Arubeira

Arubeira is associated with Aruba, a dry island off the northern coast of South America. Its rocky shores and sparse vegetation contrast with the wetter islands farther east. Caquetío communities from the mainland lived on Aruba before the arrival of Europeans, leaving pottery, rock images and traces of villages.

The Spanish claimed the island at the end of the fifteenth century and carried Indigenous people to Hispaniola as forced laborers. In 1636 the Dutch West India Company took Aruba after securing nearby island of Curaçao. The island’s position near the mainland and Caribbean sea routes gave it considerable strategic value in the long struggle between the Dutch and Spain, while its inhabitants continued to draw on local island land and marine resources.

The later city of Oranjestad lies here.