Yvonne Headley-Luces, a member of Wychwood Presbyterian Church, was born in Victoria, British Guyana. Yvonne was a teenager when she arrived in Toronto in 1969. Soon after immigrating, the Headleys joined the Wychwood congregation. Later, when Yvonne was a student, at George Brown College, she met Titus Luces and they married, at Wychwood, in 1983.
In Guyana the extended Headley family, ruled by their grandmother, all attended the Victoria Village Brethren Church, a Methodist-style denomination. There were 18 grandchildren, including Yvonne. “Our grandmother was very strict. On Sundays we wore our very best and had to be well-manned,” Yvonne says. “The church was sacred and we had to be respectful.”
The only school in Victoria was run by the Roman Catholic Church. All the local children went to the one school and had to participate in Catholic rituals while there. This didn’t seem to matter as the town was well integrated, according to Yvonne.
(Victoria was first settled by 43 freed black slaves who bought the land, for the village, after the British Parliament abolished slavery, in its Colonies, in 1833. Queen Victoria was the monarch, at that time, so they named the village after her.)
Yvonne remembers going to the “Big City” (Georgetown) to sit on Santa’s knee. Clever child that she was, she observed Santa passing notes to parents, so they would know their children’s wishes.
“We really had an English-style Christmas, but with some unusual local traditions,” says Yvonne. “One month before Christmas every household would take all its furniture and pack it, neatly, in the corner of one room. Then the family would paint the house, clean the hardwood floors, polish the brass pots etc.” Everyone had a duty “cleaning & shining everything up,” until the house was spotless. During all this activity, the drapes were drawn so no one could see inside. Then Christmas Eve, after the young ones were sent to bed, the women and the big kids would change all the drapes and re-arrange the furniture.
“Christmas morning the drapes were opened and all the neighbours came in and it was like a brand-new house – as if you had never been in it before,” Yvonne says. “It was a symbolic. It was about starting the New Year all fresh.” (Interestingly, this is reminiscent of Scottish Hogmanay (New Year’s) traditions. In Scotland, you must clean the house, from stem to stern, on December 31 and settle all debts before the bells ring in the New Year at midnight.)
Christmas Day was also the “eatin’ time” in Guyana. There would be a big feast, featuring fish, ham and cook-up. Yvonne, now retired and a part-time school bus driver, frequently makes her version of cook up and it is the dish she likes to take to social and church events.
YVONNE’S COOK UP
You will need:
Cooking onions
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Garlic, salt, pepper
2 fresh tomatoes
(Maybe chicken broth or stock)
Mr. Goudas par-boiled brown rice*
I tin Mr. Goudas pigeon peas*
Chicken parts of your choice (thighs, breasts, legs)
Method:
Clean and season chicken
Heat oil and sugar until oil is brown. (The sugar makes the whole dish a pleasing dark colour.)
Add chicken to oil and stir-fry it until browned on the outside.
Cover it down and simmer (the chicken makes its own juice)
Add onion, tomatoes, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
When liquid starts to boil, add rice and some broth, if needed. (Ratio: 1 cup rice to 1½ cups liquid)
Simmer until the liquid is absorbed and rice almost done.
Add pigeon peas and mix into rice. Cook until rice is tender. (Stretch the dish by adding more rice and liquid.)
*Mr. Goudas products are available at most supermarkets.
