Plans in high gear for Bustamante birthday celebration

Sir Alexander Bustamante

Plans are in high gear for the staging of the 128th birthday anniversary celebration of National Hero, Right Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante, on February 24 in Hanover.

A sub-committee of the Hanover Parish Council, comprised of members of the Council’s Civic and Community Relations Committee, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) and representatives from several organisations within the parish, have began meetings to plan the annual civic ceremony to mark the occasion.

The event, slated for Sir Alexander’s birthplace in Blenheim, takes on added significance this year as it forms part of the ‘Jamaica 50’ year-long celebration. It is expected to attract thousands of Jamaicans, including nationals from the Diaspora and visitors to the island.

In an interview following a recent meeting of the planning committee, JCDC Field Services Director, Marjorie Vernon, said that the annual civic function has attracted special speakers and top level cultural performances and “this year (with the anniversary of our Independence) the staging of the Bustamante birthday tribute will be done with a level of extra excitement and significance.”  

In outlining the programme for the day, Mrs. Vernon said that every effort will be made to highlight the life and work of the National Hero, through music, speech and dance.

“So, we will have speakers that will look at Bustamante as the nation builder, Bustamante as the politician, Bustamante as the union man, and so you will be getting a lot of information as it relates to his life and work,” she shared.

She said that plans are also being discussed with regards to the staging an exhibition on the National Hero.

Noting that the civic ceremony has always enjoyed strong support from the Hanover community, including the private sector, Mrs. Vernon said that, “This year, being a special year, we are anticipating that others will come onboard to ensure that whatever we do, will be done with great significance”.

The planning committee will have weekly meetings up to the staging of the function. 

Bustamante was born at Blenheim Estate in Hanover on February 24, 1884. His father, an Irish planter named Robert Constantine Clarke and his mother, a Jamaican of mixed blood, was Mary Clarke nee Wilson. They named him William Alexander Clarke, but was later to change by deed poll. 

Bustamante was the second of five children of the Clarke family. He had three sisters, Louise, Iris and Maud, and a younger brother, Herbert. He also had two elder sisters, Ida and Daisy Clarke, by a previous marriage of his father. 

His grandmother Elsie Clarke-Shearer was also the grandmother of Bustamante’s great contemporary and fellow National Hero, Norman Washington Manley.

Bustamante attended elementary school at Cacoon and Dalmalley, and also did private studies. In 1904, he was employed as a Store Clerk for C. E. Johnson & Company on the north coast. Shortly after this he became a junior overseer at Belmont.

For 30 years, beginning in 1905, the restless Bustamante travelled about the hemisphere, particularly to Cuba, Panama, the United States and his native Jamaica, trying his hand at a wide variety of occupations, including security work, dairy farming, transportation and beekeeping. The Latin American influence and his penchant for the romantic caused a change of name from William Alexander Clarke to Alejandro Bustamante, later anglicised by deed poll to Alexander Bustamante.                 - JIS News