Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

55 ALFREDO CODALLO (1913-1970) H e is considered a pioneer in the field of T&T’s folklore art and is famous for his paintings such as the Douen, Soucouyant, Papa Bois, Lagahou and La Diablesse. His varied works (including photography and story telling) left us with many images of T&T life long ago as his paintings also featured the people, places and many other aspects of the folk culture of Trinidad and Tobago. A book Alfredo Codallo - Artist and Folklorist written by Holly Gayadeen was published in 1983. In keeping with his love of our culture and his artistic talent, he brought a mas band in 1967 Fairy Tales with sections and characters as Cinderella, Alladin, Papa Bois, Mama Glo, pixies, gnomes, leprechauns, douens and soucouyants. EDRIC CONNOR (1913-1968) M ayaro-born Edric Connor was a baritone singer and an actor and can be celebrated as one of the top singers from Trinidad and Tobago. From his base in England in 1951 he was responsible for bringing the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra - TASPO - to the Festival of Britian. He acted in a total of 18 films and was noted for his role as Daggoo in Moby Dick (1956). An annual award named after him, the Edric Connor Inspiration Award, is made annually in his honour in the Screen Nation Film & TV Awards and was won in 2011 by Sir Trevor MacDonald OBE. There is also the Edric Connor Trailblazer Award, of which a notable winner in 2003 was Rudolph Walker. There was an autobiography Horizons, The Life and Times of Edric Connor 1913-1968 and there is a collection of his material at the West Indiana and Special Collections Division at UWI.