Jericca Warren

30/04/2026

A few months ago I was talking to someone about how hard it is for entrepreneurs in the Bay Islands to get their businesses off the ground, and what came up wasn't just the obvious stuff: money. Yes, access to funding is challeging. But what we also talked about, and what I think doesn't get enough attention, is the lack of knowledge. Not knowing how to structure a business, how to manage your finances, how to market yourself. That gap is just as much of an obstacle as an empty bank account, if not more.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I'm in Tegucigalpa. You guys know I split my time between the city and the islands, so that's just normal life for me. I started getting bombarded with ads about entrepreneurship competitions. You apply, and if selected, you go through an online process, where you take classes on finances, marketing, how to legally structure your business, all of that good stuff. You attend sessions taught by people who know what they're talking about. We're talking professors with master's degrees, specialists in their fields. If you've attended the sessions and passed the evaluations (in some cases), you make it to the final where you pitch your business or put together a financial plan for what you'd do with the money. And the prizes range from L. 50,000 to L. 250,000. There's international ones where it can go up to $100,000. I actually know someone from Mexico, who won that much for his startup. His project is impressive, and it got me thinking that we have that kind of talent in the Bay Islands too. You don't have to go in person unless you want to, I'm currently the only from the Bay Islands participating in these.

So after seeing all these ads I started applying to every one I can. Right now I'm participating in two of them, and I've applied for a third one that's coming up. Two of them are through two major banks here in Honduras, one with a partnership with a well-known organization and the other with an alliance with a prestigious university. The third is through an organization that specifically focuses on supporting Honduran entrepreneurs. I've been in one of them for 6+ weeks now and about 3+ weeks into another, and I have to be honest, I am learning a lot. Not just business theory but practical things I can use.

The one that has really blown me away is run by BAC in partnership with UNITEC. The structure is serious. You pass two evaluations, attend all the online sessions, and the classes taught by professors from that university, people with master's degrees who are highly qualified in their specific subjects. But what really sets it apart is that they'll assign you a professor from that university, who guides you through everything your business needs to grow. Beyond the money, they connect you with the right people. If you're selling a food product for example, they'll connect you with supermarkets, with distribution channels, with whoever you actually need to reach. They get you into fairs and events after the program ends. It's not just a check, it's a whole ecosystem of support. And to give you an idea of how competitive it is, there were over 1,900 applications for this one. They selected 75. I'm one of them, so I already have some things I can share about what it takes to stand out and actually get selected. Some competitions are for women only and some are for everybody. There's also the YLAI Fellowhsip Program, to which one of our bay islanders just got accepted into in order to learn how to manage his business and stand out.

I keep thinking back to that original conversation about Bay Islands entrepreneurs because for some reason, whether the ads just aren't reaching us out there or we simply aren't paying attention, these opportunities are not on most people's radar back home. And they really should be. They are available to everyone and you do it all online, which means you can participate from Roatan, Utila, Guanaja, St. Helene. There is no reason we should be missing out on this.

If you're interested, I would love to share what I've been learning along the way, the things I'm picking up about finances, marketing, and structuring a business. And if I actually win anything, I'll have even more real information to pass along. Maybe we do a chat about it, maybe we organize something in person at some point, or maybe I just put together a document you can go through at your own pace. I'm open to whatever works best for you guys, just let me know. I don't charge, by the way. The opportunities are out there. We just have to go find them.

29/04/2026

I'm from the Bay Islands, and like most islanders, my whole world has always been the sea, the reef, the breeze, the creole traditions. Tegucigalpa always felt like a different world to me specially since I've been splitting my time between the islands and the city. But I walked into the Museo para la Identidad Nacional and came out feeling like I had finally, truly, met my country for the first time. And I wasn't ready for that.

This museum is not what you think it is. It's not the kind of place where you drag your feet from one dusty display case to the next. It's interactive, it's alive, and every single area has its own story to tell. Different areas were built and sponsored by different banks and organizations, and you can feel the love that went into each one. You don't just look at things here, you walk through history. You hear it. You feel it. There are moments inside where you just stop and stand still because there's so much to take in.

