Talk:Rio Claro–Mayaro
Discussion page of Rio Claro–Mayaro
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Page scope
Rio Claro–Mayaro is a Growing Area: the rain forests of south-eastern Trinidad round Rio Claro, Biche, Mayaro and Guayaguayare. The country is covered by Trinidad and Tobago.
Data verification
Check the main page for the sources behind each statement. Discuss the extent of the area, its growing status and the sources here.
Discussion
Name
- The sources have no single name for the tract. Hamid writes of "the rain forests in the southeast of the island" (p. 38). The title joins the two towns that also name the local-government region of Mayaro–Rio Claro, which holds Rio Claro, Mayaro, Biche and Guayaguayare.
Sources
- Ansley Hamid, The Ganja Complex (2002), pp. xxiii–xxiv and 38–43, from his fieldwork of 1975–1978 in a growing village near Rio Claro that the book does not name. Its growers and their families are not named on the page.
- Hamid's grower-middleman speaks in Trinidadian English, transcribed by Hamid and then scanned, so some place names are uncertain. "Guaya" is the usual short name for Guayaguayare. "Mayam" is read as Mayaro. "Jeffers", "Chamma" (perhaps Charuma, a forest near Rio Claro) and "Diablo" are not identified and are left out.
- Hamid's list of growing villages (p. 43) also names San Pedro, Manzanilla, Piparo, Tabaquite and Penal. The page names only those he places in the south-east: Mayaro, Guayaguayare and Biche.
- Fields since 2000: the Trinidad Guardian (Mayaro, September 2020 and October 2024; the Rio Claro forest, July 2026) and TTT News (Biche, January 2026). The page gives each find at the level of the district or forest the report names.
Growing status
- The status is Active: the police reports run from 2020 to 2026. The infobox gives no first year: Hamid dates the start of growing in one village to 1960 and thinks it may have gone on in secret since the 1900s, but that is a possibility he raises, not a documented date.
Map point
- 10.3058, -61.1739 is the town of Rio Claro as OpenStreetMap places it. It marks the area, not a field.
Plants
- Hamid's growers used seed obtained in Port of Spain or seed that came with ganja bought for sale (pp. 39, 71). Hamid's book names no landrace or local variety; his informants' word "lokey" (p. 168) means local ganja in general.