Editors' Introduction

This issue is dedicated to Frankétienne, who joined the ancestors on February 20, 2025. Ayibobo!

Bon biní na nos edishon spesial riba papiamentu/o. Welcome to our special edition on Papiamento/o. This issue, indeed, marks a double welcome offered to Papiamentu/o and the Dutch–speaking Americas into the archipelagic space of our journal. First, we welcome a region that all too often is an afterthought in Caribbean Studies. Second, we welcome the idea that the so-called "Dutch" Caribbean is a misnomer, even more so than are the labels "French," "English" or "Spanish." We are well aware that, excepting Suriname, Dutch is not the majority language spoken in the so-called Dutch Caribbean, Leeward or Windward.

Despite embracing these realities, however, we have been remiss; we have somehow thus far neglected to bring the region meaningfully to the comparative table. And so we're just going to say it: shame on us. At some point, we must go beyond welcome and take action; we must swing the door wide open and step aside to make way—to make space.

When we speak of digital humanities and scholarship in Suriname and in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (the ABC islands, for those in the know), we speak of a complex history that is profoundly Caribbean. A cursory look at scholarly publications that have embraced Caribbean Studies beyond national or language traditions reveals that this region exists largely in a perpetual state of being welcome but never quite invited all the way in. This being said, we do find hope and exemplary praxis in scholarly and heritage professional organizations––like the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) and the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL)––that have consistently and robustly featured intellectual, creative, and social actors from Suriname and the ABCs.

We follow in the path of these institutions in this 8th issue of archipelagos––a pointed expansion of our journal as an ongoing home for digital scholarship in and concerning the Papiamentu/o and Dutch-speaking Caribbean and its diasporas. Our goal has been to begin building and to strengthen bonds and bridges among the existing communities of digital praxis and study that have coalesced around archipelagos and our ABC counterparts. To realize this effort, we have welcomed the exceptional Curaçaoan social historian and digital humanist Margo Groenewoud to be our guest editor.

Among the challenges we faced early in the process was recognizing, adapting to, and even translating institutional and independent methods and conceptual worlds that have developed semi-independently from other geo-culturally-grounded conversations about Caribbean digital studies over the past decade. From the start, then, we relied on Professor Groenewoud to take on the literal and figurative translation work needed to steward this issue. She met this challenge with the kind of erudition, accountability, and generosity that should be the standard of our collective work within the academy and beyond. Her intervention, paired with the extraordinary work of our Managing Editor Winnie Pérez Martínez, is the solid foundation of this issue––the dedicated opening salvo and full-throated welcome we extend to our Papiamentu/o and Dutch–speaking Caribbean community.

Though we have taken a decidedly Papiamentu/o turn, as it were, in this issue, we are not in the business of ghettoization. As such, we continue to feature digital humanist scholarship from the breathtaking spiral of Our Americas. Both the Essays and Dialogues sections of this issue highlight archival, preservation, and pedagogical work currently happening in Puerto Rico––work that absolutely parallels and recalls similar efforts and stakes in Suriname and the ABC islands.

Onward, Alex and Kaiama