Chila brought her late husband’s driver’s license to a workshop.

“I found it among his documents after he died. In 1971 the price of driving lessons was ANG 7,50 per hour. That was almost a daily wage for someone with an office job like me. At the time I was making ANG 200 a month as an administrative assistant at notary Smeets’ office. Bus fare was 30 cents. There were already quite a few cars back then, just not in our neighborhood Groot Kwartier. Actually, the only cars there were water trucks and buses.”

The first car in Curaçao, a Ford, was imported to Curaçao by Charles and Monti Maduro in 1910. The driver was J.F. Everts, the director of the “Curaçaosche Inrichting voor Electriciteit” which later became Aqualectra. Until the Second World War only large American cars were imported. In 2022 having a car in Curaçao is almost a primary necessity for life.