His Amazing Memory
George Cadle Price (1919-2011), Prime Minister and author of Belize’s independence, was squatting in the dust in front of Minch’s Grocery Shop in San Pedro Columbia, Toledo, chatting with local schoolchildren when I met him for the first time in 1992. Price wore his signature Guayabera shirt and, hatless, he squinted in the sun. His thick, black-rimmed glasses gave him an owlish, intellectual look. He was a bit stooped but seemed far younger than his 73 years as he straightened and leaned against a battered Land Rover. He had stopped in this remote village without fanfare, accompanied only by his driver. Emerging from Minch’s shop, I blinked. Could this be the Prime Minister? I hadn’t had much experience with heads of state, but once my US hometown had been honored by a visit from President Reagan and Secret Service had spent weeks sweeping the area beforehand. On the appointed day, the Great Man had swept past, invisible behind his tinted windows, invincible in his large m...