Wishi
Paul Brenneker mentions that as early as 1756 a small plantation lay here with the name Hoesji, Husji, Hoesje, Wiesje (1835), Wieschie (1836), Wieshi (1923). Around 1940 the spelling changed to Juicio ("judgment") or Wishi. According to Els Langenfeld, who inventoried the transfer documents of plantations and knoekjes on Curaçao, Wishi was once a donation to a formerly enslaved person. The names of the donor and the then new owner are unknown, however. The whole area west of Marchena was also once known as Alabama. This last name came from Leonard Burlington Smith, the designer of the first Curaçao pontoon bridge of 1888. Smith was born in Maine, USA, as a farmer's son but chose the sea. He was captain on various ships, travelled all over the world, became a shareholder in large shipping companies and later owned various shipyards in the Sint Anna Bay.
Special resident
Smith fell in love with the island and moved with his family to Curaçao. He had already settled here as a fabulously rich businessman for some years when he was appointed vice-consul in 1881 and consul in 1884. Smith's native region was wooded, with many sawmills, and was known for its export of timber. He began on Curaçao with the import of timber from Maine and set up a coal bunkering station on the Anna Bay. The sawdust from Maine was also important for preserving ice, another export product of the region: in Maine, from January to March, ice was "harvested", as it was called, from a frozen river. Each layer of ice was "packed" in sawdust and stored in ice houses. From there it was transported to warmer regions in the United States and, through Smith's mediation, also to Curaçao: he was the first to introduce ice here. At first that was no success: people on Curaçao thought that cold drinks in the tropics would not be good for your health. Smith also sold salt from Bonaire to his native Maine.
Water and electricity
Thanks to Smith, running water and electricity were also introduced on Curaçao. As a trial he had had artesian wells laid out at Wishi, but the water proved too hard. From a central station at Plantersrust he later supplied water to Otrobanda for the first time. And via a pipeline that ran under the Anna Bay, Punda, Pietermaai and Scharloo were then also supplied with water. In 1889 he also began an electricity company at Plantersrust. His most important customer was the government, which paid 500 guilders a month for the 250 street lamps in the city. It was also Smith who introduced windmills on Curaçao, and he was the first to point out that a drydock and a resort hotel should come to the island.
Shon Smith
On 2 May 1895 he bought a sizeable piece of land near Wishi for 10,000 guilders, divided it into plots and called it Alabama. It is not known why he chose this name when he himself came from Maine. Be that as it may, he was given as a nòmber di kariño (affectionate nickname) Shon Smith di Alabama. On the top of one of the hills at Wishi stood his country house "Our Wish", a house from 1865 that Smith had converted into his country house. The location: the present Schottegatweg west no. 71, directly next to Plenchi Daddy Mondesir, where dominoes are now played. In front of the house stood two pillars, with on one the word "Our" and on the other the word "Wish". Older people from Wishi remember these pillars, which were still standing there long after the dwelling house had disappeared. Smith suffered from his lungs, and his greatest wish was to live in the clean, fresh sea air at Wishi. It was granted to him: he died in 1898, before the oil company settled on the island in 1915 and that same Wishi became one of the neighbourhoods with the most smoke nuisance and related health problems. Wishi too, incidentally, was offered to the refinery for sale in writing, but that offer was rejected.
Home sweet home
Besides his country house at Wishi, Smith also had a town house, Washinton Village, at the present L.B. Smithplein no. 8, where grand parties were held. According to the author John de Pool, at the end of the party "Home Sweet Home" was always played, as Smith's silent hint that the party was now over and everyone had to go home. After his death Smith's son Arthur sold this house and also the family businesses to the firm S.E.L. Maduro & Sons. In 1936 the square in Otrobanda was named after Smith. Through his special services to the community Smith is the only consul whose name is still known on the island.
The church
Speaking of S.E.L. Maduro: the terrain on which the church of Wishi, known as Misa di Santa Teresita di Niño Hesus, stands was their donation to monseigneur Vuylsteke. The terrain was 200 by 50 square metres, and the director of Maduro & Sons received, via monseigneur Vuylsteke, a gold medal from the pope. The present church, financed by the Netherlands, is still the original building, which was completed on 5 October 1930. Total construction costs were 40,000 guilders, those of the rectory 20,000, and the first pastor of Wishi was Sylvester Hagemans.
