Loke Nos ta Hereda

Loke Nos ta Hereda

Tin un señora na Noord cu a huur e mesun cas pa bintidos aña. El a caba scol, a haya trabou y a lanta dos yiu riba su mes, y ora su yiu muhe a bay studia den exterior, el a traha dos trabou pa paga pasashi pa pasa Pasco hunto. Nunca el a logra cumpra un cas. E placa a bay na uniform di scol, despues pa un auto cu tawata keda daña, despues pa un entiero. El a baha cu pensioen awo, y su pensioen di AOV ta mas o menos Afl. 1.997 pa luna cu e reparatietoeslag cu ta menos di loke Oficina Central di Estadistica (CBS) ta bisa cu ta costa un persona pa biba. Despues di bintidos aña di paga huur na tempo, nada no ta di dje.

Pues, su yiu muhe ta yuda. El a studia algo cu no ta wordo siña aki y a bin cas bek cu un diploma y un fiansa di estudio: loke nan tur ta bin cas cune, sea cu nan a finalisa nan estudio of no. E tin bintiseis aña, e tin su prome trabou y e ta haciendo exactamente loke nos ta bisa hobennan pa haci: “Studia y busca un bon trabou!” Pero e prestamo di DUO a wordo fia na euro y ta wordo paga bek na florin, pues un parti di su salario ta comprometi prome cu e wordo paga, y un otro parti ta bay pa su mama. Manera hopi hoben Arubiano ainda e ta biba na cas, den e camber caminda el a lanta of den e apartamento chikito den cura, y hopi di su amigonan ta paga nan mesun mayornan huur pa e mesun areglo. E lo kier pone algo un banda tur luna, pero no ta sobra nada pa pone un banda.

E no ta atrasa pasobra el a haci mal escogencianan. Riba papel, e ta mas adelanta cu su mama, kende nunca a haya e oportunidad pa sigui studia; den practica, e ta mas atrasa, pasobra el a yega cas cargando un debe cu su mama nunca tawatin. Loke a pasa di un generacion pa e otro den e famia aki no ta propiedad. E ta un posicion: nada di spaar, un mayor pa sostene, y e mesun punto di comienso cu su mama tawatin. Aki ta caminda e diferencia entre entrada y rikesa ta di importancia. Entrada ta loke un persona ta gana cada luna, mientras cu rikesa ta loke nan a logra construi y mantene. Y solamente rikesa por wordo pasa pa e proximo generacion y duna bo libertad financiero.

Si nos bay bek na unda algun di nos storianan a cuminsa, den rikesa generacional of den pobresa generacional, nos ta yega na 1863. Ora cu a aboli sclavitud na Aruba e aña ey, e hendenan sclavisa, a bira liber. 480 hende a haya nan libertad mientras cu e populacion total ta 3438 hende. Libertad no tawata nifica cu tur hende tin e mesun punto di salida. Doñonan di esclavonan, kendenan tawatin tereno y propiedad, a ricibi compensacion di gobierno hulandes: 200 florin pa cada persona cu a wordo duna su libertad. Mientras cu e personanan emancipa mes, no a haya ningun compensacion: ni tereno, ni capital. Pues, den realidad, e desigualdad a continua.

E diferencia ey no a caba na 1863. Un famia cu tereno e tempo ey, tawatin algo pa traha ariba dje, mientras cu un famia sin tereno mester cuminsa di cero den cada generacion. Esey ta e diferencia entre rikesa generacional y pobresa structural: cada generacion ta hereda e posicion cu e ultimo a caba aden. Nada for di e tempo ey no a cambia esaki, y e condicionnan a bira mas severo en bes di mas leve. Awendia, un salario no ta cubri costo di bida aki, y e buraco ta keda crece. Loke un persona mester pa luna a subi di alrededor di Afl. 2.331 na aña 2019, pa mas o menos di Afl. 2.683 awo, mientras cu un trabou full-time na salario minimo ta paga alrededor di Afl. 2.007. Pues, hende ta fia, y gran parti di e fiansa ey no ta pa luho. E ta pa uniform di scol y e laptop na augustus, pa e dentista, pa taira di e auto cu ta hiba bo trabou. Nos mester ta honesto cu algun parti di dje ta pa Carnaval tambe y pa e vakantie cu hopi hende no por afford, y pa e cosnan cu ta laga bida sinti normal.

Pues, ora nos puntra pakico un hoben Arubiano no por tin su mesun cas, e contesta honesto no ta cu e no a traha duro suficiente. Un salario cu no ta cubri costo di bida ta laga un hogar sin nada pa spaar, pues cualke cos cu bay robes, mester fia placa pe. Y e hobennan cu ta bay studia den exterior ta bin cas cu debe. Nada di esaki ta wordo dicidi door di e famianan cu esaki ta pasa cune, p’esey pa bisa hende pa spaar mas miho of traha mas duro, no por ta e contesta. Spaarmento no por cera un buraco cu a wordo crea door di un deficit structural. Y aunke nos no por cambia locual e generacion aki ta hereda, nos por escoge pa ekipa nan pa kibra e ciclo. Kico Aruba ta scoge pa pasa pa e proximo generacion?

Pues, e pregunta ta con nos ta cambia e rumbo, y si e generacion cu ta bin nos tras tin loke e mester pa carga loke e isla aki ta enfrentando. Dia 26 y 27 di october, nos ta haci e pregunta ey na e personanan cu lo emplea nan, na un mesa rondo pa binticinco dunadonan di trabou. Si bo ta un director of profesional den recurso humano, manager, supervisor of doño di negoshi, skirbi nos y nos lo manda e detayenan. Y ken cu bo por ta, skirbi nos na info@hopearuba.org, pasobra nos ta lesa tur contesta.

