The Study of Racialism

pinpanpun · New User Joined: 27 May 2006 {Posts: 24 }

Papiamentu is spoken on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. A look at its development is a look at the many elements that are part of Caribbean culture...

It is often forgotten that strictly speaking, Papiamentu is not a plantation
creole at all. The soil in Curaçao was too dry for large-scale agriculture
(Holm 1989: 313); thus this island was primarily used as a holding camp
and entrepôt for slaves shipped from West Africa and destined for other
Caribbean colonies. Therefore, Papiamentu emerged amidst Africans working
within the slave trade itself and in domestic service, not as a plantation
communication vehicle.
However, for many, it will perhaps seem ad hoc to dismiss Papiamentu
on these grounds, since it was, after all, the product of interactions between
African laborers and Europeans.1 In this light, all evidence points
to Papiamentu as the result of a gradual hispanicization of what began as a
Portuguese-based pidgin.
This has been most conclusively demonstrated by Goodman (1987), who
shows that it would have been simply impossible for Papiamentu to have
begun as a Spanish-based pidgin. By the time slaves were brought to Curaçao
in any significant numbers (the mid-1650s), there were no Spaniards
on the island and only a few Spanish-speaking Indians (367-70). In the
meantime, the first slaves were brought into the context by Jews from Brazil,
who spoke Portuguese. In addition, for a period, Jews were the only
people in Curaçao allowed to purchase slaves (369). Finally, many people
running the slave depot in Curaçao had worked previously in Brazil. Thus
the setting was ripe for the spread of a Portuguese-based contact language,
and the motivation for the spread of a Spanish-based one was nonexistent.
The Spanish reentered the Curaçao context only later, when Spanishspeaking
Jews from Holland emigrated there and became the majority
among whites. The hispanicization of Papiamentu presumably began at
this point, supplemented by the extensive business contacts between Curaçao
and the Venezuelan coast. It is important to note that Spanish and
Portuguese are so similar that no significant linguistic readjustment was
necessary on the part of Papiamentu speakers during the relexification process:
as Goodman points out, slaves were probably barely aware of Span-
ish as a distinct language (375). Even today, Spanish and Portuguese are
partially mutually intelligible, and they were even closer four hundred
years ago. Therefore, there was no need for a new Spanish-based creole to
emerge at this point: the Jews from Holland could have adjusted easily
to Portuguese-based early Papiamentu, especially since they spoke Portuguese
as well (363).
http://home.mindspring.com/~johnqu/PAPIAMENTU.txt

werta · New User Joined: 09 Nov 2005 {Posts: 31 }

Not only is Papiamento so mixed,the people who speak it are also heavily mixed with African,white,Indian and Jewish.On these islands the Indians remained a long time you can find their descedants on these islands.Aruba is Indian/white mixed and Curacao and Bonaire are African/white/Indian mixed with some Jewish in some people.The culture is also heavily mixed with African,European,Latin and Jewish culture. Smile

oevega · Posted: Fri 14 Jul 2006 19:42 Post subject: Indians

Salsassin · SuperWizard Joined: 04 Apr 2005 {Posts: 3515 }

And those peoples are indigenous to that region. Smile

oevega · Posted: Fri 14 Jul 2006 21:22 Post subject: Amerindians.

werta · New User Joined: 09 Nov 2005 {Posts: 31 }

Since I cannot up load photos on this forum search people of curacao with google search the images and you'll see the people of curacao.You can also look up for Curacao,Bonaire and Aruba in Wikipedia.BTW baseball player Andruw Jones is from Curacao.Pitcher Sidney Ponson is from Aruba.And you know people on these islands don't know what rascism is.Some people prefer lighter skinned people but they're not rascist.On these islands you go to school with everybody with the blacks,the whites,the mixed,the Jews you name it.And you can marry whoevere you want,have children with whoever you want.Search for Annemarie Braafheid,Natasha Bloem,Ayanette Statia and Jourain Ricardo with google images and you will see how these beauties look like.

[Per werta request, fhe following was added later by FWS]

These are some of the people of Curacao.

werta · New User Joined: 09 Nov 2005 {Posts: 31 }

Look also for Verna Vazquez on google images.She was a Miss Universe 1997 finalist.Many people thought she was from India.But she's from Curacao.Her mother is mixed with black and Amerindian(Verna's grandmother is from Bonaire) and her father is mixed with Amerindian and Spanish(his family is originally from Venezuela)

werta · New User Joined: 09 Nov 2005 {Posts: 31 }

Sorry her mame is Verna Vasquez.

fwsweet · Posted: Sat 15 Jul 2006 10:45 Post subject:

Salsassin · SuperWizard Joined: 04 Apr 2005 {Posts: 3515 }

G-Man · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2992 }