Josefine Martina is the owner of Jojo-Ala, a popular snack shop (or snek, as it’s known in Curaçao) in Pariba, an area just outside of the capital where many formerly enslaved people resettled after emancipation. The region is relatively rural, with single-lane roads, low hills, and grasslands peppered with low-lying dry brush—and, like much of Curaçao, it is akin to a desert. There, Josefine lives among her family, and has left the island only once, decades ago, to work in Sint Maarten for a short time. Their cluster of homes, while modern, are reminiscent of the compounds created by their indigenous and African ancestors.
