Jan Doret

Jan Doret is a former kunuku, situated between Groot Piscadera and Groot Sint Michiel. The origin of the name is as yet unclear: according to the historian Pastor R. Nooijen, no Jan Doret could be found in the archive of the Roman Catholic church, but there was a certain Hieronymo Doret who had his enslaved people baptised in 1757. In documents from 1800 he also came across a certain Joseph Dorée who came from Saint-Domingue during the French Revolution, but there is no connection with Jan Doret. Another author, Gerard van Buurt, believes that a Frenchman, a certain Jean Doray, may have given the name, but further information about this person is unknown.

Wooden church

The inhabitants of Jan Doret formerly attended the church at Santa Maria. On 16 April 1919 the Diocese bought for the sum of fls 120 a piece of government land at Jan Doret on which a small house still stood, probably on the spot where the present church was built. The first school of Jan Doret was set up here in 1919, with a wooden emergency church next to it.

In January 1925 the first stone was laid for the building that would serve as a school and at the same time as a church. It is the present Santa Clara school, where a cross can still be seen on the roof of the first classroom, as well as the steps of the entrance of the former church. The rest of the building behind it was, and still is, used as a school building.

The parish was dedicated to the patron saint Mama di Bon Konseho (Mother of Good Counsel), whose feast is celebrated on 26 April. Next to the present church stands the cemetery, where the deceased of Boka Sami are also buried.

In April 1927 the residence for the Sisters of Roosendaal, which stands directly next to the church, and the presbytery were blessed. After the departure of the sisters the building was temporarily fitted out as a nursery school and later seminars were held here. Plans to make the building a community centre have so far not been realised for lack of financial means, as a result of which the monument has unfortunately fallen into disrepair.

Isolated

As the population in Jan Doret and surroundings grew — many families from Boka Samí settled here — an expansion of the church became necessary.

"In 1938 the present church arose as one of the youngest parishes on Curaçao, which besides Jan Doret and Boka also covers the neighbourhoods Seru Grandi, Bullenbaai, Malpais, Hamber, De Savaan, Papaya, Souax, Gato, Zegu and half of Seru Kandela. The other half of the last-mentioned neighbourhood belongs to the parish of Santa Maria," according to Ludwig Reiter, for years the right-hand man of the later pastor Amado Römer.

But because of the remote location and the construction of the closed-off Julianadorp, the church turned out around 1938 to be isolated and difficult to reach, and believers from these neighbourhoods preferred to go to the church of Santa Maria.

In 1946 the then pastor of Jan Doret asked the government for permission to sink wells for drinking water. The groundwater turned out not to be usable for consumption, however, and so water was delivered from elsewhere to the public wells in the neighbourhood. One of these wells stood opposite the church in the Kaya Amado Römer, where the public telephone was later also placed. The location became a meeting place where the latest news was exchanged.

The neighbourhood used to be characterised by many extended families in which children built their house on their parents' plot, a custom that is no longer so common among the younger generations.

Jan Doret had various hofjes, which have disappeared over time due to persistent drought. The last remaining one, Hófi di Coster, was from of old, among other things, the meeting place for large carnival groups such as Globo, Pa pasa un pret, Bunitesa di Hardin and Prestige.

Employment

The neighbourhood profile on the bario mentions that people in the bario often earned a living with charcoal burning but also with hat plaiting. Since 1913 classes in hat plaiting were given without interruption to adults at Santa Rosa, Habaai, Pietermaai and also at Jan Doret. For lack of capable teachers and interested pupils these courses were stopped in 1954.

Another source of employment for Jan Doret and surroundings was the tank farm that the CPIM, later Shell, had already built before the war at Bullenbaai. The tanks were for the storage and shipping of the highly flammable aviation fuel. A fire in such a storage at the refinery would have had disastrous consequences, which is why the remote Bullenbaai was chosen.

Around 1973 oil transhipment became big business, and at Bullenbaai the COT, Curaçao Oil Terminal, was also built, with enormous storage tanks for crude oil that was brought in by supertankers from the Arab countries. Part of it was processed at the refinery, but the greater part was transported in smaller tankers to the United States, where at that time there were no supertanker ports yet.

Tubu (The pipe)

Residents indicate that with the construction of the Shell pipe system to Bullenbaai, the neighbourhood was split in two, namely dilanti tubu and patras di tubu, in front of and behind the pipe. Children from the neighbourhood bought sweets at the shop nearby and then sat late in the afternoon on the still-warm pipes to eat them. At first there were four pipes, which were later reduced to one. The place where the pipe disappears underground served in the evening hours as a meeting place for the older residents of the neighbourhood.

The pipes run parallel to the most important through road from Piscadera to COT: the former Weg naar Bullenbaai, which was built by the refinery.

On the nomination of the residents of Jan Doret, this road was named on 6 December 2008 after Mgr. Dr. Amado Römer, who was a priest at Jandorèt from 1977 to 2009.

Amado Römer

Jan Doret first had various Dutch priests, followed by fathers of the congregation San Vicente de Paúl, who were each time appointed for a few months or years. Ludwig Reiter: "Then for the first time a local pastor came to Jan Doret: Amado Römer, who was to fill in for a few months but stayed on for 30 years uninterruptedly as interim pastor. He practised 'Religion di Funchi ku bòkel, no awa ku suku' (religion based on solid food, not a weak infusion)."

If the church of Jan Doret was once poorly attended, that changed immediately when the pastor, a son of Curaçao (yu di Kòrsou), preached there. Parishioners and non-parishioners came from far and wide to listen to his fiery sermons. Especially on 1 May, Labour Day, he was in his element in the pulpit. A memorable day too was 12 December 1982: a holy mass was then offered for the victims of the December murders in Suriname at the hands of revolutionaries. Because the church was already packed, benches and chairs were brought in that had to be placed outside.

Social activist

Römer was very socially engaged and championed the formation of people, so that they would function independently and be more outspoken. A well-known saying of his was: "Kabes no ta pa peña so, pa pensa tembe." (The head is not only there to be combed; use it to think as well.)

He was closely involved in pastoral work, education and the founding of various trade unions and cooperative associations, such as savings and credit organisations. He also strove for more cooperation between neighbourhood organisations and was a co-founder of the Curaçao association for Alcoholics Anonymous.

Between 1992 and 2006 he also wrote various books about, among other things, religious life on Curaçao and savings and credit. He was the only clergyman who had served 30 years uninterruptedly as (interim) pastor at Jan Doret. Meanwhile he was also appointed pastor of Boka Sami, after a small church had been set up there.

Distinctions

On the nomination of the Pope, Römer was promoted to "monsignor" on 5 December 2003 by Bishop Luis Secco. Only two clergymen on Curaçao were allowed, outside office, to bear this title. The other was Julio Henriquez, pastor at Montaña, who was given this title in 1990.

In 2004 Römer's efforts were rewarded with the Cross of Merit, the highest formal distinction on Curaçao, and in 2008 with an honorary doctorate from the University of the Netherlands Antilles.

On the occasion of his 75th birthday the book Liber Amicorum was published about the life, philosophies and ideologies of Römer. Authors of the book were Valdemar Marcha, Jules Rojer and Guido Hermans.

In 2005 Römer chose to buy a house in Jan Doret, even before he retired in 2009. He died on 17 April 2010 at the age of 88 and is buried in the family grave of his parents in the Catholic cemetery on the Roodeweg.

In memory of this social activist and universally beloved priest, a statue has been placed at the ACU, the Ambtenaren Credit Union (Civil Servants' Credit Union) on the Pater Eeuwensweg.