Spencer, yard roots, greatest Ecuadorean ever!

[Stonigut]

http://longballfootball.wordpress.co...10-magic-head/

[Mosiah]

Yuh think the Captain will try and get him for the 2018 campaign?

[Don1]

Who knew??

It's abundantly clear that natural talent is over-represented in Jamaican DNA... moreso at home than abroad

Pity that the people who don't realize this are mostly Jamaican... "officials"

[Mosiah]

Long time mi nuh sigh!

Sigh!

[Mosiah]

So, this morning, I asked my co-worker who is from Ecuador about Spencer. His eyes light up and he begins to tell me everything about Ecuador's best ever player, almost verbatim to this article. He calls him Cabeza Magica, which sounds a bit like Jamaica said in Spanish, so I thought he was already aware of his Jamaican roots. But he wasn't. When I told him he said, no he's not Jamaican but he's black. So I had to release this info on him. He was pleasantly surprised.

Turns out his sister is married to Spencer's nephew, and so he has direct relatives of Alberto Spencer in his family!

Uncanny!

Thanks again for that post, Stoni!

[Karl]

Wonderful!
I have put it up on my FB page.

[Mosiah]

The other Ecuadorian I work with knew of Spencer's island roots. Seems like he was a big fan, having read his autobiography and securing his jersey.

He told me there were many Jamaicans living in Ecuador. The names he remembers are Sandiford and Robinson. The former sounds Bajan to me still.

I find it strange that we ventured to the Pacific side as well, since most of the time we stayed on the Caribbean/Atlantic side

[Stonigut]

We are a part of the Atlantic but we are very close to the pacific through Panama and Colombia where many Jamaicans have gone over the last 150 plus years, there as a lot more mobility between these places than we see today even though our transport is much faster and seemingly more accessible.

On the Ecuador front they share a direct boundary with Columbia, yard DNA been trickling that way for hundreds of years. Matter of fact it was the English that held the slave trade and supplied the Spanish colonies via jamaica and much of this was not necessarily straight Africans but creole jamaican slaves.

Another source in Ecuador was the 4000 Jamaicans imported for labour by the English railway builders in the Guayaquil to Quito line in the very early 1900's.

[Islandman]

Remember the folk song....

"Solomon grandpa gone a Ecuador, lef' im wife an' pickney outa door"

[Stonigut]

Mo here you go, nice little read.
http://railroadinthesky.com/history/

[Stonigut]

Islandman, mi Neva hear that one yet, give wi some more Nuh!

[Islandman]

I think you would recognize it if you heard it.

Solomon Grandpa say she nuh beg
Tief way all a Sammy food and egg
Nobody's business but her own

The chorus goes something like:

"Nobody's business, business
Nobody's business, business,
Nobody's business but my own

[Stonigut]

Yes, recognize the chorus. I am one of those that create new lyrics for the song cause mi Nuh really hear exactly what them saying.

[Islandman]

LOL, I do that a lot myself.

In this particular instance I knew the lyrics but didn't pay much attention to the significance until recently. When I visited Panama and saw the Jamaican influence there was when I took a real interest in Jamaican migration to Latin America.

Another Jamaican song from way back:

Matilda, Matilda,
Matilda she tek the money
and gone Venezuela.


Don't know if you ever read this Gleaner article from 2000. I was told that my great grand father made many trips to Cuba to cut sugar cane. Knowing that he had 13 children in Jamaica with 5 or 6 women I am pretty sure that I have a few unknown relatives in Cuba as well.

The Ja/Latin American connection

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/Lead6.html

[Karl]

Remember the folk song....

"Solomon grandpa gone a Ecuador, lef' im wife an' pickney outa door"

Thanks!
Every now and again I hear of something Jamaica that has been sitting dormant in the recesses of the mind (memory)! Thanks for dragging this up.