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local Tuesday 4 February 2025
The Aruban Cunukero

From past to present

(Oranjestad)—Aruba’s culture farmers would see a big loss in their
consists of rich historical traditions livestock, and hence profit.
that make up the Aruban identity
and lifestyle. However, the life of Although the WIC at one point did
the cunukero (farmer) is perhaps try to come up with an initiative to
the most important aspect of our get more people to have land on
culture, in a sense representing to the island, the climate never really
locals the true essence of the Aru- allowed real profit from farming.
ban. Because of the climate, Aruban
farmers in general could not keep
Historically, cunucus (farms) played large quantities of livestock. At a
a huge role in the early social and certain point toward the end of
economic development of Aruba, the 18th century, the climate got
and its relevance dates back to so bad that many farmers decided
the early days of the colonization to leave the island for a while.
era. Upon being discovered by
Spanish conquistadors in the late For this reason, the farming econ-
15th century, Aruba was used pri- omy on the island remained small.
marily as a ranch, housing horses As the years went by and people
and cattle brought from Europe. noticed that these farms could
During the Dutch colonization era who acquired farming tools not really produce any sustainable
where the West Indian Company and cattle through stealing These Aruban farmers were also profit, farmers kept their small piece
(WIC) dominated the economic or through secret exchanges limited to the amount of cattle of land just to live off of. This is why
sphere on the island, using the land with other slaves from different they could keep. Most kept goats the Aruban cunukeros only played
to set up cattle farms and ranches plantations. as cattle, as only those who were a very tiny role into the plantation
remained popular. affiliated with the WIC could keep economy.
However, the Aruban cunukeros (more) sheep. Of the 76 goat herd-
Anthropologist Sidney Mintz divid- back then are hard to place, and ers on the island, about 45 of them In modern Aruba, cunucus and cu-
ed Caribbean farmers back in four their history may explain why. had less than 30 goats, and only 7 nukeros still exist on the island, for-
categories: of them had more than 60 goats. tunately with more freedom and
1. The “squatters”, who were From 1636 (beginning of Dutch more opportunity to tap into the
mostly comprised of illegal and colonization era) to before the oil It wasn’t until the WIC was defunct agricultural market. These farm-
poor colonists, runaway slaves industry in 1924, Aruba’s popula- in late 18th century that these ers usually sell their produce on a
and deserters who took advan- tion consisted of mostly farmers. farmers were able to obtain more smaller scale, like during farmers’
tage of the Spanish’s weak su- These farmers were mostly indig- freedom as cunukeros. After 1824, market events and other types of
pervision on Caribbean islands enous and were characterized as the government gave these farm- (holiday) events.
like Cuba and the DR; peasants. They weren’t allowed to ers official permission to keep live-
2. Then you have “Early Yeo- participate in trading, but instead stock, and the obligations once Source: “Arubaans Akkoord: Op-
men”, who were legal farmers were granted a piece of land to placed on them were officially dis- stellen over Aruba van voor de
who came to the west under live off of. However, in exchange carded. komst van de olieindustrie (Aruban
contract. Once their contract for this grant, these indigenous Accord: Essays on Aruba Before
expired, they were given a plot farmers were obligated to work for Because of the dry climate in Aru- the Arrival of the Oil Industry)” by
of land for independent use; the WIC, doing daily tasks such as ba, growing food for commercial Alofs, Luc; Rutgers, Wim; Coomans,
3. Proto-Peasants were planta- taking care of or hunting cattle— purposes was not popular. The Henny E. red.
tion slaves who were allowed large majority of which were des- focus was mainly on cattle herd-
to have a small piece of land tined for Curacao, clean water ing and taking care of livestock. Photo credits: Aruba National Ar-
to grow food for their own con- tanks and chop wood, among However, livestock need food to chives.
sumption. This was to curb the other things. survive, and when Aruba experi-
cost of living on the plantations; enced its duper dry climate, many
4. Lastly you have the “Run- As much as these farmers were giv-
away Peasantries”, usually en to opportunity to live “free” with
comprised of runaway slaves a plot of land, their exclusion from
the trading and business world, as
well as being deprived the chance
to become real property and cat-
tle owners, made them a unique
group among Caribbean farmers
at the time.

The WIC placed a lot of restrictions
on these indigenous farmers—a
method to safeguard their cattle
deposit on the island. The indige-
nous farmers were mostly granted
less than 7 acres of land. Those
who owned bigger land were ei-
ther once affiliated with the WIC or
were colonists who settled on the
island to try their luck at farming. In
1767, there were about 120 hous-
es/cunucus on the island.