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Secin Halabi[37]

Born in 1896 in Turkish dominated Lebanon, Secin came to Curaçao in 1932 at the insistence of his brother-in-law, who had emigrated three years earlier and ran a successful small food store (“toko”) on Otrobanda’s main commercial street, Breedestraat. Secin started out very modestly, selling sandwiches to refinery workers from a shop near the refinery entrance. In 1934, when his brother-in-law returned to Lebanon, Secin bought the Otrobanda store and he soon became a well known town merchant.

During World War II, being an avid smoker himself, Secin operated a successful cigarette factory in Scharloo. Later, in the Paradijs area north of Willemstad, he opened the Curaçao Candle Factory which he owned up to the late sixties. As he prospered as a businessman Secin acquired several commercial properties in the heart of Otrobanda and Scharloo.

But it was in real estate that Secin was to make his mark. He began purchasing land early on, especially large undeveloped tracts in the countryside west of Willemstad (Banda Bou) as a long term investment. His foresight and business sense became apparent as the island began to expand and develop well beyond Willemstad; Secin himself did little to develop his land. One notable exception was the Promenade Shopping Center, one of the island’s first strip malls, located in an up-and-coming suburban area, which he began working on in the early seventies together with his eldest son; however, Secin died before Promenade was completed and his business was further conducted by his sons.

Secin Halabi

Secin was well respected throughout the local business community for both his integrity and his business acumen, but very much a private family man. He was one of the onlyArab residents of Scharloo, a largely Jewish neighborhood where he built his first house; he operated a store on the ground floor (in later years he moved his family to a new suburban neighborhood). He maintained cordial but not particularly close ties to the local Lebanese community and never returned to his homeland. To many he represented a particular type of local businessman characteristic of the era: a hard working immigrant with high ethical standards whose deals were cemented with mutual trust and a handshake, every bit as binding as a legal contract.

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