What got me the most is how complete it is. You go through ancient civilizations, the indigenous peoples, the colonial period, the artists, the fauna and creation of our country, all of it. Honduras has so much history and so much depth and this museum actually does it justice. There are interactive screens throughout where you can swipe and go deeper into whatever catches your eye, learn about specific artifacts, where they were found, which civilization they came from. It's the kind of place where you came in knowing a little and leave knowing you barely scratched the surface.

And if you're from the islands, this part is for you. I found archaeological artifacts from the Bay Islands inside that museum that I shared a few days ago as well. From our home. Things you rarely get to see back home. I stood there looking at pieces of a history I grew up surrounded by and never fully knew, and it hit different. It genuinely hit different.

They also have this theater where they play documentaries that are not shown anywhere else. About discoveries in Copán, about the Maya civilization, about Honduras in a way that most of us have never seen it. I sat down thinking I'd watch for a few minutes and came out having learned more than I expected. I watched it twice. And then there are the artifacts themselves, some are replicas so detailed they fool you, and some are originals. When you're standing in front of something original, something ancient, something real, your phone goes down and you just go quiet. That kept happening to me throughout the whole visit.

I know a lot of us from the islands don't always think of Tegucigalpa as a destination. But if you're ever in the capital, even just passing through, please go to this museum. It's been renovating for years and keeps growing and getting better. It's one of those places that reminds you that being Honduran is something really, really big. And sometimes we need that reminder. It's located in the historical center of the big city where there's also other museums, the National Archive, old buildings with so much history, and the large cathedrals.

27/04/2026

There's a lesser-known chapter of the history of the island of Roatan. The story of a small group of American colonial soldiers who, exhausted and forgotten after a disastrous Caribbean war, ended up being sent to settle this island.

It was 1742, and the British were in a terrible position. Their grand military campaign against the Spanish in the Caribbean, part of what history calls the War of Jenkins' Ear, had collapsed. Thousands of soldiers had died from yellow fever, bad food, and worse leadership. Among the survivors were hundreds of American colonial troops, men recruited from places like Virginia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, who had signed up expecting adventure and land, and instead got disease.

With the Cuban campaign in ruins and the British scrambling for a new foothold in the region, someone had a different idea. Why not settle Roatan?

The island had strategic value. Controlling it meant discouraging pirates from using it as a base, opening trade routes toward Mexico, protecting the lucrative logwood trade, and putting a dent in Dutch commercial competition in the area. On paper, it made sense. In practice, the British needed bodies to make it happen. That's where the Americans came in. Captain Hodgson was put in charge of the operation and led thirty-four American soldiers to the island, joining around one hundred British troops already stationed there. They also brought along Caledonian Indians as allies, with the broader goal of encouraging the Mosquito Indians of the mainland to rise up against Spanish influence in the region.

Thirty-four men. That's a small number when you consider what was at stake. These weren't career soldiers at the peak of their strength, they were colonial recruits who had survived one of the deadliest military expeditions in British American history. Many were sick. Many were servants, tradesmen, or farmers' sons who had enlisted for a share of promised land and the chance to make something of themselves far from home.

The settlement they helped establish proved to Britain that the island was worth holding. It secured the alliance of the Mosquito Indians and gave the Crown enough confidence to make formal sovereignty claims over the island by 1749. That decision, historians believe, became one of the foundations of what would eventually become British Honduras, modern-day Belize.

This is from a short version of the "American Participation in the War of Jenkins' Ear" by John Tate Lanning.

25/04/2026

The tension that's never spoken about out loud in Utila was explained in "Never hold Your Breath" a 2016 master's thesis in Visual Cultural Studies by Gil Orr Urtreger from the Arctic University of Norway.

The particular genius, or perhaps the particular dysfunction, of Utilian social life. The strategy that holds everything together is a kind of enforced civility, where you simply don't discuss anything controversial outside your inner circle. A friend of Urtreger's described it perfectly: "It's a dog eat dog place. But not on the surface. Your neighbor will never tell you that you are bothering him by playing your music until 2:00 AM. Never. He will just smile to your face, and the next night he will play his music until 4:00 in the morning."

This isn't hostility, it's actually a sophisticated, community-wide silent agreement to keep the peace by avoiding confrontation entirely. And for a small island where everyone knows everyone, and an explosion of conflict would be felt by the whole community, it makes a certain kind of sense.

The problem is that avoiding conflict and actually working together are two very different things. You can live side by side with someone for generations without ever really collaborating with them.

