Colophon

Editorial

The interviews, desk research and writing were carried out by Mylène Luisa. Unless stated otherwise, she also took the photos.

Mylène was born on Curaçao in 1960, studied at the School of Journalism in Utrecht and has devoted the last 20 years to gathering information about the history and origins of the barios of Curaçao. Her articles on this subject appear regularly in the Amigoe under the title ‘De Bario’s van Curaçao’. She also wrote the original texts for the nature and culture guides Konosé bo Isla by the Uniek Curaçao foundation. Mylène has furthermore completed several courses as a tourist guide.

The voluntary support of the following experts and ‘walking encyclopedias’ was also vital for checking and supplementing the content of the texts:

Frensel Mercelina

Frensel was born in Montaña in 1959 and spent his youth in this neighbourhood and in Santa Catharina. After the Shell company school he worked at the refinery as a process operator. From an early age he spent a lot of time in nature and immersed himself in the fauna, flora and history of Curaçao, which is why he is often asked to act as a guide on walking and bus tours on Curaçao. In his spare time he enjoys writing poetry and stories about the nature, culture and/or history of Curaçao.

Since 2011 Frensel has been chairman of Uniek Curaçao, a private foundation responsible, among other things, for the maintenance of nature parks and the publisher of Konosé Bo Isla, a nature and culture guide to Curaçao.

François van der Hoeven

François was born in Amsterdam in 1946, came to Curaçao as a nine-month-old baby and grew up here. He was a geography teacher on Curaçao and from 2008, together with Fred Chumaceiro, went into the mondi (the countryside) every week in search of remains from the past. This gradually became the Werkgroep Archeologie Curaçao (Curaçao Archaeology Working Group). In 2023 François had to stop for medical reasons; for the last three years the expeditions were continued under the leadership of Carel de Haseth, in consultation with François.

François was a member of the Monuments Council for eight years and for 20 years secretary of the Stichting Maritieme Archeologie Curaçao (Curaçao Maritime Archaeology Foundation).

André Rancuret

André was born in Kupang, Indonesia, in 1950 and has worked as a history teacher at Radulphus College on Curaçao since 1973. He has always been interested in the history, archaeology and culture of the island and has studied them in depth for many years, with a special interest in the past of the Caquetio Indians on Curaçao. André works both in archival research and in the field, among others together with NAAM, the National Archaeological and Anthropological Memory Management Foundation.

Christel Monsanto

Christel was born in Germany and studied art history in Frankfurt (Germany) and in Leiden. She has lived on Curaçao since 1981 and has immersed herself in the history and culture of Curaçao and the lives of Curaçao artists. She writes, among others, for the Archiefvriend, a periodical of the Friends of the National Archives of Curaçao foundation (www.archiefvriend.com), and for the social and cultural magazine Kristòf. She also gives lectures on these subjects, and in particular on genealogy and the family trees of Curaçao families.

The grammar check of various pages was done by Jeroen Heuvel.

Jeroen was born on Curaçao in 1957 and is a theatre maker with an MEd in Papiamentu. He taught Papiamentu, translates literature and, since his retirement, chairs Patruli Literario, the digital platform for lovers of literature in Papiamentu, Dutch, English and Spanish: patruli.org.

The design, layout and build of the website as well as the English translation were done by B-Smart: Remco Tevreden

Photo & video

The introduction video is a production by Stevan Llewelyn of Seven Media NV and includes photographs by Noraly Lovert, Frensel Mercelina, Fred Chumaceiro, Carel de Haseth and Christel Monsanto.

Werkgroep Archeologie Curaçao

Besides the written information used as source material, the photos from the reports of the Werkgroep Archeologie (Archaeology Working Group) are an important part of the website Rais di mi Pais. The core of the Werkgroep Archeologie Curaçao consists of, among others, François van der Hoeven, Fred Chumaceiro, Michèle van Veldhoven, Carel de Haseth and John Dohmen.

This informal group of sleuths went into the mondi almost every week, looking mainly for built remains from the past. Most of these were clearly marked on the Werbata maps*. But partly by combining these maps with cadastral maps and Google Maps, they also discovered other locations, such as dams and wells, that did not appear on the map.

These were then recorded with a GPS on a section of a digital Werbata map, which also shows the exact route walked by the Working Group.

The difference with the organised hiking groups on Curaçao is that those only used walking trails to get somewhere quickly.

The Working Group’s expeditions – between 2008 and 2023 – mostly took place in undisturbed nature, where no machetes were used, at most a small pair of pliers to get past impenetrable obstacles.

Artefacts were only taken along in very exceptional cases for closer study. The flora and fauna along the way were photographed as well.

All locations visited and all finds were documented in a report (more than 800 in total!), which was sent by e-mail, together with maps and photos, to interested parties, including the archaeologists of NAAM.

Data about nature were shared with experts “all over the world”.

*Werbata

In almost every chapter you will also find parts of the Werbata maps. These maps are named after the Dutch East Indies topographer Johannes Vallentin Dominicus Werbata (1866–1929), known in his time by his initials J.V.D. Between 1900 and 1910 he drew up the first topographic maps giving a very detailed geographical description of the island of Curaçao and the capital Willemstad. Almost every building that could be seen on Curaçao around 1909 was accurately recorded. The maps were made at the request of the Dutch colonial government and have proved invaluable for archaeology and historical research on the island.