Handbook of Gender Studies in the Dutch Caribbean

Rose Mary Allen is Extraordinary Professor in the field of Culture, Community and History at the University of Curaçao Dr. Moises da Costa Gomez and a pioneer of oral history research. Her recent publications include a co-edited volume on the history and legacies of Dutch colonial slavery history, Staat en slavernij: het Nederlandse koloniale slavernijverleden en zijn doorwerkingen (State and slavery: Dutch colonial slavery history and its repercussions) (Athenaeum Publishers, 2023). Sruti Bala is associate professor in theater and performance studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her publications include 'The Gestures of Participatory Art' (2018) and the co-edited volume, The Global Trajectories of Queerness: Re-thinking Same-Sex Politics in the Global South, (Brill/Rodopi, 2015).

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

Notes on Contributors



Editors’ Introduction to the Handbook of Gender Studies in the Dutch Caribbean

 Rose Mary Allen and Sruti Bala



SECTION 1

1 Curaçaoan Women in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

 Nolda Römer-Kenepa

2 The Repercussions of Rumor: an Adultery Case from Eighteenth-Century Curaçao

 Jessica V. Roitman

3 Gender Dialectics in Colonial Saba, 1780–1863

 Ryan Espersen

4 New York, Cuba and the Birth of a Subversive Dutch Caribbean Writer An Introduction to P. P. Medardo De Marchena’s “Women and Modern-Day Life” (1934)

 Margo Groenewoud

5 Women and Modern-Day Life: An Intimate Study of Women as our Life Companions with Some Advice (1934)

 Pedro Pablo Medardo de Marchena

6 We have the Right to Break with that Custom Speech on the Occasion of the Seventh Anniversary of the Organization of the Wednesday Women (1955)

 Imelda van West-Davelaar

7 Aruban Women’s Protests against Campo Alegre (1950–1957)

 Lucia Kelly

8 The Women’s Movement in Bonaire: An Introduction

 Rose Mary Allen, Judith Brekelmans & Liliane de Geus

9 Afro-Caribbean Kinship Networks and the Emancipation of Women

 Gladys J. do Rego-Kuster

10 Hidden Strengths: Intellect and Ideology behind the Women’s Movement in Curaçao and Aruba, 1946–1995

 Margo Groenewoud

11 Gender Policy and Institutionalization in Curaçao: Governmental and Civil Society Interactions since the 1930s

 Jacqueline Martis

12 The Dutch Caribbean Women’s Movement and the Efforts of the Women’s Development Center (SEDA) toward Societal Transformation

 Stella Pieters Kwiers

13 In Search of our Memory: Gender in the Netherlands Antilles

 Sonia M. Cuales



SECTION

14 Former Slave Owner’s House [Lanthùis]

 Crisèn Schorea

15 Indigenous Identity, Gender and Colonialism in Bonaire

 Oliver Antczak

16 Respectability and Resistance: Race, Gender and the Microdimensions of Power in the Colony

 Angela Roe

17 The Ivory Tower of Women’s Studies

 Troetje Loewenthal

18 Graduate Research Report on the Position of Curaçaoan Women Working at Texas Instruments from 1968 to 1976

 Sonia M. Cuales

19 From the Womb: Reflections on Single Motherhood in Curaçao

 Jeanne Henriquez

20 Cracks in the Glass Ceiling: Opportunities, Barriers and Strategies for Women in the Labor Market in Curaçao and Aruba

 Paula Kibbelaar

21 Nine Houses, Nine Families: Oral History in the Rancho Neighborhood

 Yolanda Richardson

22 “Sintimentunan Derá, Sla Ekspresá”: How Curaçaoans in the Netherlands Perceive Partner Violence

 Kristen Martina

23 Venezuelan Sex Workers in Curaçao: Rethinking Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling in Curaçao’s Refugee Crisis

 Beatriz César Loureiro

24 Women and Power

 Maria Liberia-Peters

25 Gender Equality and Justice in Aruba: Policies and Practices

 Evelyn Wever-Croes



SECTION 3

26 Contesting Respectability and Sexual Politics in Post-Emancipation Curaçao

 Rose Mary Allen

27 A Paragraph in the Unwritten History of Lesbian Love in the Caribbean: Amor Di Kambrada

 Aart G. Broek

28 No Rhythm (You)

 Lysanne Charles

29 Women Who Love Women in Curaçao: From “Cachapera” to Open Throats: A Commentary in Collage

 Joceline Clemencia

30 Forma Di Papia (Ways of Speaking) in the Dutch Caribbean and their Relevance for the Study of Gender and Sexuality

 Louis Philippe M. Römer

31 I have to Come Out [Mi Tin Ku Sali]

 Gilbert Bacilio

32 You Think Too Much like a Dutch Woman [Bo Ta Pensa Muchu Manera Makamba]

 Frida Domacassé

33 Intimacy and Integration: The Ambivalent Achievement of Marriage Equality in the Dutch Caribbean, 2007–2012

 Chelsea Schields

34 Sissies and Pancake Makers in Curaçao: Homosexuality as Shock Therapy

 Vincent Sleebe

35 A Queer Cultural Perspective from Curaçao

 Mario Kleinmoedig

36 Studies on Trans* and Same-Sex Loving People in Curaçao: A Review Essay

 Wigbertson Julian Isenia

37 My Truth [Mi Bèrdat]

 Crisèn Schorea



SECTION 4

38 Women’s Literary Production in the Dutch Caribbean

 Elisabeth Echteld & Wim Rutgers

39 The Semiotics of Dark Clouds in Songs and Poems of Elia Isenia: Art as Female Therapy

 Joceline Clemencia

40 Tambú and the Arawak Princess Diyani: The Performance of History, Myth and Ritual

 Nanette de Jong

41 Sex, Spirit and the Artist in the Films of Felix de Rooy

 Jean Antoine-Dunne

42 St. Maarten is Like My Lover

 Lysanne Charles

43 Muhé Di Rancho, Be(com)ing with Calco: A Caribbean Feminist Practice for Decolonial Life Writing

 Nadia Dresscher-Lambertus

44 Saba Lace: History, Culture and Art

 Eric A. Eliason

45 Making Up the Rules on My Own

 Linda Richardson

46 Fridi Martina: A Brief Biography

 Philie van Veen

47 Baptism of Fire

 Fridi Martina

48 Mother Rock [Baranka Mama]

 Fridi Martina

49 Chakutoe: A Play about the Port Strike of 1922 in Curaçao

 Gilbert Bacilio

50 Woman [Muhé]

 Imelda Valerianus-Fermina