The Panama American ( November 11, 1952 )Cape Verdean Americans
Cape verdean americans
by Jane E. Spear
The Cape Verde (or Cabo Verde) Islands are known officially as the
Republic of Cape Verde. The islands lie approximately 320 miles (515
kilometers) off the west coast of Senegal, the westernmost country on the
African continent. The republic consists of ten islands, nine of which are
inhabited, and five islets in the Atlantic Ocean. These islands and islets
cover an area of 1,557 square miles (4,033 square kilometers) and are also
referred to as the Cape Verde Archipelago. The term archipelago indicates
a chain of islands within a particular area. The islands form two
clusters, the Windward islands and the Leeward Islands, relating to their
position to the northeast wind. Windward refers to the islands on the side
from which the wind blows. Leeward refers to those opposite the wind. The
Windward Islands are: Santa Antao, Sao Vincente, Santa Lluzia, Sao
Nicolau, Sal and Boa vista, and the islets of Branco and Razo. The Leeward
Islands are Maio, Sao Tiago, Fogo and Brava, and the three Rombo islets.
The climate of the Cape Verde islands is mild, and the humidity is low.
The clean and beautiful beaches and low crime were factors that promoted
increased tourism to the islands by the end of the twentieth century.
The geography of the Republic of Cape Verde is an important key to
understanding the Cape Verdean people and their culture. Discovered by the
Portuguese around 1455, these volcanic islands have been plagued for
centuries by recurrent
droughts. The last major drought ended in 1985, following 12 dry years.
In a country that relies primarily on agriculture for its livelihood, only
ten percent of its land is suitable for growing. Seven percent of its land
is used for cattle grazing. With overgrazing and extended droughts, the
land resembles the barren coast of New England, rather than an exotic
landscape of the Tropics. When droughts occur, the vegetation in the
mountainous valleys is supplied with water from underground. But dry winds
during these periods leave much of the topsoil washed away and when rain
does come, no seeds will have been planted.
In 1990, the Republic of the Cape Verde Islands had an estimated
population of 339,000. However, more than half of Cape Verdean citizens
lived abroad due to poor working conditions in their homeland. The
majority of those inhabited the northeastern United States, primarily
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. More than two-thirds of Cape Verdean
population ancestry is Creole, descended from the intermarriages between
the Portuguese settlers and black Africans. The majority of the population
practices Roman Catholicism, although other churches have gained a
foothold in the islands. The predominant Protestant group in the Cape
Verdean islands is the American Nazarene Church and other large groups
include the Baptists and Adventists.
customs, which are beliefs rooted in a spiritual presence outside the
physical realm, and beliefs in spirits and demons, are not uncommon among
Cape Verdeans, even those who practice one of the mainstream religions.
The flag of the Republic of Cape Verde contains a circle of ten stars to
the left of center, around two colors of stripes on either side—one
narrow red stripe in the center between two wider white stripes, all under
a deep blue background.
The name Cape Verde means green cape, an ironic description of these dry
and mountainous islands. In the middle of the fifteenth century, before
Queen Isabel of Spain sent an Italian, Christopher Columbus, to discover a
new route to the east, Portugal was engaged in colonial expansion. The
dates regarding the exact time that Portuguese explorer Diogo Gomes and
Genovese Antonio di Noli (working for the Portuguese king) discovered the
Cape Verdean Islands varies. One source suggests that they landed on the
unpopulated islands as early as 1455. Other Portuguese historians maintain
that they were discovered over the course of two voyages between 1460 and
1462. The navigators reportedly saw the first islands, Sao Tiago, or
Santiago, (Portuguese for James) S. Felipe (Portuguese for Philip) and
Maio, or Mayo, in honor of the feast of Saints Philip and James, the day
of their discovery. Two years later, they were believed to have completed
their discovery of the seven other islands. Oral traditions passed down
through the centuries among the Portuguese and the Cape Verdeans indicate
that the islands were not always uninhabited. According to these stories,
Sao Tiago was inhabited by Wolofs, natives of Senegal and Gambia, both
west Afr and that Sal was inhabited by Lebu, Serer,
the Felup. These groups were also native to the African continent.
