Origins of the barios

The birth of Curaçao

According to its geological development, Curaçao was formed some 100 million years ago by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes near the present-day Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador.

This formed the Caribbean plate with several islands, of which Curaçao is one of the oldest. Because this plate was moving, Curaçao once lay in the mouth of the Rio Magdalena in Colombia, so that sand, mud and clay released from the Andes by the earthquakes attached themselves to the volcanic rock.

The sediment of the Rio Magdalena, known here as the Middle Curaçao formation, can still be clearly seen around Rif Sint Marie. Curaçao remained under water and only surfaced near the entrance of the present-day Panama Canal as two small islands: Bandariba and Bandabou, with the sea still between them. The islands were later joined together by coral reefs that had also attached themselves all around the island (Kaska di Kòrsou).

The elements of nature later formed the bays of the islands that were called Antilha (ante islas, the islands in front of) the coast of South America.

Land and water surface

Curaçao lies in the Caribbean Sea, 75 kilometres off the coast of Venezuela, and has a surface area of about 444 square kilometres, of which 382 is land and the rest water.

The longest stretch of the island runs from Punta Cañon at Oostpunt to Noordpunt (near Westpunt) and is 61 kilometres. The widest parts of Curaçao lie between Willemstad and Playa Canoa in Bandariba and between Bartool Bay and Santa Cruz in Bandabou, each 12 kilometres wide. Curaçao is at its narrowest between the plain of Hato and Bullenbaai: just 4 kilometres.

The highest hills in the west of the island are the Christoffelberg (372 m), Sint Hieronimus (229 m), Sint Anthonie (169 m) and the Veerisberg (131 m). In the east they are the Tafelberg (193 m), Ronde Klip (129 m) and Seru Grandi (97 m), next to Oost Seinpost (86 m).

Curaçao has 39 bays, of which Sint Anna Bay is the largest. Sint Anna Bay is also the largest harbour, followed by Caracas Bay and, in third place, Bullenbaai. After the Schottegat, the Spaanse Water is the second largest inland water of Curaçao, followed by Sint Joris and Santa Martha in third and fourth place respectively.

Curaçao has meanwhile grown to a surface area of about 444 square kilometres, 382 of which is land and the rest water. The island is 60 kilometres long, has 39 bays and is surrounded by living coral that is still constantly expanding. As a result Curaçao keeps rising further above sea level and is slowly but surely moving eastwards, towards Trinidad.

The name Curaçao

There are several theories about its origin, such as Corosol (soursop) and Ilha da Cura (island of healing). Spanish cartographers are said to have called it ‘curazon’ (heart), which means the same as the Portuguese Curaçao.
According to the historian J. den Hartog, however, the Spaniards took over the name from the original inhabitants, the Caiquetios, who called the island Cu rra ssow. In a letter to the editor, T. Vos writes that this name may derive from the bird we know today as the Great Curassow (Crax rubra), which has the same Amerindian origin.

The oldest villages

Very recent excavations at the Saliña Sint Marie site show that Curaçao was already inhabited 5,700 to 5,600 years ago by Archaic Amerindians from Latin America, 350 years earlier than previously assumed. Earlier archaeological finds of (Archaic) Amerindians date from 4,500 to 3,800 years ago and were found near the Sint Michielsberg, Santa Barbara, Sint Joris and San Juan.

During the subsequent ceramic period, about 1,500 years ago, Curaçao was inhabited by a second group of Amerindians, the Arawaks, who also came from Venezuela. They lived on fertile farmland along valleys, bays and rooien (watercourses, dry riverbeds) and springs such as the Savaan, Piscadera and Roi Rincon, and lived from farming and fishing. They also founded a small village close to the present-day plantation house of Klein Santa Martha, near the great rooi of Rio Magdalena. Through the system of rooien this village was connected to other villages around neighbouring inland bays such as Knip, Santa Cruz, San Juan and later also San Hironimo.
Ascencion has also long been known as an old Amerindian village, as have those on the Bartool coast at Wacao, at Hato and on Sint Joris Bay. These Amerindian settlements are the first population centres and therefore the oldest villages on Curaçao.

The Spanish period

Water was the common thread in the founding of these villages, and the later plantations were also built near springs wherever possible.

The Spaniards first arrived on Curaçao in 1499 and the island remained under Spanish rule until 1634. Around 1526 the Amerindian villages were expanded further. The Spaniards also introduced Roman Catholic saints’ names for these Amerindian settlements, for landmarks (Sierra de Santo Cristoval for the Christoffelberg), the harbour and the large bays. The plantations later laid out by the Dutch on these bays, such as Groot and Klein Sint Michiel, Santa Martha and Santa Cruz, were named after the bay. Exceptions include Santa Catharina, Sint Jacob, San Sebastian and San Heronimo, which do not lie on a bay.

