Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY

A14 LOCAL
Tuesday 28 May 2019
A NobelNative Heart II

Episodio XX

A slave for who his freedom was purchased by Each week we share the most interesting and revealing

the Fiscal of the church of Alto Vista in Noord articles regarding Aruba, a destination to be explored,we
can find,and so doing uncover amazing and informative
stories along the way.

This slave was telling about his trip over the Atlantic Ocean and how he reached
Curacao: “There are good and bad people on this world,” Crisostomo started saying:
“That one sad day these bad people armed with sabers and rifles came to our small
village, Arabs slave traders, who were grabbing anyone they set for to trade them for
gold at port. They broke in to my farm and into our house. They destroyed everything
in it and had us chained up”.

day.We reached the outskirts of the port
city of Oran at dark. The agonizing trip took
us five and a half days which I have made
in two day many times before. The cargo
caravan camped town two days before,
close to a lake where we all had to enter,
where all the animals were drinking, it was
a blessing having a chance washing up
and clean ourselves a bit before they took
us through the city. There we reached
the plaza and loaded immediately on a Pic. 3 Helping the strandedpassengers.
ship packed all ready with people to be
Pic. 1 Arab slave traders shipped out to the new continent. Many One year after Crisostomo mo’s wife and Anastacio’s
Crisostomo had to stop telling for a while people died during the long march” re-encountered his son, a mother Helena Petronilia.
for all emotions returns with sad memories: Crisostomo was transported on a ship ship sailing out of Maracai- This is how an Algerian fam-
called the Jupiter, along with 2,000 other bo en route to the Domini- ily reunites in here on our
“We were treated worse than animals, slaves to Curacao, 40 or more slaves were can Republic, ran aground happy island.
made us walk the old road to the port. lost at sea, from which many jumped in the South Western part
After an hour walking we could hear in to the ocean to be swallowed by the of the island. People of Meanwhile, the ship had
that more people was joining our group waves. “If it was not for Mr. Miguel to have Noord came over to give been repaired, ready to
guarded by some twenty armed men. freed me,” Crisostomo says, probably they assistance. Among the continue its voyage to the
There I could see that the plateau below would have killed him in Curacao. passengers was certain Dominican Republic with
was filled with many people lined up in Mr. Morales, a Colombian all its passengers. Morales
chains. Woman and children separated All this revelation was heard by Father Pe- gentleman, together with and his family proposed to
of the men. Approaching the multitude dro Ramirez, a Catholic priest who lived in his family and two servants. Crisostomo and Anastacio
we could start hearing the noise mixed Caracas, who occasionally visited Aruba. They all were taken to the to travel with them.
with crying and begging for compassion. Since he could understood some French, town of Noord. One of the There, he gave Helena
I could not watch how they were brutally he could figure out wat happened to servants who were travel- Petronilia back to Crisosto-
whipped and others were freed of their Crisostomo`s son and wife. ing with the Mr. Morales mo, and they lived happily
suffering with a shot. All this created a par- and family was Crisosto- together again.q
alyzing shock. Flabbergasted and totally The following year Father Pedro Ramirez
terrorized we had no other choice than to wrote a letter to Crisostomo telling him that
survive and keep together. in Caracas he had found his son Anasta-
cio and that he would send him by ship
I could count over two hundred people, to Aruba so that they could reunite again.
captives, traders and hundreds of camels Anastacio could not wait for him to reunite
packed with dates, salt and others carried with his father and to tell his story, how he
bags full packed with resin for incense on had arrived by boat to La Guajira where
their heads. We followed behind this enor- the priest Francisco bought his freedom
mous trading caravan that soon left us be- and gave him a place to live in the mon-
hind. Our group was getting larger by the astery in Caracas.

Pic. 2 Dutch and Arab slave traders of the Barbary Coast, Mediterranean sea Pic. 4 Helena Petronilia.