Interviewees
For this project we have conducted several interviews of Scholars specializing in Papiamento and identity as well as Papiamento speakers born in Aruba. These interviews reveal interesting insights into the language, its structure and development, as well as how Papiamento speakers identify themselves within hybridity of this creole language. We would like to thank everyone that participated in our project!
Arubans
Academics
Dr. Bart Jacobs studied Spanish and Portuguese philology at the University of Amsterdam. In 2008, he moved to Munich to write his doctoral thesis on the origins of Papiamentu.
Following postdocs in Leiden, Nijmegen and Konstanz, he is now an NCN fellow at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow and the PI of an endangered language documentation project in Calabria, Italy.
Dr. Aart G. Broek (Netherlands, 1954), who worked in Curaçao from 1981 through 2001, received his PhD from the Free University in Amsterdam, and is a consultant and independent scholar. He has published extensively on Dutch Caribbean social, political and cultural matters, generally in a wider Caribbean context and/or in relation with (post)colonial developments in the Netherlands; see www.klasse-oplossingen.nl
My name is Marilinda Croes and I am from Aruba where I have lived until I was 17. At this age I moved to the Netherlands (Groningen) to pursue my academic studies in Economics after which I returned back home where I worked for about 4 years. Currently, I am residing back in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) where I came to pursue new challenges for my career in economics/finance by acquiring working knowledge of data science/analytics. I plan to return back to Aruba one day and implement all my knowledge to help my country progress. Besides working, I love to dance, swim, and run and travelling the world to learn about different cultures and have culinary experiences.
Darienne Harms
When I was 18, I left Aruba to go study in the Netherlands like many other Arubans. The Netherlands is very different from Aruba, but it was a nice change from year-round summer to experiencing different seasons. Today marks the 5.5 years that I've been living and studying in Groningen, where I completed a Ba in English Language and Culture and started my Masters in Applied Linguistics. I've always been interested in languages, which could be due to the multilingual society I grew up in on Aruba. I grew up speaking Papiamento, English, Spanish, and Dutch, where I would usually just mix all my languages when speaking Papiamento. In high school, I learned French for 4 years, and I'm currently learning Japanese to learn a completely new writing system. Language is the key to understanding different cultures and mindset, and because I love to travel and do so whenever I have the chance, I tend to learn words and phrases from every country I visit.
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Klaas Bant
I was born and raised on Aruba, but my parents are both Dutch. As such, my mother tongue is Dutch, but I picked up Papiamento and English while growing up. I mostly learned Spanish from my father, who teaches Spanish and Dutch. Due to his love for languages and travelling, we visited South America very often. These trips taught me the love for travelling and the need for language learning. After moving to the Netherlands for my studies, I continued developing these traits, as I studied English Language and Culture and travelled a lot with my girlfriend. Apart from the aforementioned languages, I started learning Chinese. After finishing my Master in Writing, Editing, and Mediating, I plan to become a teacher of English and teach at an Aruban high school. I am also very interested in sports, and I have done over 15 different sports in my life. I hope to one day combine my love for sports with my background in languages and education, and possibly coach basketball alongside teaching.
Dr. Eva M. Eckkrammer is Chair of the Romance Linguistics and Media Studies, Department of Romance Studies, at the University of Mannheim. She has researched extensively on Creole languages, especially Papiamentu/o, from diachrony and synchrony, language expansion measures, standardization and normalization processes. Eckkrammer’s research also includes Migration Linguistics, translation studies, Sociolinguistics, Philology, and Historical Linguistics. She studied Romance studies at the Universities of Salzburg and Coimbra, worked at the Universities of Passau and Heidelberg and spent numerous teaching and research stays abroad, mainly in Curaçao, France, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, and Spain.
Hi, my name is Thaïs Franken and I am 22 years old senior student at the University of Aruba. I am currently rounding off my bachelor study called; Organization, Governance & Management. I was born and raised on the beautiful and multicultural island of Aruba. As a local, I can speak a total of 4 different languages, which are; Dutch, English, Spanish, and our native language Papiamento. Having this skill has definitely allowed me to communicate with people all over the world. This has helped me immensely during my travels and especially now that I am looking forward to doing my masters in public policy and human development in The Netherlands. It was definitely a pleasure participating in this research. I am so trilled to see the interest in Aruba and the beautiful language Papiamento. Thank you, or better yet "Masha Danki" like we say it on Aruba!
Walter Mohamed
I was born and raised in Aruba. My mother tongue is Dutch, but I also speak Papiamento, English, French, Spanish, and Sranga Tongo. I´m very proud of my roots. That's why I did a second Bachelor degree in Papiamento after nine years that I finished my Masters degree in Bestuurlijk Informatie Kunde.
I have a successful experience working in tourism. I'm a dive Instructor and Boat Capitan too. One of my hobbies is to take pictures underwater.
Terrik Mansur
I was born in Aruba. My mother tongue is Papiamento but I also speak Dutch, Spanish and English. I have studied for a year at a University in Florida and I´ve lived in Amsterdam for a year working as a software engineer.