Cocoa panyols

The present-day Panyols of Trinidad and Tobago are descendants of those Venezuelan, Colombian, and Spanish Settlers, whose ancestors originated from Canary Islands, and Gulf of Paria and neighboring region ethnic indigenous Amerindians communities on both sides of the Gulf of Paria, its Peninsulas, and into the Northern Range Rain Forest Mountains Valleys, of Trinidad.

The Panyols were part of the Cedula of Populations, and included workers attracted from Venezuela after the 1838 Abolition of Slavery, for labour within the cocoa industry.

Migrants from Venezuela settled and intermarried, in particular in Diego Martin with Africans of Sierra Leonese descent, and with that community formed an integral part of the Estate Lands settlers in that Region.

They became an integral part of the Cocoa Farms Estate owners and settled many of the lands and regions in Maraval, Paramin, St. Ann's, and Diego Martin.

After the Island fell under British control in 1797, Spanish-speaking Venezuelans continued to settle in Trinidad, usually in connection with the independence wars and revolutions which followed.