In June of 1466, King Alfonso of Portugal (1432 to 1481) developed a
proposal to make settling in the Cape Verde Islands more attractive. He
granted a Charter of Privileges and placed his brother Fernando as owner,
and gave him jurisdiction over all inhabitants in civil and criminal
matters. These inhabitants may have been any of the following groups:
Moors, or Mauritanians of mixed Arab and Berber descent who lived in
northwest Africa, some of whom had invaded and occupied Spain in the
Blacks, from the A or Whites, settlers
from Europe. This charter allowed the settlers to organize the slave trade
off the African coast, providing both for the development of the islands
themselves, as well as for the expanding slave markets in Brazil and the
West Indies of the Caribbean. The scarcity of European women inhabiting
the island ultimately led to the coupling of the Portuguese male settlers
with the native Africans, and mixed blood emerged into over 90 percent of
the population. This intermingling of bloodlines often set Cape Verdean
islanders and their descendants apart from being considered solely
A or, in the instance of emigrants to America, as
African-Americans.
The poor growing conditions on the islands created difficulties for the
Portuguese. They were used to harvesting and eating grains that could not
grow on the Cape Verdean landscape. The Portuguese brought maize, or corn,
from Brazil, and established it as the islands' main crop. Urzela,
a natural substance used in dyes, was another imported crop. Many of the
African slaves brought to Cape Verde were expert weavers, and wove the
cotton into intricately patterned materials for use in clothing and
household goods. All of the work done to cultivate the land in the Cape
Verde Islands during the centuries of Portuguese occupation was done for
Portugal, as produce was returned to the mother country. This was to
detriment of the local natives, particularly the slaves who had been
imported from mainland Africa.
The Europeans who did stay in the islands settled in the most fertile
areas. Sao Tiago, the largest island, was divided into feudal estates,
which was the system of land division in Europe. Feudal estates were
passed down from one generation to the next, father to son, and were
worked by tenant farmers. These tenant farmers often lived grim and bleak
existences. Working the land, especially in the difficult soil of the Cape
Verde Islands was tedious, at best. Although they were not considered
slaves, tenant farmers never gained the right to own the land they farmed.
They only subsisted on what was left after they paid taxes to the landlord
Portugal, like the Britain's settlement of Australia with
criminals, sent
degredados,
or convicts, to settle the Cape Verde Islands. This practice continued on
a regular basis until 1882. Escaping persecution in Portugal, many Jewish
people, especially men, also settled in the Cape Verde Islands. Despite
the fact that many Jews had converted to Christianity in Medieval Europe,
they were persecuted due to racial discrimination, not simply religion.
Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal at the time that
exploration to the New World began often left robbed of their money and
their possessions. In fact, much of the wealth Queen Isabel of Spain used
to finance Christopher Columbus' voyage was confiscated from
persecuted Jews. But these were not the only deplorable practices that
Portugal engaged in. The slavery that brought good prices in their early
trade of Africans and deportation to the Caribbean, and Brazil, brought
better prices once the slaves of Cape Verde Islands had learned to speak
the common tongue of their captors. Thus, Portugal doubled their profit.
After years of living on the islands, the population began to understand
that the droughts occurred in cycles. Two major droughts occurred in the
sixteenth century, the first in 1549, and the second from 1580 to 1583.
Moreover, a harsh and severe famine occurred during the latter drought.
Reports of another drought, from 1609 to 1611, indicated that while the
rich had food, the poor, both slave and non-slave, did not and many
perished from prolonged periods of starvation. By the middle of the
seventeenth century, a significant proportion of the white settlers
decided to abandon the islands. This, along with the recurring droughts,
brought a decline in the export economy. Eventually, the Portuguese
governing monarchy permitted slave ships in transit from Africa to the
Americas to pay their customs fees before they left the coast of mainland
Africa, instead of stopping by the Cape Verde Islands to do so.
Consequently, the city of Ribiera Grande became easy prey for pirates. It
was pushed into ruin by neglect and abandonment, and Praia became the new
capital. This location afforded a natural fortress to protect it from
roving marauders and pirates in search of valuable goods. Illegal trade
brought the only consistent source of revenue, as Portuguese trade laws
restricted trade with foreigners.
