From Trinidad to Worthington

• Kraft

BRIAN KORTHALS/Daily Globe Tara and Bruce Kraft are shown at their Colonial Laundry and Dry Cleaners on North Humiston Avenue in Worthington. They met and married in Tara’s native Trinidad.

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WORTHINGTON — When Tara Kraft talks about her home country, her eyes light up, and there’s a wistful tone to her voice.

“It’s the most beautiful place,” she described. “I have traveled to many other countries, and it’s like paradise — no snow, no humidity, hot, but not like here. We have the most beautiful ocean, with no sharks.”

Tara is a native of Trinidad, an island in the West Indies that makes up half of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Why would she leave the paradise she describes for the much-less-ideal climate of southwest Minnesota?

“Love, of course,” she said with a big smile.

Tara met husband-to-be Bruce Kraft of Worthington through a cousin.

“My cousin went on a cruise and met Bruce, and he came for two weeks to Trinidad, they invited him to come for our Carnival,” explained Tara. “He sees me, he likes me, but we only went out as a group, and when he left, he asked me for my address. We began to write, back and forth, and he’d call my mother, and they would talk. He asked me to marry him, and I told him I would after a year. I figure he will forget me in a year. But he didn’t.”

Tara may be a native Trinidadian, but her family originally came to the island from India, and amorous relationships are viewed differently in that culture.

“I like him, and that is the most important thing to the Indian people,” she explained about their courtship, which was supported by her family. “That is the bond we make first, and then you fall in love. Among the Trinidad Indians, that is our upbringing. I have all the letters, for a year he wrote me, and my kids can read them now, can see our inner self.”

In Trinidad, college is free, and Tara studied manufacturing and was a successful business owner when she married Bruce at age 33.

“I had my own business, Blue J’s Garments,” she said. “We made kids clothes, nightgowns, school uniforms, Carnival costumes. I had 17 girls working for me.

“That’s why I tell you, it had to be love,” she reiterated about her reason for moving to Minnesota.

The Krafts were married 14 years ago; their family includes three daughters, Angelica, 20, Brianna, 13, and Kimberly, 12. They own and operate the Colonial Laundry and Dry Cleaner in Worthington, and Tara continues to manufacture clothes on a smaller scale at Tara’s Sewing Shop. She eventually hopes to expand that venture into an exclusive bridal shop.

Although her parents are now deceased, Tara still has siblings and extended family living in Trinidad, and she is able to visit the island infrequently. Eventually, she hopes to spend part of each year there.

“My mother passed away and left a home there for me,” she said. “I want to make it a vacation home.”

The weather, of course, has been the biggest adjustment for Tara, but she has discerned some similarities between her former and current homes.

“Trinidad is something like Worthington, with all the different ethnic groups,” she explained. “I think it’s why I adjust so well here. When I go to Wal-Mart, I feel like I’m in Trinidad.”

Discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1498, Trinidad was originally inhabited by native Arawak and Carib tribes, who called it “Land of the Humming Bird.” But the Spaniards enslaved the natives and shipped them off to work in other Caribbean settlements. The Spanish didn’t establish a settlement there until the late 1500s.

The British captured the island in 1797 and negotiated a treaty of rule with the Spanish. After that, enslaved Africans were brought in to work the sugar plantations. Omce slavery was abolished, landowners imported indentured laborers from India, China and the Middle East, resulting in Trinidad’s unique melting pot of cultures, each with its own customs and festivals.

“In Trinidad, we celebrate Arrival Day, because the Indians who went to Trinidad, the British fooled them, told them they were going there on a contract, but they never got to go back,” explained Tara. “The Africans, they have their own emancipation day, and the Chinese have their own celebrations. It is a land made up of all different ethnics, so they give everyone their own holiday.”

Trinidad Carnival, however, is celebrated by all of the island’s inhabitants and is a big draw for tourists in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season.

Along with its ethnic diversity, Trinidad can also boast a vast biodiversity, with more than 450 species of birds, 108 types of mammals, 55 reptiles, 25 amphibians and 620 types of butterflies. It also has opportunities for hiking through the rain forest, fishing, exploring deep caves, turtle watching, kayaking, yachting and other activities that appeal to adventurous inhabitants and travelers.

But Trinidad is also a progressive island — the richest in the Caribbean because of oil reserves discovered there, Tara noted — with modern cities, skyscrapers and large shopping malls.

“I grew up in the country, but I was the only Indian kid where we were living,” Tara said. “My grandpa decided we needed to move to the central, where all the Indians lived, so I could learn about my culture.”

Although she has yet to begin the process, Tara wants to pursue becoming an American citizen, but she hopes it can be a dual citizenship so she can retain her property and rights in Trinidad.

“What I miss most,” about Trinidad, Tara said, “is the unity with the people. Everybody has respect for everyone else. I think there is prejudice here still. There, you could be black, white, and people don’t notice it. We are proud of being our culture, and we feel that love with everybody.”

Tara practices that philosophy in her dealings with the people of many cultures who frequent the Krafts’ laundry facility.

“I tell them, ‘You need to listen, you need to respond, you need to learn, and you will be successful,’” she shared.

Tags: our diverse community, news, trinidad, worthington