Amsterdam
In 2011 Casa Migrante existed for 50 years. Together with journalist Cathelijne van Vliet, and Casa Migrante I published a book with portraits and interviews of Spanish speaking immigrants who live in, or around Amsterdam. They shared their personal experience with us. I have been teaching Dutch classes in Casa Migrante as a volunteer and got to know the Spanish speaking community quite well. My own father is also one of the protagonists of the book, since he migrated from Peru to the Netherlands in the seventies. The founder of Casa Migrante, Padre Theo, is a well-known figure in the Spanish speaking community. His mission was to welcome immigrants and to provide them with assistance in the Dutch language, in legal advice, in the bureaucracy of constantly changing rules. For more than a year we worked together to make this book, as a celebration of this mission. This project was funded by the Oranje Fonds.
