Destra says Laventille address cost her job opportunities
Long before Destra Garcia became one of the Caribbean’s most recognisable performers, she says simply writing “Laventille” on her résumé was enough to close employment doors.
The Soca superstar opened up about the stigma attached to the community during an appearance on the Corey Sheppard Podcast, revealing that she believes her Laventille address prevented her from securing several jobs.
“Sending out résumés and putting Laventille as my address stopped me from getting a lot of jobs,” Destra said.
For the Queen of Bacchanal, negative perceptions surrounding Laventille are neither recent nor unfamiliar.
She said the community was being spoken about negatively from the time she was a child.
But Destra strongly rejected the idea that everyone living in an area should be defined by the crime and violence associated with it in news reports.
“Not everybody in an area is a product of what people see on the news,” she said.
Her own memories of Laventille include some of the happiest periods of her childhood.
Destra recalled Christmas celebrations surrounded by family and said there was a time when she did not feel unsafe living there.
Her perception began changing as she grew older and started witnessing some of the dangers around her.
She shared one particularly memorable story involving Brian, who would later become her husband.
Destra recalled Brian dropping her home on one occasion when gunshots suddenly rang out.
Brian immediately went to the ground.
Destra said members of her family looked at him in disbelief, highlighting how accustomed people living within an environment can sometimes become to things that alarm outsiders.
But Destra said the larger problem became apparent when she left the community and experienced how people judged her because of where she came from.
She recalled encountering attitudes suggesting she did not behave like someone from Laventille.
That raised a simple question for her: what exactly is a girl from Laventille supposed to act like?
Destra said stereotypes cannot accurately describe an entire community.
Not everyone owns a gun, she argued, and people living in the same neighbourhood can have completely different families, experiences and upbringings.
She believes people should therefore be treated as individuals rather than being automatically judged by their address, parents or community.
Despite the stigma she encountered, Destra has never hidden her connection to Laventille.
She incorporated that pride into her music, including naming an album “Laventille” and recording a remake of David Rudder’s “The Hammer”.
Destra said growing up hearing the song gave her a sense of pride in where she came from.
Her story would eventually take her far beyond the community where she grew up.
But decades into an international music career, Destra’s message about Laventille remains clear: an address should never be used to determine a person’s character or potential.
