George Price exhibit: A journey into Belizean history

It is hard to find a person in Belize that has not heard of him for the impact he had had in the life and political movement in Belize. He was born the third child of William Price and Irene Escalante and on January fifteenth, George Cadle Price turned ninety. He is referred to as the father of the nation for his vision in securing independence and is regarded as one of the greatest figures in the political history of Belize. Price these days lives a quiet life at his home in Pickstock and in commemoration of his birthday, the George Price Centre for Peace and Development held an exhibit of Price’s unique and extraordinary journey. The exhibit entitled, George Price: Man of Purpose and Vision showcases the many moments in Price’s life that have had bearing on our history. News Five’s Duane Moody went to the Garden City where Elsie Alpuche told us more…

Duane Moody, Reporting
The exhibit portrays the life of Price from his early childhood days to adulthood as a Premier and the first Prime Minister. He led the People’s United Party from 1950 to 1996. He continues to live an austere and humble life with strong Christian convictions.

Elsie Alpuche, Curator & Coordinator, George Price Center for Peace and Dev.
“Last week we celebrated his ninetieth birthday and as you well know, he had no intention at first to go into politics. He was studying to become a priest and when that did not go through, his first employer introduced him to politics and this was in the late 1940’s and Belize was in pretty bad shape. There was the devaluation of the British Honduras dollar and that spurred action from a number of people, among which Mr. Price to form the People’s Committee which later turned into the People’s United Party and that’s how he actually rolled into politics. And then from there he and his companions and the rest of the nation, fought for independence for Belize.”

Duane Moody
“What are these pictures showing so to speak?”

Elsie Alpuche
“It’s showing the man behind the politician and he was seriously and extremely caring and the human aspect that you may have forgotten and the political aspect of it. So it shows who he really was; a caring person, a god-fearing person, a person that wanted betterment for all of us.”

It took curators, Gilvano Swasey and Elsie Alpuche over two years to put together the story of Price’s life.

Elsie Alpuche
“We started in 2007 and it took me the greater part of 2008 to connect all the information that was available at the Archives Department only. I know that there must be a lot more information with private people or other institutions. But what we did was to archive everything that was available at the Archives Department. So now we have all the old photos digitized and we have all the pictures that were available there; his speeches, all the information that was available on him, we have collected and made sure that we put it together in a comprehensive archival record.”

Always write down what you promise people; never trust your memory” is one of Price’s philosophies. The exhibit the Center included a collection of his writings, speeches and notes.

Elsie Alpuche
“In the research that I have done to put together this new exhibit here at the George Price Centre, it’s strikingly clear that Mr. Price never forgot who he was working for; for the people of Belize and always wanting to improve the lives of people and always ready to share whatever he had and to fight for better for Belize. Mr. Price was travelling around the country in those early days and meeting all the people, wanting their opinion and wanting to share his vision with the people for Belize. So he was meeting the people from all races, all districts. One of my favourite pictures here on exhibit is the one where he is stooping down to greet a little child on the road. It’s just such a—it’s a picture that speaks for itself, how Mr. Price as first minister and premier at the time, took the time to get out of his car and just greet anybody that he met on the road and care for these people.”

George Price: one the greatest political leaders in our time at ninety years.

The exhibit is a permanent feature at the Centre.