Photo: Curaçao authors (from left), Hilda de Windt-Ayoubi, Diana Lebacs, with Cuban author, editor Emilio Jorge Rodríguez, in Cuba for Havana Bookfair 2019. (Photo courtesy EJR)
By Emily Jorge Rodriguez
In memory of the Curaçao writer Diana Lebacs (1947-2022)
HAVANA, Cuba — In the first half of the 1970s, Curaçao couple Diana Lebacs and Pacheco Domacassé appeared in Havana, Cuba. Both were young musicians and writers, she an actress and he a theater director.
We formed such a partnership – initially based on my interest in the literature of the Dutch territories in the Caribbean – that shortly afterwards Diana began sending me (in her own handwriting) bio-bibliographies of authors close to them and of published writers. which I had sought information on, to expand the wealth of information I had access to at the time.
These posts and correspondence were related to a very ambitious plan for an encyclopedic dictionary that would make visible the writers of the Greater Caribbean. But due to the size and lack of resources, the voluminous book project could not be completed. One of the contributors, who wrote a number of articles on Cuban writers, was Raúl Hernández Novás.
As a result of our connections, in 1976 Pacheco attended a meeting of Caribbean writers in Havana. Although our exchanges continued by mail, it was not until the late 1990s that we met again during my brief visit to Curaçao.
Given the balkanization scenario and little contact between writers from the Dutch territories in the Caribbean and the rest of the region, I directed the initial proposal towards the preparation of a Dictionary of Writers from the Caribbean Netherlands.
After Diana and I discussed the idea, it became a dream come true for both of us. She took up her part of the task spontaneously, with the dynamism and youthful passion with which she undertook all the work for the culture of Curaçao.
The elegant and passionate lady, winner of important literary awards, invited to countless cultural events, with many books published, never abandoned our dream of encyclopedia of Caribbean writers.
Diana also recruited writer Hilda de Windt-Ayoubi and they set up an advisory committee. The commission held numerous meetings, from which minutes were sent to me with questions, clarifications, doubts and proposals.
My project was presented to the Prins Bernhard Culture Fund Caribbean Region and in 2019, that institution provided a financial subsidy to expand the research to be carried out on the six islands in question: Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Martin (part of the Netherlands).
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with travel to the islands impossible, research has slowed but not been abandoned. All people engaged in the literary project have maintained an interest in completing the Dictionary, filled with Diana’s immeasurable energy.
When Hilda called me early on the morning of July 12 with the news of Diana’s death the day before, she also told me that Diana was visiting her to think about the progress of the literary research project—something I understood from afar.
I realize that the linguistic complexity of the Caribbean region means that some of my Facebook friends are unaware of many of its writers. This is why my tribute to Diana has generally focused on her persistence towards GLOSSARY that we have wished for together – a dictionary that will also include a more up-to-date version of the article I wrote about her Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Rest assured, we will continue to dream about the project you have deemed ours, Diana. Wherever you are, accept my immense love and respect.
Brass, Diana.
Works by Diana Lebacs in Papiamentu and Dutch
(Selected by Emilio Jorge Rodríguez)
Sherry – the beginning of a beginning (young adult novel, 1971); Comparative data with 1975; Nancho from Bonaire (children’s literature, 1976); Chimina-kome-lubida, 1976; Have peace with us (1977); Sailor Nancho (children’s literature, 1977); Nancho niemand (children’s literature, 1979); The wise, the wise and the good: a narrative of Luango (children’s literature, 1979); Nancho the captain (children’s literature, 1982); Yomi-yomi (children’s literature, 1982); Pink sugar cane (literature for young people, 1983); Does he do it too? (children’s literature, 1985); Ghost gang (children’s literature, 1985); Robin and the Giant Robot (children’s literature, 1985); White Light (Youth Literature, 1986); How much are they? (children’s literature, 1987); Dies dede ekantá (children’s literature, 1987); Rini ta bai mori (children’s literature, 1987); Moro Rini (children’s literature, 1987); At’akí mi boka (children’s literature, 1987); Nanishi riba yesterday (children’s literature, 1987); Dos wowo pa mi mira (children’s literature, 1987); Orea without tent’é (children’s literature, 1987); Eight counts wonders (children’s literature, 1987); King tumba (children’s literature, 1989); The longest month (novel, 1994); Kaimin with secretions (children’s literature, 2001); Fula Fula (children’s literature, 2005); What we shouldn’t talk about / Women talk (short stories, 2007); Where is Oliver? / Unda Olivier ta? (children’s literature, 2010); Ubuntu (literature for young people, 2010); Kaboommm! And then… (children’s literature, 2013); Belume/waterline (poem, 2014); The wedding cake a thousand lies (novel, 2016); The Greatness of Friendship (juvenile literature, 1918).
