Let Belize Live, Speeches of the Premier Exhibit Launched in Belmopan  

Rt. Hon George Cadle Price

Right Honorable George Cadle Price, the Father of the Nation, would have celebrated his one hundred and fourth birthday on January fifteenth. To honour his life and legacy, Sunday is being recognized as a public and bank holiday. The George Price Center in Belmopan launched a new exhibit ahead of Sunday, entitled Let Belize Live, Speeches of the Premier. The exhibit consists of files that have never been published because they were only recently discovered by the Belize Archives and Records Service. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

Paul Lopez, Reporting

A group of government officials, dignitaries, and students toured a newly curated exhibit of the Father of the Nation, the Right Honorable George Cadle Price, at the George Price Center in Belmopan. On display are twelve transcripts from speeches made by Premier George Price. This is from a period before Belize’s Independence.  These are speeches that have never before been published, because they came from among forty boxes of recently uncovered material linked to the Right Honorable George Price.

Mario Sabido

Mario Sabido, Deputy Chair, George Price Centre Board

“Today we are here to do two things, the first is to honor the Right Honorable George Price on what would have been his hundred and fourth birthday Mr. Price. The second is to launch the exhibition, Let Belize Live, Speeches of the Premier. Belize could not have asked for a better role model of sacrifice, dedication, passion, humility, all in one man, the father of our beloved Belize.”

The Let Belize Live, Speech of the Premier Exhibit has been made available online with copies of the original transcripts and audio files. It is a fitting tribute to an exemplary leader who would have celebrated his one hundred and fourth birthday on Sunday. We also heard from Minister Henry Charles Usher, the grand nephew of the late Price.

Henry Charles Usher

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service

“It is always important for us to remember our, the persons who created this nation, who fought for our independence, and certainly the Right Honorable George Price, the Father of the Nation, our national hero is someone whose legacy we must continue to live by and continue to learn from. Yes, we called him Uncle George and certainly we had a unique relationship with him. We were able to spend a lot of quality time with him on weekends when he took us around in his Land Rover or when he was teaching us about Belize, the culture, the geography. He was a well learnt man even though he did not complete his education. He knew a lot about different topics and subjects and he was always willing to impart that knowledge to us. One of the greatest events, independence, when I asked him about it I said, was you ready for independence. He said, yes. He said he realized the people were ready; they were like horses at the gate just ready to burst through the gate.”

And, according to Francis Fonseca, the Minister of Education, this latest exhibit is only a small portion of the forty boxes of documents recently unearthed. His objective is to have the entirety of the files reviewed for later publications and exhibits.

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“It is an exciting effort. We are very proud of it. As I said in my remarks, this is the first volume. Obviously this is just twelve speeches. Imagine we have forty boxes of material. So, there is a lot more to come. WE are going through it and there are entire boxes that deal with social issues, economic issues, with political issues. So, we will try to develop themes and booklets related to those themes and over the years and months to come we hope to consistently and continuously unveil these speeches and share them with the Belizean people.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez