Page 9 - AHATA

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local Wednesday 31 May 2023
Alto Vista chapel and its link to Aruba’s origins

gan to build their homes desolated, making it hard Antonio and Bernardino
further south within the to imagine that Alto Vista Silvester would have lived.
Noord area, so the town of was a town at all. A hun- About 200 meters from the
Noord began to grow into dred years later, people chapel there is a water
a community till getting its can see the remains of tank which the locals call
own Church. However re- around twenty houses, Tanki Cacique. In the past
ligious festivals continued some made of stone and this tank was closed. But
to be celebrated at this sa- others of clay. Nowadays, mostly water was brought
cred native place, with the only around six of these out from the Poz di Noord,
custom of arriving in pro- houses remain. a well dug in the sand.
cession to Alto Vista.
South of the chapel in the The chapel can be viewed
Two-hundred years after yard two graves can be from basically any point in
the beautiful time of Alto observed, there was the the north side, even from
Vista, people can no lon- cemetery which father Paradera and Sero Plat.
ger see much of the town Pablo de Algemesi blessed. All the historical remains
of Alto Vista from 1750. With It is not certain, but it is be- around the chapel provide
a lot of work they found lieved that the two graves us with an idea on how the
the old foundations of the belong to Antonio Silvester old people of Alto Vista
Church of the Queen of and Miguel Alvares, ac- used to live. Don’t miss the
According to Etnia Nativa, in-law, Miguel Álvarez, who the Holiest Rosary to build cording to Nooyen. About opportunity to visit a place
in the 18th century most continued to guide the pa- a new chapel on the same 50 meters near the chapel of historical significance
of the inhabitants of Aruba rishioners in their prayers. place. The entire surround- there are still the markings with a window to Aruba’s
were indigenous who lived
on the north coast, one of According to the book, ing area was empty and of an old house, where past.q
the largest communities The History of Alto Vista by
lived in Alto Vista. R.H. Nooyen, it is not known
when Domingo Antonio Sil-
As they were very religious, vester came to Aruba from
they had a chief with the Venezuela. The elders be-
name of Antonio Silvester lieve Antonio was a Span-
who guided them in the iard. In 1780, father Joseph
Christian life and it was he Antonio de la Vegal called
who decided to build a Bernardino Silvester, one of
stone chapel with a roof Antonio’s sons with his wife
of corn rods, which would Anna Cathalina Tromp,
serve as a place of prayer. “neighbors and naturals of
In 1750 it was blessed by Fa- the island Aruba” and thus
ther Algamesi who came they became natives.
from Coro-Venezuela and
appointed Domingo Anto- At the end of the eighteen
nio Silvester as the island’s century many inhabitants
first prosecutor in the name the island died as a result of
of the Spanish crown and the black fever epidemic
Rome. In 1752 the prosecu- and since people believed
tion passed into the hands that the Alto Vista area was
of Antonio Silvester’s son- the most infected, they be-