Fatal banana peel
Mgr Vuylsteke was also the initiator of various other churches on Curaçao, such as the Shell church on Dam Negropont and those of Groot Kwartier and Janwe. Vuylsteke died of a broken hip after slipping on a banana peel on his way to the church of Wishi. In connection with the rules of the Vatican, the entrance of churches is traditionally situated on the west side: where Jesus is buried and where for us the sunlight shines in at sunset. Only a few churches on Curaçao form an exception to this, such as those of Fuik, Steenrijk, Tera Kòrá and Wishi.
Neighbourhood centre
Not only the church, but also the two former primary schools behind it, the Pius and Aloisius schools, stand on diocese land. In the Aloisius school, literacy lessons were given to neighbourhood residents by Pro Alfa a few years ago, but since the roof disappeared in a storm, the building stands dilapidated. The two-storey building of the Pius school has been fitted out as a neighbourhood centre since 1989. Besides various activities organised for the neighbourhood and for the elderly, there is also a childcare facility and hot meals are provided to poor families. From the neighbourhood centre the Day of Wishi/Marchena is also celebrated, usually on the second Sunday in October, which coincides with the annual cycle ride of Radio Mas. The Tour de Mas is the day on which thousands of bicycles on Curaçao take to the street MASsively. They also ride through Wishi-Marchena, which forms a highlight on the route.
Clean environment
The neighbourhood centre was founded in 1989 by Kenneth Valpoort, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 60 years, together with Liberio "Pasito" Stroop. Valpoort also founded the Komishon Akshon Wishi/Marchena i besindario against the emissions of the refinery in Wishi/Marchena and surroundings. "Thus we organised protest marches in the neighbourhood and to the refinery, especially on 5 June, International Environment Day, in which various other organisations joined," according to Valpoort.
Plenchi Mondesir
In the period around 1978 it was "hot" around the snack bars and bars on the Schottegatweg-west, or Kaya Grandi. At the neighbourhood club, Onze Vlag, there were regular fights, the youth were rebellious, police carried out raids and once young people even put up a barricade in Kaya Grandi. Isaac "Daddy" Mondesir, an older resident, was killed in this incident by a police bullet, his car riddled with bullets. Valpoort took the initiative to place a memorial stone on the corner of Quinta Leonor, the location where the incident took place and where domino players from the neighbourhood meet.
Kaya Grandi
Kaya grandi is the part of the Schottegatweg west that forms the accidental border between Wishi and Marchena. Valpoort: "As a social/cultural and commercial centre, Theater Rex stood here, the meeting point of residents of Wishi and Marchena, surrounded by various shops such as a Chinese restaurant, toko's, a lodge building, lottery sales, supermarkets, a hairdresser, a construction company, a furniture shop and also a petrol pump. On the present location of Marchena Hardware there stood a tailor's shop, a radio repair business, multi-storey dwellings and even a chicken farm." An important shop in Kaya Grandi on the Marchena side was Toko Rima, now known as the Kenniscentrum Splikami, which wants to bring modern technology closer, at neighbourhood level, to unskilled unemployed vulnerable young people and older people.
Rex
Valpoort: "The Rex theatre was half open, and according to older people from the neighbourhood rich people sat in the front row; if you were poor, you sat at the back. If you were young and athletic you could follow the show for free: at the top of the theatre there were round recesses for ventilation, and young people eagerly made use of this prime location." Until the police got involved and they had to jump down and run for it. The theatre closed its doors in 1960 and later became a warehouse. During the unrest of 30 May 1969 Rex was also set on fire because it was said to be the property of Tauber, who also had shops in the city. In the 1970s a high flying park was established in the ruins of Rex, an artistic and cultural meeting centre for young people. The terrain was later bought up by Thomas "Boy" Martina for the construction of the first branch of Marchena Hardware. Martina, who grew up in Marchena, was, together with his team, also a promoter of parties in the neighbourhood, had sports fields laid out and organised the first Dia di bario in the two neighbourhoods. Because of the incidents in Marchena the neighbourhood was avoided, and he was one of the initiators to "cleanse" the name of the neighbourhood, so that Wishi/Marchena is now even a hotspot during carnival and seú parades.
