ABSTRACT
Of the three largest and most inclusive carnivals in the Americas – in Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and Trinidad – Trinidad Carnival alone has established its own diaspora. Indeed, despite its having been imitated in more than sixty North American and European cities as well as other Caribbean islands, and its having influenced celebrations in other places such as Japan and Australia, Trinidad Carnival remains one of the most copied but least known major festivals. Still not listed in the Encyclopedia Britannica under carnival, the festival that is arguably the only truly national carnival in the world1 has created a centrifugal pattern of dispersion that radiates outwardly and inwardly. Many thousands of West Indians – often from islands other than Trinidad – not only come "home" to Port of Spain for carnival each year, they also take carnival home with them. Those who live in the United States and Canada often follow diasporic carnivals from Toronto to Brooklyn to Miami and places between and beyond throughout the summer, traveling with their families and friends, usually in cars or buses, from city to city in a series of weekend carnival pilgrimages.
