Cayman culture means different things to different people.
For some it can be found in the solitude of an ironwood forest, in the company of blue iguanas or amid the natural wonders of the Mastic Reserve.
For others it’s the sound of a fiddle or the floating melodies of an old folk song telling tales of fishing boats drifting in the sound.
The smell of a pot of turtle stew slowly coming to the boil, a fine suit for church on Sunday or the history that seeps through the walls of the castle at Pedro St. James, all evoke images that are specifically Caymanian.
Then there is the influence of waves of immigration and colonial connections through the generations – the duppy stories, jerk chicken and reggae music from Jamaica, the royalist links and political infrastructure from Great Britain and the omnipresent influence of US television, film and architecture.
Immigration is a controversial topic, when it comes to Cayman culture, especially as the country now approaches the tipping point where more of its residents were born outside of the island than within its borders.
Are we losing our connection to the traditions of the past, as some contend, or is Cayman, with more than 130 nationalities, a modern multicultural melting pot that can combine the best of its history with the fresh influence of modernity, in its many forms, that comes from outside?
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