptist, patron saint of the town, namesake of both the Catholic church on Cemetery Street and the Anglican church on the Eastern Main Road. Locals pronounce it "sah-wah," and you'll want to get that right.

The town was founded around 1790 by Spanish Governor José María Chacón as a midway rest stop on the new six-mile carriage road from Port of Spain to the old capital, St. Joseph. It sat in a quarter called Aricagua — the Arawak name for the river flowing through it. The Croisée — the junction of the Eastern Main Road and Saddle Road — became the commercial hub, and when the steam train arrived in 1876, it boomed. The Croisée is still the first major stop on the East–West Corridor.

The Fan

Laventille takes its name from the French La Ventaille — "The Fan" — for the northeast trade winds that reach this part of the island before the rest of Port of Spain. After emancipation, freed Africans settled these hills heavily: the high ground gave space for independent settlement and for African traditions to take root, away from the colonial town below.

Where steelpan was born

In the late 1930s, young people in impoverished neighborhoods like Laventille started turning discarded oil drums into tuned instruments. Colonial drumming bans had already pushed communities from drums to tamboo bamboo to metal — and by 1939 and 1940, pan was a craze. The hills of Laventille are the terrain where the steelpan was born. That's not a slogan. That's the history.

The band that carries it is the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra — formed in Laventille in 1945 (the early-1940s "Dead End Kids," renamed for the film The Gay Desperado), sponsored by WITCO from 1966, and led from the mid-1960s by the great arranger Rudolph "Crabby" Charles. One of the oldest steelbands in the world still playing. The panyard's informal pre-Carnival concerts are among the great nights in Trinidadian music.

The tuners matter too: Winston "Spree" Simon, who moved pan from rhythm to melody; Bertie Marshall; and Ellie Mannette — born in San Souci, not Laventille, a pioneer of the Invaders steelband in Woodbrook and the first to tune the 55-gallon oil drum, recruited by Rudolph Charles to tune for Desperadoes. Get the details right: the east respects accuracy.

The hills' landmarks

Our Lady of Laventille Shrine sits on the hill above the town. Fort Picton and Fort Chacon are the colonial-era fortifications in the hills. The quarries and the historic water tanks are part of the landscape too. This is working-class heritage ground — not manicured, but real.

The people

Laventille's children include soca star Destra Garcia, rapso pioneer Brother Resistance, actor Sullivan Walker, boxer Leslie Stewart, and footballer Travis Mulraine. The east doesn't just make music. It makes everything.

What to see

• The Desperadoes panyard — Carnival season. The concerts, the rehearsals, the history in the walls.
• The Croisée, San Juan — the historic junction where the corridor begins.
• Our Lady of Laventille Shrine — the hilltop shrine overlooking the city.
• Fort Picton and Fort Chacon — the old fortifications in the hills.
• The Laventille hills — the view over Port of Spain and the Gulf of Paria, from the birthplace of pan.

San Juan/Laventille is where Trinidad's greatest instrument was invented by young people with oil drums and nowhere else to play. Everything about the east — the music, the attitude, the creativity — starts there. Pay your respects.