Editing Cocoa panyols (section)

== Cocoa Estate Panyols descendant Families ==

The community in Trinidad originated in the late seventeenth century (see [[History of Trinidad and Tobago]]).  After the Island fell under [[United Kingdom|British]] control in 1797, Spanish-speaking [[Venezuelan people|Venezuelan]]s continued to settle in Trinidad, usually in connection with the [[Venezuelan War of Independence|independence  wars]] and revolutions which followed. The rise of cocoa cultivation in Trinidad was largely achieved through the importation of Venezuelan peasant farmers. These farmers were employed to clear the forest and establish cocoa seedlings. After five to seven years, they were paid for each mature cocoa tree on the plot of land. Then, they moved on to a new plot of land, repeating this process. They are also credited with establishing [[Parang music|parang]] in Trinidad.

The present descendants of Panyol in Trinidad are born of the communities thereof, and a few that intermarried with the indigenous lines of the surrounding regions, on both sides of the Caura River, and a relatively small community of interrelated families over generations with those of the larger Cocoa Estate and Venezuelan Free Community prior to and after 1838 in Diego Martin, Maraval and Paramin.

Some intermarried with the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] as well of [[Port of Spain|Port-of-Spain]] and St. Ann's and settled lands in the St. Ann's Hills. They played an important role in the development of the cocoa industry in Trinidad and Tobago, running the Cocoa Estates, and are not to be confused with the free community of mixed-heritage born during slavery, or the Native Indian Groups in the lower regions that suffered through so much beneath the Mountains, and families of intermarriages with that community on both sides over generations.

The Panyols are primarily of ancestry from [[Colombia]]n, [[Venezuela]]n, and [[Spaniards|Spaniard]] ancestors from Spain and thus referred to as the Hispanic and Spanish.