From 1696 to 1785, famines increased, even when the droughts were not as
severe, due to mismanagement of the charter companies employed by the
monarchy. Managers of the land did not store food during more fertile
periods and during the famine of 1773 to 1775, some inhabitants became so
desperate to leave the island that they sold themselves into slavery to
foreign ships. Other slaves took advantage of the chaos that often
occurred during pirate attacks, and escaped to the distant countryside,
settling down to farm the land for themselves. Because these people were
scattered and isolated from each other, they were unable to unite and
attempt to take control of their fate.
Another brutal famine during the early 1830s killed an estimated one third
of the population. An uprising in 1835 killed even more people. Soldiers
at Praia, most recruited from the Azores, began the uprising. The Azores,
a group of islands in the north Atlantic that lie west of
Portugal's mainland, were also part of the Portuguese empire. The
uprising resulted in the slaughter of many officials. Thwarted in their
attempt to take over the government, the insurrectionist leaders were
hanged. When another uprising occurred at Achade Falcao, ancestral home of
twentieth century political leader, Amilcar Cabral, its attempts also
failed, as were many others. The United States was aware of news reports
of the famines of 1830 to 1833, and another in 1856. While the Portuguese
government and public in Lisbon offered nothing in assistance, the people
of Boston and New York sent money and food —11 ships worth of food
went out from New York alone in 1856 —to alleviate the suffering of
the Cape Verdeans.
MODERN ERA
The Portuguese did not outlaw the trading of slaves until 1836, long after
the rest of the European states denounced the practice. The practice
continued due to loopholes in the laws and unscrupulous officials and
business people. The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1842 brought the first
serious admonitions against it and prevented slaves from coming on to the
islands. Laws abolishing slavery continued being passed during the 1850s,
yet the trade continued until 1878.
The cruel vagaries of both the landowners and the land itself continued
for the tenant farmers who
remained on the islands. Outrageous practices, such as arbitrary rent
raises, resulted in the sudden eviction of the tenants and there was
little mercy for the struggling residents. Although government ruled
against it, these practices continued until the 1970s. When a famine from
1863 until 1866 killed a third of the population for the second time in
only 30 years, forced emigration began under governmentsponsored
recruitment. The government sent people to the equatorial islands of Sao
Tome and Principe, where cocoa production was emerging as a major
operation. The survivors of these famines chose to endure contract labor
rather than another harsh famine. Some islanders settled in S some
went to Guine-Bissau, which eventually fell under Portuguese control. Cape
Verdean had established themselves in Guine-Bissau in independent
businesses, often trading their distilled spirits, made from sugar cane,
and other imported goods. When the Portuguese took over, they resented
that these spirits competed with their brandy. They subsequently forced
the re-settled Cape Verdeans out of business, and the Cape Verdeans took
on low-paying government jobs.
Through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, droughts
and famines in the Cape Verde islands continued. A law enacted by the
Portuguese government in 1899 allowed authorities to force any kind of
work, no matter how low the wage or undesirable the situation, upon any
unemployed males. This enabled the government to maintain the work force
on the cocoa plantations during another grave famine in 1902 to 1903. When
Portugal became a republic in 1910, the harsh law remained intact. World
War I created further havoc for the Cape Verdean shipping industry, as did
the famine of 1920 to 1922. An estimated 30,000 people died of starvation.
In 1917, the United States began to prohibit the immigration of illiterate
people. This law was the precedent for harsher immigration laws later
enacted in the 1920s designed to stem the flow of immigrants into America.
Cape Verdeans who had left the islands for America by the hundreds in the
nineteenth century and early in the twentieth century, were now leaving
only by the dozens. Other reforms, such as the birth of a free press and
school reforms, did result from the establishment of the Republic. Even as
the rule of Salazar had begun to hamper freedoms again after gaining
control in Portugal in 1926, the small minority of Cape Verdeans who were
educated struggled to raise its voice. In 1936, a group of the few
intellectuals and educated people founded a review known as Claridade.
