Minding Their Own Business

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Minding Their Own Business “Joanne Kilgour Dowdy’s book extends the popular concept of entrepreneurship to include the cultural and social histories and communities of practice that support economic growth and well-being. Through the life stories and case studies of immigrant business women from the Caribbean, we learn how literacies emerge from their network of labor practices. The women in this book teach us how through their businesses they achieve social, cultural, and economic transformation for themselves and within society. The book offers new insights for workplace and vocational education, adult literacy studies, and immigrant studies.” —Rebecca Rogers, Professor of Literacy Studies, University of Missouri–St. Louis “Joanne Kilgour Dowdy’s new book focuses on Trinidadian female business owners who are immigrants and prospering in their new homes overseas. It fills a lacuna in the literature on black women entrepreneurs from the Caribbean specifically, and more generally on the topic of black immigrants, identity, and the determination to make a new life in a new land. These transnational tales are valuable because they show us the extraordinary in the ordinary. Also rare in the genres of immigration stories and entrepreneur stories, she stretches our understanding by also engaging narratives that carry the reader from one black community to another and providing historical context, thus expanding the current scholarly focus of ‘black woman against the white world’ that prevails in current immigrant and black woman studies. Dowdy encourages us to think about the close social relationships that make independent action possible.” —Wendy Wilson-Fall, Associate Professor and Chair, Africana Studies Program, Oeschle Center for International Education, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania “In this volume, Joanne Kilgour Dowdy presents for all to see what Caribbean people have shushed about and known for many decades—the strong traditions of enterprise among Afro-Caribbean women migrants who, drawing on the reservoirs of survival, creativity, and family, are able to chart new paths in business in new lands. All of us have an aunt, cousin, sister, or mother whose story is represented in this analytical and well-written collection. Thanks for bringing them home to us.” —Rhoda Reddock, Professor of Gender, Social Change, and Development, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago “Unique aspects of Joanne Kilgour Dowdy’s research and scholarship include the privileging of her participants’ knowledge, a distinctive analysis which places her subjects as agents in their own experience, and her ability to synthesize the data so that it can be directly used for improving the quality of life of everyday people.” —Amoaba Gooden, Pan African Studies, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio Minding Their Own Business Rochelle Brock and Cynthia Dillard Executive Editors Vol. 94 The Black Studies and Critical Thinking series is part of the Peter Lang Education list. Every volume is peer reviewed and meets the highest quality standards for content and production. PETER LANG New York Bern Frankfurt Berlin Brussels Vienna Oxford Warsaw Joanne Kilgour Dowdy Minding Their Own Business Five Female Leaders from Trinidad and Tobago PETER LANG New York Bern Frankfurt Berlin Brussels Vienna Oxford Warsaw Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Dowdy, Joanne Kilgour, author. Title: Minding their own business: five female leaders from Trinidad and Tobago / Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2017. Series: Black studies and critical thinking, ISSN 1947-5985 | vol. 94 Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017012945 | ISBN 978-1-4331-3386-2 (hardcover: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4331-3385-5 (paperback: alk. paper) | ISBN 978-1-4539-1853-1 (ebook pdf) ISBN 978-1-4331-4209-3 (epub) | ISBN 978-1-4331-4210-9 (mobi) Subjects: LCSH: Businesswomen—Trinidad and Tobago—Case studies. Women immigrants—Trinidad and Tobago—Case studies. Women-owned business enterprises—Case studies. Entrepreneurship—Case studies. Classification: LCC HD6054.4.T7 D69 2017 | DDC 338.092/520972983—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012945 DOI 10.3726/978-1-4539-1853-1 Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/. Cover photo: Gillian de Souza (used with permission) The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council of Library Resources. © 2017 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York 29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006 www.peterlang.com All rights reserved. Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited. Printed in the United States of America To the women leaders I describe in this book. Thank you for allowing me to document your journey as you create success for yourselves and your communities. Contents List of Tables ix Chapter 1 The Businesswomen from Trinidad: “Hucksters and Higglers” 1 Chapter 2 Maria’s Mountain 23 Chapter 3 Gee and Her Floral Arranging Life 37 Chapter 4 Gina’s Party of a Lifetime 59 Chapter 5 Nadine’s Publishing Pyramid 75 Chapter 6 Fona’s Community Book Club 93 Chapter 7 Business Is as Business Does 111 Index 135 Tables Table 1. The Five Businesswomen and Their Family Trees 9 Table 2. Support System for Each Businesswoman 14 Chapter 1 The Businesswomen from Trinidad “Hucksters and Higglers” It is certain that, both by inheritance and by purchase with their independent earnings, many women owned property in their own right, although they were unable to vote on the basis of their property. (Craig-James, 2010) During my first year living in Ohio, I decided to visit a longtime friend at her home in another state and begin documenting her journey as an independent business owner. My friend, Gina for our purposes, had just left her job where she was earning a “six figure salary” and decided to open her own catering business. I wanted to document her experience as an independent businesswoman since it seemed to me that she was off on an adventure that would be exciting, educational, and possibly a path to many other decisions that she might not be able to imagine at this early stage of her venture. This was an opportunity to be educated by someone who was experiencing hands-on learning, and I wanted to be right at her side as she created her vision and lived the reality of her choices. Then, in 2003 I decided to visit my oldest aunt in Jamaica. My inten- tion was simply to spend two weeks in a leisurely fashion, sitting on 2 MINDING THEIR OWN BUSINESS her back porch, chatting about family and visiting with her friends. In a few days after my arrival, however, I was caught up in a whirlwind of activity that involved her floral arranging and gift basket business. Gee, the name I gave her for my research project, had given me notice that Christmas was a busy season for her small business, run from her home, and that all hands were expected to contribute to the wrapping of gift baskets and delivering of floral arrangements to her customers. It didn’t take much for me to “wash my foot and jump in” as our family always said when people were expected to participate without much preamble in events. In other words, we were taught to go with the flow. What surprised me about this somewhat unexpected turn of events, though, was that my aunt explained that she was actually winding down her business and that the number of customers who were getting her attention during that holiday month were actually a small group of friends and long-time associates. Immediately, I began asking questions about the history of her business and the background that prepared her to carry on such a brisk trade in flowers. Her answers, doled out between cutting flowers, pre- paring them for baskets of different sizes and shapes, answering calls from last minute clients who needed gifts to send to various friends, and checking her list of addresses for deliveries, led me to believe that I was in the middle of some serious data gathering. Why waste the opportunity to learn about a black woman’s business history when I had a willing participant in front of me? How could a woman who was an immigrant in this country develop and sustain her own business over twenty years? What could I ask of the friends and associates who had been using this florist for several years, and did not intend to let her retire when she felt the need to take a long rest from the demands of her trade? At some time in the early years of my life in Trinidad I found out that my great grandmother, Mrs. Tee is the name that I use in this study, once ran her own business. As a child, I remembered seeing her garden and always noted that she had the most beautiful flowers in her space. Her blooms including tube roses, croten, and the anthurium lilies were some of my favorites. Many years later after my grandmother died THE BUSINESSWOMEN FROM TRINIDAD 3 I found out that her mother, Mrs. Tee, ran a floral business and those tube roses that grew at the side of the front gate to the house were used to make bridal bouquets. In retrospect, it should not have surprised me that my aunt, a descendant of Mrs. Tee, had an interest in flowers. In fact, I was soon to discover that my aunt Gee had more than an “interest” in flowers.

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