Caribbean, America Connect At Scholars Banquet

A Haitian and a Jamaican by way of Panama were honored as trailblazers at the Jamaican American Connection (JAC) of Greater New Haven Inc.‘s eighth Trailblazer Scholarship Banquet.

People of the Caribbean diaspora and the United States filled a banquet hall at Zandri’s Stillwood Inn Saturday to fete Dr. Gary V. Desir, the Paul B. Beeson professor of medicine and chair of internal medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale-New Haven Hospital, and Juan Castillo, director of operations and urban programming at WYBC and host of the Juan Castillo Morning Show.

Desir, who also holds a dual appointment at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, originally hails from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. He immigrated to the United States to study first at New York University and then the Yale School of Medicine. He told the crowd that he had originally intended to return to Haiti to practice medicine and be a doctor in his home country like his father before him. But he met his wife, fellow doctor Deborah Dyett Desir, a rheumatologist and an American.

The couple ultimately decided to stay here and raise their family though Desir said he gives back to his homeland through his work with the L’Hospital Albert Schweitzer in the Artibonite Valley in Haiti. He noted that he’d been to a number of award’s ceremonies but Saturday’s was the funniest thanks to actor and singer Andrew Clarke of Braata Productions.

“I’m really having a good time,” he said.

When Clarke naturally assumed that Castillo was from Panama based on his name, the entire room got a lesson about Jamaicans who worked on the Panama Canal. Castillo’s grandparents are Jamaican and he said one of his fondest memories of them is eating his grandmother’s rice and peas made with coconut milk.

In addition to his radio life, Castillo talked about his work helping those who were formerly incarcerated successfully return to society. He too was once incarcerated for five years on drug charges but turned his life around after an early release going on to a career in public service where he worked as a drug counselor, the executive director of a halfway house, a parole officer and supervisor, and eventually, the founder of the Parole Works Program.

He reminded the audience that the formerly incarcerated are ​“returning citizens” and should be treated as such.

Marie McKenzie, vice president of global ports and Caribbean government relations for Carnival Corporation, delivered the keynote address Saturday. The self-described ​“true island girl” is originally from Jamaica and a graduate of Howard University and Florida International University. She has been in the cruise industry for 22 years. Her current job is her fourth vice president’s position. She told attendees that people have questioned her right to be in powerful rooms and positions because she was black and a woman but at the end of the day no one can question her work.

“Do the work,” she said.

JAC has been doing the work since the summer of 2010 by Jamaicans of the Greater New Haven region. The organization provides opportunities to learn about the Jamaican diaspora in particular and the Caribbean diaspora in general through events such as the annual Caribbean American Heritage Festival, and this year’s first Caribbean Restaurant Week, according to President Karaine Holness.

It also promotes businesses owned by fellow West Indians like Baldwin Shields, whose Johnny’s Cakes, catered the banquet’s dessert menu for the second year in a row. The menu featured an assortment of cheesecakes kissed with a taste of Jamaica including rum and raisin, yellow yam, Blue Mountain coffee, tamarind, soursop and blueberry, and sorrel.

The nonprofit has hosted roundtable discussions with Jamaica Minister of Education Ruel Reid and New Haven Public Schools educators and participated in Freddy Fixer Parade. Holness encouraged attendees to join JAC and to continue to support one another and maintain their connection. The organization also has partnered with the Nathan Ebanks Foundation, a nongovernmental organization based in Jamaica, to support that organization’s efforts at providing scholarships.