If that was the start of our today’s celebration, the last part of today’s official program also contains a very Jewish theme. The Vice President of our Board of Trustees, and my dear ihá stimá, Henry van der Kwast, came with the idea of organizing an exposition of photos from the 19th century, all of Sephardic faces. Henry dug through several archives and got the help of many of our Sephardic Jewish families in putting together this unique exposition, which was made possible using today’s digitalization techniques. Masha masha danki for all your hard work, Henry.
 
The most lasting aspect of this celebration is, however, a project that I sometimes wished I had not started on. Many are the questions that local and foreign visitors ask us about our Library and our Landhuis. We decided therefore to commission the writing and publication of a book to answer these questions, but also to give the reader an idea of how it used to be in “Dushi Korsou” in old times. This project has resulted in the publication today of:

Let me tell you some of what this book covers.

Chapter one, “The Library”, tells how my father started collecting as a young boy in 1905 and how we are continuing his work today.

Chapter two,” The Plantation” is all about “het hofje”, the produce of it, the livestock, the slaves, etc.

“The Owners of Rooi Catootje” are described and listed in Chapter three, starting when Aron Henriquez Moron bought the plantation, including its inventory, for 3.000 pesos in August 5, 1737 from Jan Lulss. Today we are the proud owners of Rooi Catootje.

Chapter four, “The Plantation House”, describes when my great grandfather, “Papa Monchi”, bought the mansion, rebuilt it and how it was modernized and refurbished.

Finally, Chapter five, “Inside the house”, takes the reader on a tour through the mansion and describes all the beautiful antique furniture and other items of interest.

If there is a red line, which runs through this whole book, through all five chapters, it is that Rooi Catootje and its owners, the Maduro family, through the decades and the centuries, have always been an integral part of the history and the culture of our Island. We pledge again today that this will continue to be the case also in the decades and centuries to come.
 
We found Els Langenfeld, a well-known author in our community, willing to research the history of Rooi Catootje and of our Library, and to write this book. I thank her profoundly for all the many hours of meticulous and painstaking research, and for the way she has put this all together in an interesting and readable way. Els did this completely disinterestedly, out of love of the history of Curacao. Masha, masha danki, Els.

Four frequent visitors to Rooi Catootje and intensive users of our Library jotted down their experiences when using our books and documents for their research. A special word of thanks also to Aart Broek, Jennifer Smit, Liza de Laat and Yasmin van Haaren for their valuable contributions.

Publishing a book like this is always a team effort. Many people were involved in contributing with photography, reading, layout and printing. It is impossible to mention everyone individually without risking to forget someone To all of you, my most sincere and warmest gratitude for having made our book  “THE PAST: A PRESENT FOR OUR FUTURE” possible.

We need to know our past and we need to preserve it to be able to build upon it for our future. This is the lasting contribution of the Mongui Maduro Foundation, and the legacy from my father, Mongui, my Mother,Lou and my husband, Miel. May they all rest in peace.

The Library is here to stay, for today, for to-morrow and for all the years and decades to come. The real lasting legacy is for our Library to be here not only for you, but also for your children and your children’s children. 

I look forward to seeing each and every one of you during our picnic lunch in the Hòfi later on, just like we used to do on weekends so many decades ago, before television and movies. And I hope too that all of you will visit our photo exposition, today or in the coming days.
Thank you all so much for coming today.