From Individual to Collective Memories: The Year in Aruba

Abstract

From Individual to Collective MemoriesThe Year in Aruba Rose Mary Allen (bio) and Jeroen Heuvel (bio) Over time, Aruba,1 one of the six islands in the Dutch Caribbean, has produced several autobiographical books. The latest is by Hyacinthus (better known as Chinto) Thomas Erasmus, Mi memorianan: Aruba di antaño segun Chinto, published in 2019. Erasmus wrote it when he was seventy-five years old ("Chinto Erasmus"), and it was published twenty-one years after his death by the Aruban publishing house Charuba. The publication of Erasmus's autobiography followed an interesting path. Initially, he decided to pen his memories in Papiamento, the local creole language, for his children and grandchildren only. His daughter Etty Eustatia-Erasmus typed out his handwritten notes and shared them with the rest of the family. She was later persuaded by people who promote literature in Papiamento to have the document published. Erasmus was born on the island of Aruba in 1912. His autobiography covers more than 200 pages, in which he chronicles a socially engaged and meaningful life. In the first eighty-eight pages, the writer details the first twelve years of his life. Jeroen Heuvel, who has reviewed the book, finds that "de schrijfstijl is heel beperkt, in de zin van 'en toen en toen en toen', een beetje zoals kinderen van die leeftijd kunnen vertellen" [the narrative style of this part is limited, in the sense of "and then and then and then," similar to how children of that age tend to tell stories]. Heuvel wonders whether Erasmus used this style on purpose to reflect the way a child at that age (younger than twelve) might think. Heuvel goes on to say that the contents of the autobiography indicate a well thought-out story. Erasmus grew up in an era when many Aruban families lived in extreme poverty, with very little cash on hand, and although his family had a piece of land on which they could grow food, in times of drought, the harvest was limited and they had little to eat. As an example of this poverty, Erasmus relates that in 1917, his grandfather's only sheep died. His grandfather lived with them and seems to have had a significant impact in Erasmus's life as the keeper of the family's heritage. In that year, Aruba endured a shortage of maize, the staple food at that time, and other [End Page 9] agricultural products such as cassava and sweet potato would not grow because of the drought. Driven by these dire straits, Erasmus's father joined the large number of men from Aruba (as well as the other islands of the Dutch Caribbean) who went to Cuba to work in the cane fields. The migration from the economically impoverished Aruba to Cuba at the start of the twentieth century has been analyzed extensively by the historian Jorge Pietersz, who corroborates Erasmus's narrative that Arubans migrated mostly when the maize harvest failed because of extreme drought. After a while his father returned to Aruba from Cuba. Erasmus's mother passed away when he was seven, and at age eleven he went to Curaçao as a stowaway to join his father, who had resumed his pattern of migration, now to Curaçao, where the oil refinery established in 1915 offered employment to many foreign workers, including from Aruba and Bonaire. A week later, Erasmus returned to Aruba by boat under the care of Cachi, the vessel's cook. At the age of thirteen, Erasmus stopped going to school in Aruba and started working to help support his family. His father returned to Aruba from Curaçao when the economy of Aruba began to pick up with the establishment of the Lago Oil and Transport Company in 1924. The Erasmus family benefited from the growing Aruban economy, as his father slaughtered pigs and cows for Lago employees. Erasmus's book also provides insight into Aruba's political situation. The twentieth century saw growing opposition in Aruba to the political hegemony of Curaçao, the largest Dutch Caribbean island and the center of Dutch colonial rule. Erasmus was deeply involved with Jan Hendrik (Henny) Eman, the leader of the...