Publication continued until 1960. World War II created further problems
for the islands due to restricted travel and shipping, even though
Portugal remained neutral. Famines from 1941 to 1943, and again from 1947
to 1949, killed yet another estimated 45,000 people from starvation.
By the 1950s, the islanders, as well as other subjects of the Portuguese
colonization, began a new escape route. This time they escaped into
postwar western Europe, which needed workers for the booming recovery and
rebuilding of a devastated Europe, including Portugal. Many natives of
Portugal left their impoverished homeland and were replaced by Cape
Verdeans eager to take on the most menial of jobs to escape of the
hardships of more famines. The largest group of them settled in the
Netherlands. Thus, not only Cape Verdean-Americans could send money back
to the homeland. Those settling in Europe sent so much money back home
that it became the major source of income and exchange.
Also in the 1950s, protest was mounting throughout Portuguese Africa. A
group of Cape Verdeans and people from the mainland colony of
Guine-Bissau, led by Amilcar Cabral, joined forces to organize the Patrido
Africano de Independencia de Guine e Cabo Verde (PAIGC). The freedom
fighters moved through the forests rather than the open mountainous
country, to avoid air attacks air attack. Those who resisted politically,
were subject to the terrors of the Portuguese secret police, and sometimes
imprisoned in the concentration camp at Tarrafal, on Sao Tiago. This place
was the sad fate for political prisoners from all over the Portuguese
empire. The government provided famine relief in 1959 in an attempt to win
the people's support. Other public projects, such as roads, a
desalination plant, and irrigation works were constructed, only to fail in
a few short years. On April 25, 1974, the government in Portugal was
overthrown. The new Portuguese government was prepared to destroy their
old colonies, but reconsidered, believing that they could still control
the colonies with puppet governments. The Cape Verdeans resisted,
supporting the PAIGC, and in September and December of that same year,
general strikes were called. The government surrendered when all services
and production stopped. In June of 1975, following elections, the
independent Republic of Cabo Verde was proclaimed. Independence Day was
established on July 5, 1975, and it is celebrated by Cape Verdeans
throughout the world.
When Ana Maria Cabral, widow of Amilcar, spoke at the 1995 Festival of
American Folklife at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., she
focused on her husband's and her country's struggle for
independence and cultural resistance.
Amilcar Cabral had written into Cape Verde's new Constitution
provisions for dual-citizenship and voting, consequently formalizing the
close ties that Cape Verdeans who emigrated elsewhere maintained to their
homeland. An interdependence between the
(the term used for members of a culture who spread out and settle away
from their original homeland) and those who lived on the islands became a
legally-recognized status. Cabral's widow noted that, "Cape
Verde [had] undergone a very interesting historical process. Originally a
group of uninhabited islands, the archipelago's population resulted
mostly from Portuguese exiles' intermarrying with black African
slaves and their descendants. Cultural colonization progressively diluted
itself in a biological and social mixing that, joined with factors less
than favorable to the establishment of a strong metropolitan ruling class,
soon imposed on Cape Verdean society a characteristic personality. These
are evident everywhere: in linguistic re-creation, musical
re-harmonization, ancestral traces in culinary customs, and the more
common manifestations of everyday life."
THE FIRST CAPE VERDEANS IN AMERICA
Massachusetts colonist Jonathan Winthrop was the first to record any
contact with Cape Verdeans. In 1643, he recorded in his journal that a
shipment of boat slaves were sent from Boston to England. These slaves
were sold to finance the further purchase of Africans from the island of
Mayo as well as sold to Barbados to buy molasses. The molasses was
returned to Boston to produce rum. The first Cape Verdean islanders
settled in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century. Most
of these early settlers had boarded the New England whaling ships that
often stopped by the Cape Verde coast. Into the early twentieth century,
before the decline of the whaling industry, Cape Verdeans were prominent
on the Whalers, serving in every capacity from ship captains to harpooners
to shipmates. The long hours and years at sea spawned the particular
scrimshaw—t
he intricate carving of whale teeth and jawbones—ship modeling, and
other forms of carvings.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
The cranberry industry centered south of Boston, on the Cape Cod
peninsula, required numerous workers to harvest the bogs. Cape Verdeans
who had settled in New England to work in the whaling and shipping
industry, were joined by fellow islanders who arrived to work in the bogs.
