Pollard was born in Tacarigua, Trinidad and Tobago, where he was raised, along with two younger sisters, in a poor home by his single mother.
The Caribs of Arima are descended from the original Amerindian inhabitants of Trinidad; Amerindians from the former encomiendas of Tacarigua and Arauca (Arouca) were resettled to Arima between 1784 and 1786.