The names Asiento (= licence to trade in enslaved people), Hato (= cattle place) and Ascencion (= Ascension), alias Pueblo de la madre de Dios de la Ascuncion, a vanished Amerindian village from before the Spanish period, also date from the Spanish era. After the Spanish conquest the Amerindians were Christianised by the occupiers; they built the first small chapels on the island at Santa Barbara and Ascencion, and the Amerindians even got their own parish priest.

Chinchó

Slowly but surely, Amerindian names made way for Spanish ones: Maniguacoa became Pescadero (Piscadera Bay), Fuik Bay was called Boca de Moros and Caracas Bay Sardineron. And Cariatavo was probably located near present-day Marie Pampoen. Other Amerindian names such as Choloma and Chobolobo did survive the translation. So did Chinchó: a primitive settlement with a small fruit garden on the north coast, called Chinchorro or San Jorge by the Amerindians and later the Spaniards. The Dutch occupiers translated it to Sint Joris, but in everyday speech it is still called Chinchó.

Apart from Sint Joris, saints’ names were translated but never changed. That is why, after five centuries, we still speak of Sint Anna Bay, San Pedro, Santa Cruz and also Santa Barbara, which was the administrative centre of the island during the Spanish period.

The Dutch period

In 1634 Curaçao was conquered on behalf of the WIC, the Dutch West India Company. In 1635 the capital was developed, and by the end of the 17th century it was already fully built up. For that reason Otrobanda was developed around 1700, and suburbs such as Scharloo, Fleur de Marie and Pietermaai arose next to Punda.

With the arrival of the WIC the slave trade flourished, and the WIC founded plantations to provide food for the enslaved people who were to be sold.

These WIC plantations were located at Rooi Canarie, Rif Sint Marie, Sint Michiel, Malpais, Sint Joris, Noordkant and Hato. They were later leased out and finally sold to private owners around 1800. After 1650 it also became possible to found private plantations, as ‘state land was granted to free people’ (soldiers and sailors). In this way the 96 plantations with plantation houses in the outer districts of Bandabou and Bandariba eventually came into being.

During the 18th century barios developed around these plantations, such as Ascencion, Jan Kok, Dokterstuin, Groot and Klein Santa Martha, Pannekoek, Kenepa, Savonet, Leliënberg, Wacao, Santa Cruz and Sint Willibrordus in Bandabou, and in Bandariba near Santa Barbara and Damascus (Jan Thiel).

New barios also arose from existing plantations: Soto, for instance, was formed after the abolition of slavery by former labourers of Groot and Klein Santa Martha.

Parishes

In 1824 the priest and later bishop Martinus Johannes Niewindt arrived on Curaçao. As head of the Catholic Church, around 1840 he strategically developed a network of parishes that would later grow into church villages, such as Barber, Westpunt and Sint Willibrordus in Bandabou, Santa Maria and Pietermaai in central Curaçao, and Santa Rosa and Montaña in Bandariba. After the abolition of slavery the influence of the Catholic Church grew, and from then on parishes determined the boundaries of the neighbourhoods.

Besides the church villages, communities of free people also arose, mainly farmers and fishermen without a clear village centre, such as at Westpunt, Lagún, San Pedro and also Sint Michiel, where a fishing village grew up in the mid-19th century around the fort that had been built there.

Shell

With the arrival of the oil refinery in 1915, the development of neighbourhoods gained momentum. The former plantations Valentijn, Asiento, Heintje Kool, Bleinheim, Rozentak, Rust en Burgh and Marchena had to make way for the refinery, which in turn built new ‘oil villages’ to house its employees, such as Emmastad (Valentijn, Asiento and Negropont), Rust en Burg, part of Groot Kwartier, Rio Canario, Biesheuvel, Cas Corá, Julianadorp and Schelpwijk.

Shell also set off a stream of migrant workers, mainly from the British West Indies, Bonaire, the Windward Islands, Portugal, Venezuela and Suriname, causing the population to grow from 32,000 in 1923 to 67,000 in 1940. With the exception of the British West Indians, these workers were housed in separate settlements, such as the barracks camp for Portuguese workers at Suffisant and for Surinamese workers near Heintje Kool. The barracks were later replaced by workers’ housing in Suffisant and the former Surinamedorp.