At the end of the twentieth century, the majority of Cape Verdeans
remained clustered in the New England area, particularly Massachusetts and
Rhode Island. Population estimates vary for that region, with figures of
13,000 to 21,000 people. U.S. Census figures for 1990 counted over 400,000
persons of Cape Verdean ancestry throughout the United States.
Following World War I, a significant number of New England's Cape
Verdeans headed to Ohio and Michigan to fill the many positions opening up
in the auto, steel and manufacturing industry. With most families
remaining in New England, it was not unusual for Cape Verdeans to travel
back and forth from their midwestern homes to Massachusetts and Rhode
Island. During the lengthy factory strikes of the late 1950s and 1960s,
some Cape Verdeans returned east to find comfort in family, and to find
work in the cranberry bogs, or other migrant farms.
Acculturation and Assimilation
Cape Verdean Americans carry with them a history of hardship and
devastation into the United States. The strength that they developed
fortify them as they face obstacles life in a new country. Cape Verdean
immigrants keep watch not only for themselves in a new country, but
continue to work for the betterment and survival of their fellow Cape
Verdeans who remain in the islands.
The distinction between "black" and "white" in
the America to which the Cape Verdeans arrived was defined and the Cape
Verdeans faced prejudice. Dr. Dwayne Williams, the executive director of
the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, spoke about Cape Verdeans to a
group at Brown University in Providence in February of 1997. He explained
that even when Americans attempted to classify Cape Verdeans as black, and
often dismissed them because of that, "Cape Verdeans [still]
refused to fit within this framework. That differentiates them."
Those Cape Verdeans born in the nineteenth century, and before World War I
in the islands and in America, created a distinct identity, separate from
their African ancestors. They did not think of themselves as
"African Americans" in the same way that the descendants of
America's slaves did. For them, their European blood was as much a
part of their ancestry as was their African blood. That was true
especially for those who settled away from the concentrated Cape Verdean
environments of New England, and moved into the Midwest. Because a
majority of them were Roman Catholics in a country where few African
Americans shared in that faith, Cape Verdean Americans more often found
themselves in the company of other white Catholics. Many of
these white Catholics were immigrants from Eastern Europe, also
struggling to blend into their new country. The Cape Verdeans considered
themselves Portuguese and usually expressed that distinction when their
identity was questioned.
Cape Verdean immigrants, like their fellow white parishioners and factory
coworkers in ethnic neighborhoods, spoke a different language. Although
many of them were forced into black neighborhoods because of their skin
color, earlier generations of Cape Verdean Americans maintained a society
separate from other African Americans surrounding them. Their customs,
their language, and their religion kept them together in closely-knit
extended families. Cape Verdeans, into the middle of the twentieth
century, often had large immediate families, with five or more children.
For Catholics, practicing a faith that banned birth control and abortion,
children were accepted as a natural consequence of marriage. For Cape
Verdean Catholics endured a past marked by great uncertainty because of
droughts and famines, and children were accepted not only as a matter of
their faith. They were also received with joy at the prospect of
continuing on and surviving for generations to come.
When the children and grandchildren of the first immigrant waves became
involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, a new sense of
solidarity with other African Americans emerged. Cape Verdean Americans of
the post World War II generation in particular saw the similarities
between their own struggles and the struggles of other African Americans.
While older Cape Verdean Americans frowned upon these ties, the fight for
independence from Portuguese rule back in the islands was headed toward
victory. Cape Verdeans moved to places all over the world, from Macau to
Haiti to Argentina to northern Europe
By the end of the twentieth century, the Cape Verdean community in America
had grown in its self-awareness as well as its opportunities to express
its identity. Cape Verdean Americans who were scattered throughout the
United States, from well-established communities in New England and
Southern California to newer clusters in metropolitan areas such as
Atlanta, began to renew their heritage with the younger generations.
TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, AND BELIEFS
Roman Catholicism provides much of the Cape Verde's religious
heritage, but animist customs and beliefs linger in the practices of Cape
Verdeans in America as well as the islands. The superstitions born of
their African ancestry included a belief in witches, the powers of healers
and non-traditional medicine. Nuno Miranda, a healer and spiritualist
recognized by all Cape Verdeans in the twentieth century, was responsible
for passing down many such customs. Many pagan beliefs were eventually
interwoven into the celebration of Roman Catholic holidays.
Many proverbs continue to be passed down from the older generations born
in the islands to the younger generations born in America. These proverbs
reflected the often troubled lives of the Cape Verdean people, for
example: Who stays will not go away. Who never went away will not come
Without leaving the If we die in the
departure, God will give u Cover just as your cloth
permit it (do not bite off more than you can chew); A pretty girl is like
a ship with all Who does not want to be a wolf should
Who mix himself up wit A poor
foreigner eats the raw There is no better mirror than
Good calf sucks mi Who does not take
the risk, do not taste (life); The fool is sly people' What
is good ends soon. What is bad never ends.
The food that most Cape Verdean Americans eat is the dish
Cape Verdeans offer many slight variations of this, but the two main
versions are
Cachupa rica,
indicating the inclusion of meat for the rica, and
Cachupa povera,
for the povera, or poor, who cannot afford meat. The main ingredients of
the dish are beaten corn, ground beef, bacon, sausages, pigs' feet,
potatoes, dry beans, cabbage, garlic, onions, laurel (bay) leaves and salt
and pepper to taste. All of these ingredients are cooked slowly together
in a big pot for several hours. It is sometimes made with fish in
America's New England community and in the islands, where fish is
plentiful.
Another favorite dish is
Canja de galinha,
which includes chicken, rice and tomatoes, and is cooked with onions,
garlic, sage, and bay leaves. This dish is always included at funerals, or
in times of big family celebrations and parties.
is cooked with lima or kidney beans, salt, pepper and fresh parsley, and
served with meat or poultry
. Caldo de peixe
is a fish soup, and a favorite among an island culture that relies on
fish as a major food source.
a red grouper fish, native to the sea surrounding the islands, is used
when available. Custom
dictates that when someone is suffering from too much alcohol
consumption, a spicy version of the soup is necessary to recover. For
something sweet,
Pudim de Leite,
a simple milk pudding is served. Whenever food is served among Cape
Verdean Americans, the important factor is the coming together of family
and friends, celebrating the gift of food, and sharing it with love.
The hardships and trials of the Cape Verdean homeland, and their struggles
in the lands to which they immigrated, has resulted in a music full of
melancholy, or
as the traditional ballads are known. Cape Verdeans enjoy tunes from the
beautiful mixture of guitar, violin, and vocals. Song lyrics often reflect
the separations endured throughout the waves of immigration, particularly
between the islands and America. John Cho wrote in his article,
"The Sands of Cape Verde," that, "Given such a
history filled with loss and departures, plus having the Portuguese
(themselves known for their pensive nature) as their European component,
it is not a surprise that the popular music of Cape Verde are steeped in
melancholy. Alienation and a forced abandonment of roots have also played
a role, as the bulk of the population is composed of the descendants of
African slaves from various ethnic backgrounds who were cut off from their
histories and had to develop a Creole language and culture under a
particularly ruthless colonial regime. An obvious analogy is the
development of another great music of melancholia, the blues, also by
slaves and their progeny in the United States." In America, Cape
Verdeans have continued their devotion to their music. In addition, their
heritage led to an interest and participation in the distinctly American
music, jazz.
The major holidays of Cape Verdean Americans are rooted primarily in their
Christian beliefs, and include Christmas, the Feast of St. John the
Baptist and the celebration of Carnival, the weeklong period preceding Ash
Wednesday, and the beginning of the season of Lent. The celebration of
saints constitutes many of the other celebrations among Cape Verdeans.
