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Manuel Ribeiro[29]

Born on the Portuguese island of Madeira at the turn of the century, Manuel Ribeiro was already middle aged when he decided to try his fortunes abroad. Temporarily leaving his wife and seven children at home, he joined a large contingency of Portuguese immigrants who boarded a ship that had been especially sent to bring workers to Curaçao's refinery. After several years the entire family joined him. Ribeiro and his family lived in the new Suffisant neighborhood just north of the refinery, which soon became home to a tightknit Portuguese enclave. Manuel became the first president of the Portuguese Recreational Center, a social club that was the hub of the community. The immigrants also maintained particularly close ties to family, friends and business associates back home in Madeira.

Already as a refinery employee Manuel had shown an entrepreneurial spirit, rounding up old tires that Shell was throwing away and using them to fix the soles of coworkers' worn out shoes. His nest egg from this shoe repair business served him well in the 1950s, when Shell began to automize and laid off hundreds of immigrant workers. Many returned home; others, like Manuel, used the opportunity to start their own businesses. First he opened a soda fountain in Punda; later he built a small hotel and night club on Roodeweg, in the heart of Otrobanda's commercial district, and opened another soda fountain near the Punda market.

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Curaçao Chamber of Commerce & Industry