Near the refinery, people from the outer districts as well as migrant workers bought or rented a piece of land, and so concentrations of poor workers’ houses quickly arose, without any infrastructure, at Dòmi, Marchena, Wishi, Santa Helena, Roozendaal, Bivac, Julian, Buena Vista, Kanga, Dein, Noorwegen, Rio Canario and Suffisant.

On the Punda side, Scharloo, Pietermaai and Fleur de Marie became overpopulated and there was a constant expansion eastwards with new barios, such as Sint Jago, Coronet, Monteverde, Nieuw Nederland, Marie Pompoen, Shèrasil and Berg Altena (Ser’i Pietermaai). Besides the refinery, there was also more employment thanks to growing activity in the harbour and in Punda.

Public housing

With the paving of roads and overcrowding in the city and neighbouring districts, the move to outlying areas gathered pace, and the well-to-do left the city for residential areas such as Zeelandia, Damacor, Van Engelen, Cas Cora and Mahaai. In neighbourhoods such as Buena Vista, Santa Maria and Mahuma, plots were also granted on long lease.

Between 1929 and 1949 the government and private organisations built middle-class housing in Mundo Nobo. Government-subsidised housing associations such as the Curaçao Roman Catholic Volksbond built houses in Otrobanda, on the Oranjestraat, the Volksbond, better known as ‘den Bònt’, and in Mundo Nobo.

Around 1947 the first public housing (kas di gobièrnu) was built in Dominguito, Parera, Steenrijk and Marie Pampún. In the early sixties Brievengat served as the model for the first large-scale public housing project, after which public housing neighbourhoods arose such as Seru Papaya, Kustbatterij, Tera Kora, Koraal Specht, Jan Dorèt, Ser’i Dòmi, Muizenberg, De Savaan, Stenen Koraal, Montaña Abou, Sint Jacob, Jongbloed and Klein Sint Michiel.

Between 1960 and 1980 various private subdivision plans with self-build neighbourhoods also developed, such as Roi Catochi, Cas Grandi, Bottelier, Girouette, Jan Sofat, Muizenberg, Jan Thiel, Romar, Matancia, Jongbloed, Harbour View, Sunvalley and Lagunisol Sapaté. It was also the time when illegal settlements such as Julian, Ser’i Kandela and Souax continued to grow.

The settlements of the Caiquetios, the location of the various plantations and their plantation houses, the arrival of Monsignor Niewindt and of Shell, and later government and private house building have thus successively shaped the origins of the various barios of Curaçao.

Naming

Until well into the 18th century it remained customary to name plantations after an owner, such as Philip Webb for the plantation and later bario Flip, Pannekoek after Gerrit Pannekoek, Barber after Barbara Eksteen, Blauw, which was laid out by Anno Blauw, Jongbloed after the skipper and former owner Jan Jongbloed, Daniël after Daniël Ellis, Hamber after Baas Hamer, Jantiel after Jan Thielen and Kooral Specht after Jan Hendrik Specht.

Plantation Parera once belonged to Elias Pereira, and at the end of the 18th century Raphaël Alvares Correa owned the plantation officially called Klein Piscadera, but known as Raphaël. The plantation next to it, Veeris, belonged to Abraham Veeris, and Valentijn Pronken once owned plantation Valentijn, while Salsbach and Gosie were also named after landowners. Hermanus Stork owned plantation Oud Sint Marie, which is now called… yes indeed: Hermanus!

Striking was the preference for abstract, peaceful and romantic names for Curaçao plantations, such as Paradijs (Paradise), Nooitgedacht (Never Thought), Zorgvlied, Blije Rust (Blauw), De Gerust(i)gheid (Cas Chikitu), Granatenberg (Jandoret), Stadsrust (Saliña Ariba), Goedgezicht (Buena Vista), Buitenrust (Sapateer), Vrede (Klein Kwartier), Vreeland (Gaito), Genoegen is ’t al (Saliña Abou), Goed Begin (Janwe) and Zeegening (Stenen Koraal). Occasionally less cheerful names appeared too, such as ‘de Eenzaamheid’ (Loneliness), ‘Hel’ (Hell) and ‘Vagevuur’ (Purgatory).

Corrupted names

Dutch names were adapted in Papiamentu – such as Punda, which as early as the 17th century stood for ‘de Punt’ (the Point): the tip of the narrow isthmus at the harbour entrance and one of the many coral reefs off the coast. Daniel became Dain.

