About the Founder and Why This Brand Was Started
Hello everyone, I'm Antonio Brooks and the owner and founder of this brand. I was born in the US and I'm of multicultural and multiracial Caribbean Region heritage. My father is from Panama and mother is from Trinidad & Tobago. Recent ancestors of mine are from St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Barbados, and Venezuela. Distant ancestors are from Africa, Indigenous America, Europe, and Asia. I have traveled and lived in the Caribbean Region, as well as lived in major Caribbean Region diaspora areas in the US.
I'm going to explain to you in greater detail the reasons why I actually started this particular brand.
Because of my background you may think that I have always thought of the cultures of the region from a regional perspective, but this is not true.
Like many people of Caribbean Region heritages who know something bit about their neighbors' cultures, I was always aware that my parent's cultures had similarities. Because of the way I was taught to look at them by society I never thought that they could be part of a contiguous cultural zone within the Americas.
In the recent years of my life as I began to explore more cultures in the Caribbean Region in more detail it began to make sense to me. This area of the world is connected. So I began to look at the region from this new lens. After I did some more research, it would be history that explained these cultural connections.
After observing and understanding the connections of the region, I ended up developing a special connection and a love for the region and it’s many cultures. In the process I also became aware of it's many identities. I got to the point where from the bottom of my heart I am able to enjoy engaging with any Caribbean Region culture and no amount of Caribbean Region factionalism I see can scare me away from who I consider my brothers and sisters. I built this brand off of these similarities I observed from engaging with and studying the various Caribbean Region cultures. I came to the realization that these similarities and connections often get overlooked in favor of maintaining nationalistic identities. But you see, once I observed this similarities I could no longer ignore them and it began to dishearten me that too many people in the region and it's diaspora try to ignore them or are aware of them and downplay them because of the separated identities that exist in the region. These are powerful similarities like many similar base foods and seasonings to our dishes, similar and at times identical rhythms in our music, dances with similar and at times identical moves, similar forms of verbal and non-verbal expressions, some similar speech patterns and verbal tonalities, relatable and similar societal challenges, a degree of similar cultural behaviors, similar histories, similar types of important cultural events such as having a major national carnival every year, and overall truly a similar spirit and energy, among many other things.
I have to disclaim that I’m not trying to undermine the cultural distinctions of the societies of the region. Anything that is unique and defining from culture to culture I will acknowledge and not overlook these things. What I’m keeping an eye out for from culture to culture is any similarities I observe. That is what my brand is built on.
What I will claim that I'm trying to do is break barriers, challenge the way we look at ourselves as people and help the all the nationalities of the Caribbean Region feel like they are part of an identity that's bigger and more powerful than 40+ separate political entities. This is whether you’re a mestizo from Honduras, a Chinese from Jamaica, a dougla from Trinidad & Tobago, a Taíno descendant from Puerto Rico, an Afro-Polish from Haiti, a Javanese from Suriname, a Portuguese from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, an Afro-Antillean from Panama, a Lebanese from Venezuela, a French Afro-Martinican from Paris, an Indo-Guyanese-Canadian from Toronto, or a Belizean Garifuna-American from New York City. This is for you. For all of the amazing people in the diverse, beautiful, and fascinating Caribbean Region and it's diaspora.