Tras di e Numbernan

E famia den e carta aki no ta un famia; e ta un patronchi cu hopi Arubiano lo reconoce. E cifranan ta real y ta bin for di Banco di Seguro Social (Sociale Verzekeringsbank) y Gobierno di Aruba (e pensioen di AOV y e salario minimo na 2026), Oficina Central di Estadistica Aruba (kico un solo persona mester tur luna pa biba), y fuentenan historico di Archivo Nacional Aruba y e trabou di Luc Alofs, incluyendo “Slaven zonder plantage; (kínder-) slavernij en emancipatie op Aruba.” Nos meta no ta pa simplifica un historia compleho of pa punta dede; e ta pa haci e conexionnan mas facil pa mira, y pa duna Aruba e hechonan cu nos mester pa por hiba miho combersacionnan tocante nos futuro. Si bo tin un pregunta, ta mira algo cu nos a salta, of tin un experiencia diferente, skirbi nos, pasobra nos lo kier tende esaki.

What We Inherit

More than half of Aruban households have no savings at all, which is not simply a story about how well we manage our money; it is also a story about what we have to start with, and about what we are able to leave behind.

There is a woman in Noord who has rented the same house for twenty-two years. She finished school, found work and raised two children on her own, and when her daughter went abroad to study, she worked two jobs to pay for tickets to spend Christmas together. She never managed to buy a house. The money went to school uniforms, then to a car that kept breaking down, then to a funeral. She has retired now, and her AOV pension is about Afl. 1,997 a month with the “reparatietoeslag” is less than the Central Bureau of Statistics says it costs one person to live. After twenty-two years of paying rent on time, she owns nothing.

So, her daughter helps. She studied what is not taught in Aruba and came home with a diploma and a study loan, which is what all our young people come home with, whether they finished their studies or not. She is twenty-six, she has her first real job, and she is doing exactly what we tell young people to do: “Study and find yourself a good job.” But the student loan was borrowed in euros and is repaid in florins, so part of her salary is committed before she is paid, and another part goes to help her mother. Like many young Arubans she still lives at home, in the room she grew up in or in the small apartment in the yard, and plenty of her friends pay their own parents rent for the same arrangement. She would like to put something aside each month, but there is nothing left to put aside.

She is not running behind because she made poor choices. On paper she is ahead of her mother, who never had the chance to study; in practice she is further behind, because she came home carrying a debt her mother never had. What passed from one generation to the next in this family was not property. It was a position: nothing saved, a parent to support, and the same starting point her mother had. This is where the difference between income and wealth matters. Income is what a person earns each month, while wealth is what they have managed to build and keep, and only the second can be passed on and give you some freedom in your later years.

If we go back to where some of our stories started, in generational wealth or in generational poverty, we arrive at 1863. When slavery was abolished in Aruba that year, the people who had been enslaved became free. 480 people gained their freedom, out of a total population of 3,438, but freedom did not mean that everyone stood in the same position. Slave owners, many of whom had land and a house, also received compensation from the Dutch government: 200 guilders for their loss of property, which in this case were the enslaved persons, while the emancipated people themselves received no land, no capital and no compensation. So in essence, the inequality continued.

That difference did not end in 1863. A family that held land then had something to build on while a family that held nothing had to start again from its own earnings in each of those generations. That is the difference between generational wealth and structural poverty: each generation inherits the position the last one ended in. Nothing since has reversed it, and the conditions have tightened rather than eased. Today one salary no longer covers a life here, and the gap keeps growing. What one person needs each month has risen from about Afl. 2,331 in 2019 to about Afl. 2,683 now, while a full-time job at the minimum wage pays between Afl. 2,007 and Afl 2.150. So, people borrow, and much of that borrowing is not for luxuries. It is for school uniforms and the laptop for the new school year, for the dentist, for tires on the car that gets someone to work. We should be honest that some of it is also for Carnaval and for a vacation that many can’t afford, and for the things that make life feel normal

So, when we ask why a young Aruban cannot own her own home, the honest answer is not that she has not worked hard enough. A wage that does not cover the cost of living leaves a household with nothing saved, so anything that goes wrong has to be borrowed for. And the young people who go abroad to study come home with debt. None of this is decided by the families it happens to, which is why telling them to save or work harder, however kindly it is meant, cannot be the answer. Saving cannot close a gap that is created by a structural deficit. We cannot change what this generation inherited. But we can choose to equip them with the tools to build something different. Aruba can choose what it passes on. We owe it to the next generation to break the cycle.

So the question is how we change course, read every response.

Behind the Numbers

The family in this letter is not one family; it is a pattern many Arubans will recognize. The figures are real and come from the Social Insurance Bank (Sociale Verzekeringsbank) and the Government of Aruba (the AOV pension and the minimum wage in 2026), the Central Bureau of Statistics Aruba (what a single person needs each month to live), and historical sources from the National Archive Aruba and the work of Luc Alofs, including Slaven zonder plantage: (kinder-)slavernij en emancipatie op Aruba. Our goal is not to simplify a complex history or to point fingers; it is to make the connections easier to see, and to give Aruba the facts we need in order to have better conversations about our future. If you have a question, see something we have missed, or have a different experience, write to us, because we would like to hear it.