The heritage, culture and sincere disposition of the Cayman people has been the catalyst for the wealth that now exists in the territory and over the years those who have helped to create this legacy have continued to preach the values of hard work, dedication, a strong spiritual foundation and a love for one another.
One person that has had a profound effect on the age old ethos that helped to create this pearl of the Caribbean and whose work will live for generations to come, is Aunt Julia Hydes. The matriarch of the Hydes family will turn 102 on 25 January and is known near and far for her drumming and the contribution she has made to the arts in the Islands, particularly in music.
I had an opportunity to sit down with Miss Julia for a few precious moments at her home in Boggy Sand Bay, West Bay, where the centenarian took me on a journey through time to a Cayman where the soul of the people was intertwined with art, story telling and song and dance.
Miss Julia, who said she started paying her drum at 14 years old, recounted her first memories of becoming involved in entertainment: “I spent a lot of time playing with the Fiddler Radley Gourzoung. The first time I met him he was singing one of his songs,“Aunt Jammyma go tell your mamma, conch not got no bone.” That was a real good one and I wanted to learn it right away but I did not want to ask Radley, so I studied the words and began playing the beat and singing the song and Radley turned to me and said, you got it. I don’t have to teach you anything.”
From that time on Aunt Julia and Radley Gourzoung became forever musically linked, performing at dances throughout the districts in Cayman, a trajectory that finally led to the two having an album honouring them and their music titled Aunt Julia’s and Radley Gourzong’s Traditional Music in 2010.
“He was a left handed you know…but boy could he play a fiddle. That man could play a fiddle.
“You could make a living off music back then and between that and odd jobs here and there, that was how I raised my family. Caymanians were poor back then but we were good people, not like now, killing each other,” she said.
Aunt Julia, whose strength and resilience are evident in every word that she speaks, told me of a time when there were only two or three cars in Cayman, which were “not as handsome as the ones now,” and reminisced on when conch shells would be blown to signal the sale of fresh fish.
She said the sea even moved differently when she was a little girl and North Easters and North Westers were so common that the swell meant “you wouldn’t even get conch horn” that night, meaning that there would likely be no food because of the surf.
“I can’t understand it but now the sea is calm more than it is rough and back then we would have to rely on the ships coming from Jamaica to get our cloth, supplies and even food.
“They would bring the prettiest fine cloths for us and we would trade thatch rope for all those goods. One of the things that we enjoyed was the mackerel fish that they would bring. It was always looked forward to. Jamaica and the shop keepers from there were very good to us in those days.”
Back in those times Caymanians would “cut top,” a term used to describe the cutting of the top of the Silver Thatch Palm, which is the national plant of the Cayman Islands, to then be used to make some of the strongest rope in the world. This was done until the advent of nylon, which replaced the Silver Thatch Palm rope, also used in the orient and other far away destinations.
When asked what the secret to a long life was, Aunt Julia smiled and said, “cornmeal dumplin, fish and gravy with potatoes and grated coconut, adding that she would even dive conchs at times and sell them.”
She added with a glance on the Holy Bible sitting in the couch next to her chair, that the most important ingredient to a long life was communion with one’s maker and relying on the promises in that “precious book”.
“Where would we be today without the Lord. We have a sweet master that guides us, protects us and shows us everything. We can depend on God” she exclaimed, adding that “first time Caymanians were holy people, who worked hard.”
In 2009 Aunt Julia was awarded the Outstanding achievement Award at the Cayman Jazz Fest, in addition, the drummer was awarded a Heritage Cross – Gold award at the Seventeenth Annual Arts and Awards Gala on 22 October. Her 28 Caymanian folk compositions each have an interesting back story and she performed live regularly until the age of 96.
Her music has also been the subject of a university thesis by musician and Artist Natasho Kozaily.
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