Most of the holidays in the islands and abroad occur during the months of
May, June, and July, with some, such as the Feast of All Saints, and All
Souls' Day, occurring in early November. In addition to celebrating
the July 4 as Independence Day for the United States, their adopted
country, Cape Verdean Americans share the worldwide recognition of the
islands' own day of independence from Portuguese colonial rule on
July 5th. The Cape Verdean Americans of the New England area celebrate St.
John's feast with traditional parades, dancing the kola, and
favorite foods.
HEALTH ISSUES
Americans of Cape Verdean ancestry do not suffer any recognizable disease
or illness specific to them. However, they do have an increased risk for
high blood pressure and diabetes that is common among African Americans.
Due to the unique role of Cape Verdeans as an isolated cultural group in
America, social services addressing problems such as domestic abuse and
youth violence and delinquency were not readily available until the end of
the 1990s. Until then women and men suffered in silence in deference to
the family and to the Catholic church. This situation began to change when
people like Jose Barros and his Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in
Boston's Roxbury section, and Noemia Montero with the Log School
Family Education Center in Dorchester, another Boston-area neighborhood,
developed programs for the betterment of Cape Verdean immigrants, some of
them not yet American citizens, who struggled with identity, poverty, and
poor education.
Cape Verdean Americans speak English, Portuguese, and
), the Creole language developed as a mixture of the European languages of
explorers and the native African tongues spoken by slaves. Much of the
vocabulary stems from Portuguese, although many of these words are no
longer used in twentieth century Portugal. The African tongues, mostly
influenced Kriolu chiefly in the way that grammar is used. Since the
Republic of Cape Verde was established in 1975 when it became independent
of Portugal, Kriolu, not Portuguese has become the dominant language among
the islanders.
When Cape Verdeans came to the United States to work in the cranberry bogs
on Cape Cod and the nearby vicinity in the early twentieth century, the
school system of Massachusetts did not recognize Kriolu as an acceptable
language. Consequently, children and students studied Portuguese in order
to take the bilingual classes in which they learned English. Many Cape
Verdean-American children had a difficult time in school due to the length
of time they needed learn English. In 1971, Cape Verdeans in the
Boston area urged that their Creole language be recognized by the
Transitional Bilingual Education Act. In the years following, significant
improvements among Cape Verdean students were made. The Cape Verdean
Creole Institute was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1996, with the
goal of promoting the Cape Verdean language.
GREETINGS AND POPULAR EXPRESSIONS
Common Kriolu expressions and greetings include:
—No;
Kon Lisensa
N ka ta konprende
Spera un momentu
Pur favor, papia dibagar
Dja Txiga, Dimas
—Enough,
Gosi li, Gosin li, Gurinha sin
Kumo ki bu ta txoma-l na Kriolu?
—What is that called in K
Bu ta papia Ingles?
—Do you speak English?
Family and Community Dynamics
Families are central to Cape Verdean Americans. It is the social structure
around which everything else in their lives revolves. Until the latter
part of the twentieth century, Cape Verdean American families were often
large, with at least four or more children. As they assimilated into
American culture, and as education levels rose among them their families
became smaller. Baby boomers often had only two or three children as
compared to their parents' average of seven or eight. Smaller
families did not mean the lessening of family ties. Instead, it marked the
period when affluence, education, and mobility led newer generations of
Cape Verdean Americans back to their heritage.
According to 1990 U.S. Census Bureau figure samples, at least 23.6 percent
of the Cape Verdean American population had at least some level of college
education. Overall, education has received an increasing status among Cape
Verdean Americans
Weddings are an important festivity in the islands and are influenced by
Cape Verdeans' African roots. The custom of
composed of solo dancing and responsorials from a women's chorus,
is a common wedding tradition. The most traditional practitioners are on
the island of Sao Tiago. Among some islanders, the performance involves a
ritual mockery of advice to the newly-married couple, sometimes composed
by the male family elder. Variations include the lead singer who takes
command of the group, slowly dancing the rhythmic beat of the
batukadieras,
or drums. In the first part, the
the dancer in the middle of the circle, keeps time to the accelerating
music with her hips. The
involves the improvisational singing about the events of importance to
the Cape Verdeans, such as the devastating famines. In his article,
"Traditional Festivities in Cape Verde," writer Gabriel
Moacyr Rodrigues, placed this custom into the context of the community.
