In the shadow of the refinery: an American oil company town on the Caribbean island of Aruba

ABSTRACT

American industries created company towns across the United States, and in the late nineteenth century, their usage spread into Latin America and the Caribbean. Most company towns were designed for workers; the literature on company towns has tended to focus on these. However, some were specifically designed for expatriate managers and supervisors; these have received relatively little scholarly attention. This article focuses on Standard Oil’s Lago Colony on the island of Aruba. Established in 1929, the community offered a host of amenities including schools, a hospital, a store, a club, and a wide variety of sporting venues. This article examines the evolution of the town and explores the factors that contributed to its decline. It discusses life in the community, and specifically focuses on the lived experiences of children in making the company town their home.

KEYWORDS:

• Company town
• Lago Colony
• Seroe Colorado
• Lago Oil Company
• children
• place making

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Dawn S. Bowen is a cultural historical geographer with interests in ethnic migration, agricultural development, and place making. She is Professor of Geography at the University of Mary Washington.

ORCID

Dawn S. Bowen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6568-3506

Notes

1. I use this diary because it is the single specific source about a woman’s experience living in the Colony, but it lasts for less than a year. Warden was a resident of the Colony for approximately three months before she and her family moved elsewhere on the island. Her husband was not an employee of Lago, and while they socialized with people in the Colony during the period of her diary, the couple did not remain in Aruba very long.

2. Another resident states that this was actually guano from bats (Monroe 2003, p. 481).

3. The company officially changed the name of the Lago Colony to Seroe Colorado in 1958. Why this action was taken is unclear, but the Aruba Esso News reported that the “Management decision was made with the consent of the government in order to be compatible with local geography, and to restore to current usage a name which has appeared on the maps for years” (AEN 1958, p. 2).