Demographic diversity: in two very different Caribbean countries--Trinidad and Tobago and Belize--the faces of the people reflect a rich ethnic mix.

• Author: Murphy-Larronde, Suzanne

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

TAKE A STROLL AROUND TRINIDAD'S DIVALI NAGAR, OR VILLAGE OF LIGHTS, on one of the nine nights commemorating the age-old Hindu festival known as Divali, and you're likely to think you've been transported across the seas to the heart of the Indian subcontinent. Beneath clear tropical skies, throngs of sari-clad women and men wearing tunic-like kurtas and tapered shalwar pants, their children firmly in tow, mingle easily with other Trinidadians or "Trinis" in casual Western dress. The crowds ebb and flow between vegetarian food stalls and an incongruous assortment of kiosks selling Indian jewelry, tools, furniture, electronics equipment, orchid plants, and clothing. On a state-of-the-art stage, spotlights flicker orange, yellow, and red as a local band regales listeners with the latest crop of Bollywood film tunes as well as religious favorites, and dancers gyrate to the rhythms of steelpans, violins, sitars, and drums. Finally, on the event's last evening, with tens of thousands in attendance, an elaborate show of fireworks is unleashed across the moonless sky to welcome the Hindu New Year.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Early the next day, when Divali itself is celebrated, eight members of the Baal Deonarine extended family are busy getting ready for the arrival of dinner guests. Like many other households in Penal, an Indo-Trinidadian town in the island's rural south, they have already cleaned and decorated their modest concrete-block home and will spend many more hours preparing meatless delicacies such as fried pumpkin, chickpeas and potatoes, curried mangoes, and sweet rice for the feast that puts an official end to days of contemplation and abstinence from worldly pleasures. In the afternoon, poojahs, or prayers, will be recited and Hindu and non-Hindu guests received. Then, as darkness descends, thousands of deyas--the small coconut-oil lamps already in place on the altars, walkways, banisters, and balconies of thousands of buildings and in parks and streets throughout Trinidad--will be lighted and watched over in anticipation of a visit from Mother Lakshmi, the festival's magnanimous patron.

The following week, it's the turn of Trinidad's small but vibrant Indian Muslim community to observe the completion of Ramadan--the month of fasting and circumspection--with the arrival of Eidul-Fitr, a celebration that brings families and friends together for elaborate meals along with mosque visits and alms giving. Next on the...