User:Ruud Buitelaar

Hi! My name is Rudolf Buitelaar, Ruud for countrymen. I was born in Middelburg, the Netherlands, in 1957. I was raised in the Hague, Warendorf, Bramsche and Dongen. I studied Development Economics at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. I was staff member with the United Nations from 1985 to 2016. I have lived in Chile (20 years), Mexico (15 years and counting), Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay. I have spent time on the ground in all countries of the American continent except for two small islands in the Eastern Caribbean.

As a retiree, I came to the Dutch-language Wikipedia in 2020 to publish an article about Lina Coen, an ancestor of a family member. The article was translated and published also in english. I found Wikipedia to be an extraordinary research tool and I started to write articles related to my personal interests. My main focus is on Dutch cultural agents in Mexico, such as Giovanni Korporaal, Nancy van Overveldt, Boudewijn Ietswaart, Bob Schalkwijk and Frans Stoppelman for example.

Gradually my focus changed to maintenance activities because I find Wikipedia supremely important as an tool to access reliable information.