24/04/2026

Our Bay Islands' English is being studied all the way in Europe 🌍

César García, a fellow Honduran and a 4th year student of Estudis Anglesos at the Universitat de Barcelona, is currently working on his bachelor’s thesis, and he chose us as his focus.

His research explores something many of us live every day, but rarely stop to think about: how multilingual the islands are, and how language is used across daily life. To support his study, he has created a short questionnaire that takes just about 5 minutes to complete ⏱️ If you’re a native Bay Islander, your input would be incredibly valuable to César.

This is a chance to contribute to research that shows the cultural and linguistic richness of the islands. Please take 5 short minutes to help him out.

Hello! My name is César and I am a final-year English Studies undergraduate student conducting research for my Bachelor’s thesis. This study explores how people in the Bay Islands of Honduras use different languages (like Bay Islands English, Spanish, and US English) in their daily lives, media, ...

23/04/2026

We just filmed the first episode of a new series about the Bay Islands of Honduras 🇭🇳

This isn’t just about beaches—it’s about the real story: indigenous history, pirates, British influence, and the culture that shaped these islands.

We started in Utila, explored caves, and learned more than we expected.

Coming 2026.

22/04/2026

22/04/2026

April 22 has become, year after year, the day Bay Islanders seem to receive the most hate online. Even when a publication has nothing to do with wishing to be a British colony as that is past, even when it’s simply a remembrance of what once was, it still triggers so much negativity.

Many people from the mainland take to social media to insult Bay Islanders, especially Black English speakers, calling them names and trying to tell them where they’re from, as if identity is something that can be assigned by outsiders. It’s sad to see that 165 years later, this level of ignorance still exists, filling comment sections of every post they encounter, with people who feel entitled to dictate what culture others should claim.

What makes it even sadder is that many of those same voices cannot name their own indigenous groups, cannot speak on Honduran history, yet are quick to force a version of culture onto others. The reality is, very few take the time to truly learn, to understand, or to appreciate that the Bay Islands bring another color to an already colorful country.

22/04/2026

Did you know that when the Bay Islands were handed over to Honduras in 1861, José Santos Guardiola didn’t respond with force, but with a letter?

A letter that most people have never heard of. One where he spoke directly to the islanders, acknowledging that this wasn’t just about territory... it was about people, culture, language, and identity. I didn't know how powerful it was until an employee of the National Archive read it out to me.

He promised something that a lot of us don’t talk about enough today: that we would keep who we are. Our religion, our language, our lands. And that wasn’t a small thing, especially in a country shaped by Spanish colonization, where Spanish and Catholicism had already become dominant. There was real opposition to that decision, especially from the Catholic Church at the time, but he still allowed it.

After he was murdered, things changed, and a lot of what he protected became questioned and challenged. And to this day, there are still debates about who killed him and why. Some historians believe his stance on protecting the religious identity of the Bay Islands may have had something to do with it.

The letter reads as follows:

Santos Guardiola, Captain General and President of the Republic of Honduras, to the inhabitants of the Bay Islands.

The islands you inhabit have, as you are aware, been restored to Honduras, their lawful owner, by treaty with Great Britain, and the Republic being about to assume its sovereignty over them, it becomes me, as the supreme magistrate of the nation, to give you the assurances which you must naturally expect from me, respecting the maintenance of your rights and the promotion of your welfare.

It is my firm resolve that you shall experience no injury whatever from the change, but that on the contrary, your incorporation to the Honduras nationality shall mark out the inauguration of an era of even greater prosperity than that which you have enjoyed under the liberal government of Great Britain.

True it is that you will cease to belong to a mighty and powerful empire, but on the other hand, you will have the noble mission of contributing by your loyalty and progress to this favored land, of which you now will form an integral part.

You will march at the vanguard of its civilization, and the example you will set to your brethren of the mainland, and the greater and more extended in*******se and commerce which will bring us between you and the rest of Honduras, will soon draw closer the bonds of fraternity and goodwill, which must ever unite you to the inhabitants of a common country.

Your rights and statutes will be faithfully maintained. Your loyalty, on the other hand, will, I am sure, be in proportion to the desires of my government, which will only tend to secure your progress and welfare.

Comayagua, April 24th, 1861
Santos Guardiola