Others were translated, such as Poos Spanjo for Spaanse Put (Spanish Well), or translated and adapted, such as Shete Seru or Sherisé for Zevenbergen, Skèrpènè for Scherpenheuvel, Kraké for Krakeel near San Pedro, Kènchisèlf for Kent u Zelf, Briá for Brievengat, Manikeipu near Julianadorp, derived from the farmer Herman Kuiper, Langulé for Lang Leven near Montagne, and Wadufredu (Weltevreden) near Mahuma. Sometimes names were pushed out altogether: Cas Corá (was Vredenberg), Cas Chikitu (was Gerustigheid), Cas Grandi (was Nijdrust), Montaña Ariba (was Vaersche Put) and Pos Cabai (was Suickertuin).

French and English names

And where do French names such as Sans Soucis, Mon Repos, Suffisant (Sufficient) and Ma Retraite (Gasparitu) come from? According to the historian Father Nooyen, several French immigrants came to Curaçao around 1750, and their names too are connected to land on Curaçao, such as Dominique Cori, owner of a small plantation near Rooi Catootje, whose name lives on in the Corrieweg.

The French businessman Elias Courtin bought from the government what was then a huge piece of land (mondi) behind his house and warehouse on the Breedestraat in Otrobanda, now known as Kortijn. At the same time as Courtin, a certain Abraham de Motet bought an adjoining plot, which immediately tells us how the Motetwerf got its name. Plantation Girouette was named after its former owner Pierre Surhouet, and Zjaro belonged to the French businessman Joseph Jarreau, who settled on Curaçao around 1747.

For a short time Curaçao was also governed by English administrators, from The Pen, today’s Avila Beach Resort on… the Penstraat! In 1814 the English gave the owner of plantation Papaya at Westpunt permission to keep “a herd of horned cattle and a flock of sheep”. Papaya was then called Fourth (of) July, but was also known as Papayatuin or Wel te Vrede.

What’s in a name

Papaya was just one of the many plantations on Curaçao called Weltevreden. According to Els Langenfeld, the confusion between the names of plantations and smaller agricultural plots was great: there were two plantations called Bijgelegen, two called Sint Joris, three named Carpata, three called Welgelegen, three Eendracht, three Esperanza, four times Nooitgedagt and four times Vergenoeging. The names Rust en Vreede and Buena Vista each occurred six times, and Vredenberg takes the prize with no fewer than seven plantations of that name.

Plantations that were split off often kept the original name for a long time: the vast plantation Malpais, owned by the West India Company, was divided at the end of the 18th century into private plantations such as Weitje, Papaya, Meiberg, Grote and Kleine Berg, Groot and Klein Malpais (alias Mount Pleasant and later Malpais again), Daniël and Siberie. Despite the division, Daniël was still often referred to as Malpais, and both Papaya and Weitje were called Klein Malpais.

To solve this, an alias or the name of the nearest neighbourhood was sometimes added, for example: Bona Vista near Patrick. And to better distinguish the three plantations at Brakkeput, the descriptions Brakkeput Ariba, Brakkeput Mei Mei and Brakkeput Abou were used.

Split-off parts of a plantation were also sometimes given the prefix ‘Klein’ (Little), as in Klein Sint Michiel, Klein Piscadera, Klein Sint Joris and Klein Davelaar. The plantation Santa Martha was divided into the plantations Groot Santa Martha, Klein Santa Martha and San Nicolas.

Sometimes a new name was meant to prevent confusion: in 1781 Juriaan Crisson bought the plantation Vredenberg but named it Mount Vernon, to avoid confusion with a neighbouring plantation that was then also called Vredenberg (Cas Cora). The name Mount Vernon did not last: it became, and remained, Van Engelen after Willibrord van Engelen, a former director of Curaçao, had lived there. On the other hand, the plantation Engelenberg, which Van Engelen had founded in Bandabou, stubbornly remained known in popular speech as Cas Abou.

To prevent further confusion and administrative errors, the colonial council decided in 1839 that plantations and gardens could only be renamed with the prior permission of the government.

Amerindian landowners

Remarkable are the Amerindian names that have survived for centuries without an alias, such as San Heronimo, named after Jeronimo, the Amerindian owner of the plantation of the same name near Wacao. Likewise the Amerindian Sebastian, owner of the estate near Jan Kok, and the Amerindian cacique (chief) Don Bartolo, after whom Bartool Bay, the Bartool coast and Seru Bartool are named. Both Bartolo and Sylvester, an Amerindian owner of the kunuku of the same name, lived at Wacao.

