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Arubans living abroad

ORANJESTAD — Aruba Today is connecting to
our beloved readers abroad who have a spe-
cial bond with the island. We launched col-
umns like Aruba To Me Is … and My Favorite
Hotel Staff where our fans can send pictures
and words that express their love for Aruba
and its workers in the hospitality industry.

In these difficult times we also think about our
Aruban friends living abroad. How they are do-
ing and what is their life experience right now, All hostels emptied and closed. I ended up re- the airport as soon as international travel is
we wonder. The first story in this series is from lying on air bnb's in Córdoba (the city I had re-enabled. In Málaga, I communicate more
Aruban Arturo Desimone who lives in Spain. planned to move to). In Córdoba, the lock- with people: at the greengrocer's, the butch-
Thank you for sharing this amazing article with down caused more panic, and seemed more er's, the bakery—the only stores open other
us Arturo! foreboding than Málaga, where I am now. I than pharmacies and Supermarkets. Málaga,
think this owes partly to Córdoba being a very on the coast, more resembles the coolhead-
old city. There, history and memory of past cri- ed Aruban temperament, though Malague-
ses with plagues and quarantines remain pres- ños seem more loquacious. It strikes me as a
ent, a residue within Córdoba culture, like the very modern crisis, when in a Catholic coun-
sediment of the Guadalquivir river. The Arabic- try, churches bolt their doors in Semana Santa
medieval style of the old city of Córdoba has while pilgrims line up in processions for the Su-
not changed drastically over the centuries, permarkets instead.
with many fountains, shrines and old bath-
houses from a time when people quite ac- I miss elements of life on Aruba (the sea, among
tively thought of plagues and how to prevent many others). A Surinamese doctor I know, who
them. Small pharmacies with the sign “Botica” lives in Europe, told me over the phone of a
dot every street corner. Where I lodged in the “Corona hotline" opened by the Aruba House
old city, after sundown women would appear in The Hague—sounded promising. In Oranjes-
in their flowered, latticework windows and bal- tad stands my childhood home, uninhabited,
conies and start clapping. At first I thought this currently as empty as the quarantined street.
was a way to break the silence and monotony, I thought I could sit out the emergency there,
it seemed almost like protest—the kind of be- with a good bookshelf; the garden with shade,
havior one would expect in a prison. Only after frangipane and hibiscus. But the Aruba-Coro-
the third or fourth day, did I realize they were na-phone hotline attendants apologetically
congratulating each other for good behavior explained that I would not qualify for the last
in adapting to the quarantine. “¡Más fuerte!” Saturday repatriation flight. The present gov-
ernment decided to limit the number of Aru-
From the start, Spaniards seemed very eager bans who could qualify for the last return flights
to comply with martial law: strapping on masks, from the Netherlands: acceptance would only
scarves and gloves; commanding others to do be granted to those Arubans currently regis-
so. My neighbor in the old Moorish-style build- tered as actively residing on Aruba, and who
ing was an avoidant boy, who moved out of had only happened to be on holiday in Europe
his family-home because of fear of infection. when they got stranded. Despite being born
People around me in these edifices were in- and raised on Aruba, and having a potential
"Mostly I am dedicated to writing in various forming on each other to their landlords, ac- address for quarantine-compliance (and now
forms, and to making visual art. I have pub- cusing one other of breaching rules, often using stranded) I did not qualify due to an admin-
lished essays focusing on politics and art criti- WhatsApp to telegram reports. Another guest istrative factor. Meanwhile, it seemed nearly
cism; two books of poems and drawings ap- in the residence overheard my online video- anyone else holding the passport of a certain
peared recently in the UK and in bilingual conversation with a circle of writers— I and European country could still claim rights to a
edition in Argentina. My first “solo” exhibition others had spoken critically of certain coun- repatriation flight under similar circumstances.
of drawings inaugurated in November-De- tries’ authoritarian measures. My neighbor Instead of returning, I had to be nimble, impro-
cember 2018 in an Amsterdam gallery. Born called the shaky, angry manager, who then vising here in Spain in this new and restricted
and raised on Aruba, I left at the age of 21. came to confront me, instructing me to obey territory.” q
My mother still lives on Aruba. Though I had not the spirit of this lockdown. The deaths among
anticipated it, like many Arubans I first ended mostly elderly patients are, of course, alarm-
up migrating to the Netherlands, where I stud- ing. And the unpreparedness of de-financed
ied "Religious studies and Politics" for a period healthcare systems, with so little understood
in Utrecht. Later I resided for periods in Tunisia, still about the illness, seem to have thrown us
and a longer time in Argentina, where I also all back to medieval ways of responding. It sur-
have family. prised me when, after seeking a police station
for an hour in winding streets of the Judería
This year I went to live in Spain hoping to im- neighborhood, I found a Scotch-taped little
prove mastery of the language, and to give sign the authorities had hung on their door, an-
book presentations of the first Spanish transla- nouncing (in colorful letters) that because of
tion of my recent book of my poems, “La Ama- the pandemic, police agents were also #stay-
da de Túnez” (About a Lover from Tunisia) in ing home.
the city of Cuenca and in the Canary Islands. I
was still in the process of finding an apartment The total disruption of a country where I am a
in Andalucía, lugging my belongings in suitcas- newcomer and foreigner, proved both inter-
es, when the Spanish State announced some esting and difficult even if I know the language
of toughest epidemic measures in Europe. and culture. Now I wait in Málaga, to be near