BELIZE: The Jewel of Central America

Photographs courtesy of / Paul Welcome, Jacksonville NC

By Alicia Cruz

Senior writer

TheBlackUrbanTimes

Belize, the jewel of Central America, is located on the Caribbean coast of northern Central America. Belize, formerly British Honduras, is shaped like a rectangle that extends about 170 miles north-south and about 100 62 miles east-west. She borders Guatamela on the South-West and Mexico to it's North. The origin of the name Belize is unknown but speculation says the name hails from the Maya word Belix, meaning "muddy water" in reference to the Belize River which runs through Belize City.

The Maya people are thought to have been in Belize and the Yucatán region since the second millennium BC; however, much of Belize's original Maya population was wiped out by disease and conflicts between tribes and with Europeans. Three Maya groups now inhabit Belize: The Yucatec (who came from Yucatán, Mexico to escape the Caste War of the 1840s), the Mopan (indigenous to Belize but were forced out by the British) and Kekchi (they also fled from slavery in Guatemala in the 19th century).

The Belizean society is composed of many cultures and many speaking languages. Surprisingly, Belizeans consider themselves to be both Caribbean and Central American and their country is the only country in Central America whose official language is English. Many residents also speak Spanish and Creole. Bordered by Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the south and west, and the Caribbean sea to the east, Belize is 8,867 square miles of land with an estimated 320,000 people.

Featured photographer and retired Marine Master Sergeant, Paul N. Welcome and his wife, Gennittee have traveled to Belize and Honduras (his native country) several times throughout the years and as seen in these surreal photographs that bring even the most minute details within the image to life.

Master Sergeant Welcome, his parents, brother and two sisters left Roatan, Honduras when he was seven-years-old moving to Belize. Their humble beginnings began in a small village named Independence in a four-room Hacienda they shared with three other families. With dreams of a better life, MSgt. Welcome left Belize for the United States where he joined the United States Marine Corp in 1974 at age 23. His tenure in the Marine Corp took to him many States and countries to include a tour of the Middle East in 1990 in support of Operation Desert Storm. MSgt. Welcome retired honorably in 1995 and settled in Jacksonville, North Carolina with his wife, Gennittee who works aboard the MCB Camp Lejeune as a Health Technician at the Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital. Together they have one son, two daughters and five grandchildren. MSgt. Welcome is currently employed by PPD in Wilmington, NC as a Technical Operations Analyst. One of his hobbies, obviously, is photography. Belizeans celebrate their independence from the United Kingdom on September 21. Look out for more photographs from MSgt. Welcome's collection in the weeks to come.

**Editor's Note: All photograph's attached to this story are copyright protected Paul N. Welcome / Photographer. Do not use or reproduce without written permission of Paul N. Welcome. **