The Making of West Indian Transmigrant Populations: Examples from St. Vincent and Grenada 1

It was April 1984 and Herbert Blaize, a former colonial Chief Minister of Grenada, was addressing a crowd of approximately 600 Grenadians of all ages and seemingly of different class strata in a well appointed catering hall in Brooklyn owned by a Grenadian immigrant. It was only a few months after the assassination of the Grenadian prime minister, Maurice Bishop, and Blaize was seeking the support of the immigrant community in his efforts to become the next prime minister of Grenada.