Caño Negro, Venezuela

HIGHLIGHTS

AI NOTEBOOK LM DIALOGUE with related INFOGRAPH

BACKGROUND

NAME ORIGIN: Caño Negro means “black creek”, and is named after the dark waters of the creek which bounds it on three sides. The people are descendants of black slaves.

GEOGRAPHY: Caño Negro in northern Venezuela, in the state of Miranda, is located at the end of a dirt road three kilometers from the town of Tapipa. The village is in a valley of lush tropical forests. The average temperature is 28 degrees Celsius. There is a marked wet and dry season and limited fresh water supply in the dry season.

POPULATION: Caño Negro is a village of 250 people, 43 families.

CHALLENGES: The village is faced with a major struggle to break out of its isolation and traditional patterns and to develop social and economic self sufficiency.

HISTORY: This was traditionally a land of haciendas, raising cacao, first with the native Indian labor, then black slaves, and then sharecroppers. The village was founded in 1912, a collection of mud huts inhabited by liberated slaves. A law passed in 1948 made the sharecroppers independent farmers. An agricultural syndicated was formed in 1962 that somewhat stabilized the cacao situation. However, the traditional one-crop subsistence patterns of agriculture continued.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

By 1980 the people of Cano Negro celebrated the following accomplishments:

  • Village income doubled by increasing cacao land under cultivation, cacao processing and delivery.
  • 3 new industries provide supplemental income.
  • Community store saves each family about $200 per year.
  • Acquisition of 3 vehicles and road leveling has improved transport.
  • Construction of complete community public works has been done, including a community center, public sanitary facilities, new streets, sidewalks, chapel, plaza and sports fields.
  • Community initiative is evident in private construction of 41 new homes, the first registered Civil Association in Barlovento, a Youth Commission, task and neighborhood groups and regular village events.
  • Basic education has been upgraded from 1 to 4 primary teachers, residential school director, new preschool, and construction of a second primary school building.
  • Cano Negro was the training base for continental leadership to launch five other Latin American projects and trained its own adults in numerous practical courses.

DOCUMENTS

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