E wowo and Enoch
The Balkanweg south of Wishi is the border with Santa Helena. Close by lies the former knoekje Enoch, which was a large mondi for years. Since a few years it has been built up with a number of identical houses and given the smallest house numbers in Wishi. The biblical figure Enoch was so devoted to God that he was taken up alive into heaven without having to go through the process of death. Opposite Enoch one sees in the Seru Pretu the Wowo di Seru ("Eye of the Hill"): a black hollow near the top of the hill in which goats had found shelter.
Seru Pretu
Seru Pretu lies south-west of the neighbourhood and is a dominant landmark in Wishi. Directly at its foot lies the neighbourhood of the same name, Seru Pretu; the few houses standing here have as their address Seru Pretu near Wishi. Curaçao in fact has several hills with that name. Dave Brug, born and raised in Wishi, tells: "Seru Pretu was our sports ground. As youngsters we climbed the hill via the stairs but also along the rocks. The descent was on the other side in Zjaro. The former staircase on Seru Pretu led to the various communication masts on the hill. In the belly on the north side lies a big loose rock that we call Baranka. Under it lies a cave where we lit a fire for the grill," according to Brug.
Australia
Wishi consists — besides the core Juicio/Wishi — of various former knoekjes that are nowadays also counted as part of Wishi. West of Wishi and north-east of Seru Pretu lies Australia, or Ostralia (1844), where there was also a hill, the Seru di Australia. A big football field was laid out here for the youths of the neighbourhood. Directly east of Australia lies Mandi, a former knoekje. Sandrok, Dacosta and Eendracht (all mentioned in documents from 1835) are also former grounds near Wishi. The majority of the roughly 300 houses in Wishi are built on the freehold land of the late Cesar Elassais — "tereno di Cesa" — now in the hands of his heirs. Outside Elassais's land holdings fall the church with the 2 schools, property of the diocese, and also Quinta Leonor, a piece of private terrain on the Kaya Grandi where a well-known "snek" (snack bar) that was open 24 hours a day once stood. A few houses once stood around it, but a church is now being built on the location. Directly next to Quinta Leonor lies the former Our Wish of Leonard B. Smith.
From Banda bou
Like Marchena, most residents of Wishi consisted of workers of the refinery, coming from, among others, Caribbean islands, but also local residents from, for example, Bandabou, who stayed during the week in a small lodging closer to the refinery. Thus one finds here the name Sluis, originally from Banda bou. Other well-known names in Wishi are Hodge and Ys, related to two ex-premiers of Curaçao, and the current young parliament chairman Fergino Brownbill also grew up in Wishi.
Kurá di Portugés / Seru Fransés
Brug: "Besides the official names, various well-known location names were also thought up by residents, such as Little Saba: from Seru Pretu a green spot with many coconut trees could clearly be seen, near Australia. They called it Little Saba because some families from Saba lived there. Wishi borders in the north on the Hanchi di Kas Chiki, where the small landhuis stands. There lies a big deep pit that is inhabited and is called 'den Kobá' by neighbourhood residents."
Kurá di Portugés is a large terrain in the west of Wishi, on the border with Veeris, and the property of a Portuguese. It used to be mondi and for young people from Wishi the shortest way to go swimming at Piscadera. That location is now built up. Also close to the border with Veeris lie Hòfi Nenei, where a dam lies, and Seru Fransés, an inhabited hill on the border of Wishi and the Veerisweg. The origin of the name Seru Fransés is unknown. Might it have to do with French privateers who in earlier times entered the island at the Sint Michiel Bay and the Piscadera Bay and moved over this area to the city? Or with the nearby former knoekjes such as Sans Soucis, Paradis (the present Paradijs) and Ma Retraite (Gasparitu), once the property of French families on Curaçao?
