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Business View Caribbean
Arima, Trinidad
The official home of the first peoples
The city of Arima, Trinidad is located on the banks of
the Arima River in the foothills of the Northern Range.
It is the third largest city on the island, and is consid-
ered the gateway to the north-eastern section of Trini-
dad. Arima, which is the Amerindian word for “water,”
was founded in 1757, by Capuchin monks from Spain
who had travelled to Trinidad to convert the natives
to Catholicism, as part of that country’s colonizing ef-
forts.
Trinidad was taken over by the British in 1797, and by
the 1850s, Arima, because of its strategic position,
had grown large enough to be regarded as one of the
key villages in Trinidad. The 1870s brought further
transformation to Arima, when the cocoa industry be-
gan to spread into the central regions of the island.
Planters insisted on a system of improved transporta-
tion to get their goods into Port of Spain so, on August
31, 1876, Arima saw the inauguration of the first pas-
senger and freight railway line in the country. On the
first day of August 1888, Arima was granted the status
of a Royal Borough. Today, Arima extends over an area
of approximately 4.6 square miles and has a popula-
tion of approximately 41,000.