The Amerindians of Wacao and the neighbouring area of Seru Bientu used the present-day neighbourhood of Matancia near Barber to slaughter cattle, just as Matancia near the Snipweg was used by Amerindians from nearby Rancho and Rooi Indjan in Groot Kwartier. Schelpwijk, which borders Rancho, was also inhabited by Amerindians, and shellfish were their staple food, but the name probably refers to the logo of Shell, which had staff housing built here.

Names such as Choloma, Chinchorro, Chango and probably also Chobolobo also date from Amerindian times.

Hato

Formerly enslaved people and ordinary people who had bought their freedom have also left their names in the history of our neighbourhoods: the ‘free black women’ Maria and Luisa Girindongo each owned a plot of land east of plantation Bonam, today’s Kirindongo. Other names are Ma Louisa (near Santa Rosa), Basinto (near Veeris), Marie Pampun, Vader Sijntje near Corrieweg and Santa Teresa.

At Hato, the government plantation and country house of the governors, almost all the labourers were over sixty. Labourers on government plantations were more likely to be granted their freedom than those on private plantations, and they often received a sizeable piece of government land as a bonus ‘for loyal service’. As a result, several neighbourhoods on and around the Rooseveltweg – formerly called the Road to Hato – are named after formerly enslaved people of Hato. From the roundabout at Torenquest near Marchena towards Hato you will find, among others: Luis Paula, Calabare, Juan Hato, Baas Gracie, Guanapa, Nanie, Gora, Jenefoe, Kanga and Juan Nota, many of which have now been subdivided.

Larger plantations that arose from Hato in the same way are Juan Domingo (75 ha), located behind Esperamos Supermarket, and Seru Fortuna (150 ha), both given in 1731 by a departing governor to Juan Domingo and Fransisco Beltran respectively.

Countries and professions

African place names on Curaçao include Burundanga, Congo, Kanga, Zumbu and Mandinga. Place names of which it is unknown whether they are Amerindian or African are Chango, Daaibooi and Parasasa.

Unlike Bonaire, Curaçao has only a few names of countries or cities, such as Caracas (in Pietermaai), Australië (Wishi), Francia (near Cas Cora), Gibraltar (on the Road to Hato) and Congo (Santa Rosa). Some plantation owners named their property after their birthplace, such as Zeelandia, Amsterdam and Vianen.

Biesheuvel is named after the architect who designed the neighbourhood, and doctor Jan Bernagie lived and practised until 1699 at Dokterstuin, alias Klein Ascencion. Bottelier is named after the profession (butler) of Nicolaas Hansen, once owner of plantation Grote Tuyn near Zuurzak.

And speaking of Zuurzak (soursop): several neighbourhood names are derived from flowers, land or (horticultural) products, such as Bloemhof, Lelienberg, Rio Magdalena (Ri Malein), Suikertuintje and Kooral Tabak, so called because of an experiment with growing tobacco. Jan Sofat, however, has nothing to do with salt: its owner was Johannes Houtvat, which was corrupted to Jan Zoutvat (salt barrel) and Jan Sofat. It was in fact a cattle plantation that never had any salt pans.

Landmarks

The landscape was also a source of inspiration for names referring to a hill, cliff, rooi or well, such as Cabrietenberg (Barber), Rif, Ronde Klip, Rooi Catootje, Berg Carmel (alias Parera), Fontein, Kleine Kloof (Pannekoek), Ligtenberg or Lugtenberg (Mahuma), Montaña, Mount Pleasant, Oranjeberg (near Fuik), Pos Cabai, Spaanse Put and Zevenbergen (near Lagun). Names such as Noordkant, Westpunt and Oostpunt refer to the geographical location of the neighbourhood, as does Porto Marie, which lies near Rif Sint Marie.

Sources

• L. Daal: Het Antilliaans verhaal
• L. Janga: Wijkontwikkeling op Curaçao
• E. Langenfeld: Verhalen uit het verleden
• E. Langenfeld: Herkomst van oude plaats- en straatnamen
• E. Baetens and C. do Rego: Santa Martha Grandi
• J.Ph. de Palm and G.A. Abbad: Encyclopedie van de Nederlandse Antillen
• W. Renkema: Het Curaçaos plantagebedrijf in de 19e eeuw
• M.A. Visman: Herkomst van onze streek- en plantagenamen
• P. Brenneker: Sambumbu (various editions)
• A. Huijgens: Landhuizen van Curaçao
• G. van Buurt and S. Joubert: Stemmen uit het verleden
• Ministry of SOAW: Buurtprofiel Soto