Ben Verbrugge

Nederlands

Ben C.A. Verbrugge was born in Schiedam, Holand, June 10, 1942. He studied and worked as a journalist in a very well-known socialist newspaper in his country. He became a professor of mentally-challenged children, a position he held for 5 years. Later he taught high school in Curaçao, in the Dutch Antilles, where he also established a syndicate of professors and a union newspaper of which he became first editor in chief, a post he held for three years.

As a young man, Verbrugge always felt a special interest for Hispanic America where he had the opportunity to travel extensively, visiting Perú, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, México, and Guatemala. His travels took him to the United States where he clocked more that 10,000 kilometers in a car trip. Verbrugge became an admirer of the Castro Revolution in the island of Cuba which he has visited twice.

He returned to Holland as principal in a school for adults who, in their youth, had not had the means to pursue an education. In Holland he published some of his poetry in a Dutch literary magazine.