Señor Gomez Speaks on Mas'

Mr. and Mrs. Gomez

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Staff Article
Interview Recorded: May 15, 2005
Posted: June 12, 2005

Everyday is something new

The principal from Point Fortin E.C. left Point Fortin to bring a post card to say thanks, because the children started their costuming and their own thing before the Carnival and they were successful. I felt real good. For instance, at one time I made a costume and my wife was dancing, and a fella said, "Oh gosh, look at how that chick dancing nice." I said, "Chick what happen?" The fella said, "No partner take it light, she eh dancing good?" I said, "That 'chick' you seeing there is almost seventy years old, I made her mas', that is my wife." He thought I was pulling her down and at the same time pulling him down too. I feel good knowing that I am doing these things and helping people.

All the bands around here, when I make structures for them I do not charge them, I am an area man. People ask me why I do not go up for elections around here. I say, "Boy, if I go up for elections they will start to say I used to drink rum." You know politics, they only waiting until you get in; from the time you get into politics you will hear, you are a bad man. I tell them to leave that alone. I am really popular around here with everybody. Sometimes children do not go to school because they do not have, or some may not have gas and would ask for money to buy it, and I feel happy to do that. If I have I will give but if I do not have I cannot give. It is simple as that.

I took out a picture in Hartford. Now when you go there you are supposed to leave something that you can do, to say that you visited. I say well is the Lord that made me take my pliers, glue gun and my tape and so on; I do not know how I had put that in my grip. I went across by the people and I saw a fish down in a corner and when we came back, the lady said, "Gomez we have to make something to leave here." I didn't tell her that I had my tools. The next morning she asked me if I slept late, I told her yes. She said she was hearing, "Tick, tick, tick". I told her to come and see something, and it was the big fish on the bed. She said, "Wow, do not say anything, I will speak to them first, I will invite them for coffee tomorrow." I was anxious because I wanted them to see it. When it came, she said that it was a spooky fish, because I bend it exactly how it was and I had it balanced. She called her husband and so on, but I didn't know the people and them were artists. They had material, nice brown paper and so on and I started to show them how we do it. He told me to, "Go out there and see the little pieces of wire and how much it costs. And you did this last night? You could be a millionaire." The people told him the next time he was going down there to bring me back. I was making one each for the fella and his wife. When I went in the back I saw dried leaves. I picked them up with some dried wood and I bend a structure and I made it like the lady own and for the man I made another thing. When I was finished if you hear bacchanal. They asked where I got the things to make it, I told them in the back. They said they were not parting with them, and they gave me a nice painting, which I have here. I took out a picture with her and the fish. They told me I should, "go out there and look in the showcase and see the prices of the wire art, and look how you just come up and make these things already, and they are things for tourists ... souvenirs."

That is why I say I have to make something for my friends. I will fix him up. I am going by the other tailor for him to fix it nice. It must show the sailor form. The job was good on the pants but it is too fat. I want it more fitted so you could see the wire. Some people like to see the wire, and you must let them know it is wire. I lecture to judges about the art form, and when I lecture to judges I tell them that they should ask the individual to show them the wirework, to ask for permission to see the wirework. Everything is wire right through, so you are asking for permission before you judge. At one time I made the Trinidad Coat of Arms. We also did a skeleton and it came third to two costumes that were covered, so we didn't know if it was wood covered. But with our costume you seeing wire skills and you are seeing wire to the bone, and they let it come third. That was bad judging, and they agreed with me. Fellas bring wires skills already and they put wood in it and they would boast and say, "You bending all that wire and we take two pieces of wood and just shape it up." I am not blaming them, is the judges, because they are supposed to ask.

We had a wonderful morning. But one thing before you close off, the lady in Connecticut recorded my lifetime also and I had reached to a point with her. What she was trying to tell me was that the people I recalled during my lifetime; she wanted me to make figures of them in wire. There were many to recall. I told her that there were certain hymns I would like sung at my funeral. She likes to hear those things. I want like ‘Amazing Grace' and so on. I have a partner who sings, Berlin Mendoza. I would like him to sing ‘My Way' because I like Sinatra, and Sinatra ‘My Way', is my way. She told me I should try and let him record it before I die. I said, "Nah, me eh go dead now."

I was born Thirty-one Charlotte Street, in the year 1931, and they used to call the yard Mongoose Yard. In those days, anything anybody took, is there they would run, and that is the reason they called it Mongoose Yard. Gilman Thomas was over on the other side and Dave Thomas was on this side too, so that was the last gateway before the people in here right now. She has good documentation of my life, and sometimes she would ask if I want to hear a certain part. I feel nice about that. She had put me to lie down on a table and she made a mold of my face, and she took a picture and then she painted it. I like all these adventures. My friend, the bandleader in Barbados, was a bit annoyed with me. He said, "Gomez, you had a right to invite me to your 70th birthday because I had a part of that. You worked night and day here. You know I would have come." But I did not know my daughter was doing such a big thing. They gave me a nice thing for my birthday at the Chinese restaurant in Long Circular Mall. She wanted it to be a surprise, so my friends and they were mad in Barbados. They said, "Gomez, I had a piece of your life, I would have come even if it was just for the weekend."

Children are nice ... all my children. All of them were born here and I never had any trouble. It is the people who are trouble, not the place. I can remember my wife's family. They had to wash their hands; they had to say their prayers, eat with knife and fork, and when they were finished they had to sing and clean up. They had a chart to show who was washing wares, who was going for bread in the evening and so on, so that it would not have any confusion. Each person would know what he or she had to do. I find if that line was being followed, today things would not be how they are. That is why they used to call us fowl, and say, "Yuh going to sleep already?" We would peep through the window because we had already locked up.

I have many offsprings. About twenty grandchildren and about nine great-grandchildren, and I feel happy. When I go to New York my grandchildren would say, "Grandfather, oh gosh I will get nice tea." I would make bake and so on for them. I was a chef on the ship so I enjoy doing that. When we are there they do not want their mother to see about anything for them. I have two children down here and they are going back at the end of the month. This evening I have to go and take out some pictures in the studio with one of them to send it up. I like that, and when I am around my grandchildren I feel happy. They would jump on me, and is grandfather this, and grandfather that, or let's go and walk. The people in the building here would laugh and say they never saw children happy so. We would play in the hallway and so on. You have to know how to bring up children. My wife is kind of on the strict side, but you cannot be too strict unless you are doing something wrong. But I will tell you something, all of my children, whether boy or girl ... and you know girl is for the mother, but everything is daddy. They tease their mother too. Sometimes they would give her a gift in a big box, but is a little thing down in the corner.

There was a time when my daughter told her she had a friend who will take her out to a show, but my daughter had bought my ticket and her mother's ticket. She told her mother she would take her to dress by Angela because she did not want her daddy to see her dressing up here. I went down to meet her so I was outside in the car. When she realized it was me, she said, "You see what all you does do me, you tell me a man coming to meet me." It was nice, we always used to tease her a little bit, because she would say, "Everything is for your father." They were showing her that they were getting something for her.

Well, this morning made my day. I am not even going to bend wire again; I am feeling good. I am not going to spoil that. This is the way I like to do things. For instance, this programme in Connecticut is an exchange of culture. They came down here too and I took them to the panyard. I knew they were coming so I had everything prepared for them and I got them involved. They liked it. At any moment you call me and I am ready to go. I like to be on time. For instance when you told me about this interview, I wasn't going anywhere because I didn't want when you all came I am not here; I know time is important. There is a lot of room for improvement and you never stop learning. Everyday is something new.

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Check out Mr. Gomez's album at:
www.trinisoca.com/gallery/gomez

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