"The elder leader can be understood as a matron, the most
experienced woman, who executes the hip movements that suggest the sexual
act and provoke the libido." He further noted that, "Young
girls—the Batxudas dance afterward, and their agile, sensual bodies
awaken feelings in the old men around that remind them of their own love
and marriage. For the young who watch, the dancer represents the desire
for love. As she dances, the young girl closes her eyes and holds her
hands in front of her face in a gesture of wanting to be seen and
appreciated while still intending to preserve her chastity and
bashfulness."
Funerals among Cape Verdean Americans of Catholic and Protestant
denominations follow their churches' standard rituals. The Catholic
church highlights the Mass of Christian Burial, also known as the Mass of
Resurrection, in keeping with the belief that death is a victory over
life, not a sad end. Cape Verdean Americans follow the custom of showing
the body in funeral homes the day or two before the Mass, or service, and
burial. Following the funeral is the celebration with special foods,
particularly the Canja, a dish of chicken, rice, and tomatoes.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS
By the 1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans gained
full strength, Cape Verdean Americans began to interact more frequently as
a community. As Cape Verdean Americans intermarried with African Americans
of a different background, many of whom were descendants of African slaves
and American slave-holders, the cultures began to share traditions and
find common sympathies.
The majority of Cape Verdean Americans are Roman Catholics. Some
Protestant denominations
such as the United Methodist and the Church of the Nazarene are also
practiced by Cape Verdeans in America, particularly in the New England
communities south of Boston, on Cape Cod.
Employment and Economic Traditions
The first Cape Verdean immigrants to the United States were primarily men,
and they were employed with the whaling industry and in shipbuilding. By
the early twentieth century, Cape Verdeans were also frequently employed
in the cranberry bogs. As education levels climbed, Cape Verdeans began
taking jobs as professional fields like medicine, law, education, and
business. Many Cape Verdeans arrived in America at the rise of the auto
and steel industries and took jobs in those factories. By the end of the
twentieth century, Cape Verdean Americans were also visible as sports
figures, musicians, and politicians.
Politics and Government
Cape Verdeans were prominent as judges and state representatives in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island for much of the twentieth century. In 1998,
the first Republican Cape Verdean, Vinny Macedo, the representative from
Plymouth, was elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature.
Cape Verdean Americans served in both World Wars, in Korea, and in
Vietnam. The Verdean Veterans Association remained active in many areas of
the United States, but particularly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Due to the Constitution of the Republic of Cape Verde in 1975, all people
of Cape Verdean ancestry, whether in the islands or abroad, were able to
realize dual citizenship, and partake actively in elections in their home
nation. Even Cape Verdeans who are born in United States feel a strong tie
to their ancestral country. One organization, the Foundation of Cabo
Verde, Inc. helped native islanders with financial assistance, economic
development, and disaster relief aid. The 1995 Congress of CaboVerdeanos
included more than 225 Cape Verdean Americans, who took a charter flight
over to the islands to attend the event. The organization, along with
other Cape Verdean Americans, provided assistance in 1995 when a volcano
erupted on the island of Foga and destroyed over 2,000 homes. As the
Republic of Cape Verde continued to develop economically and socially,
Cape Verdean Americans remained at the forefront, working cooperatively
with the islanders and government.
Individual and Group Contributions
Best-known for his photography for
National Geographic,
Anthony Barboza became celebrated for his work, even outside of the Cape
Verdean community. The earliest Cape Verdean American artists were known
only to those who frequented the local museums of New England, such as the
Kendall Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The seafaring Cape
Verdean whaler and scrimshaw artist Joao da Lomba, sailing out of New
Bedford in the early 1900s, was also well-known for his expert craft.
GOVERNMENT
Alfred J. Gomes, born on June 14, 1897, was a Cape Verdean American Judge
of prominence in the Boston area for much of the twentieth century. He
graduated from Boston University Law School in 1923 at a time when few
Cape Verdeans completed elementary school. Through his leadership, he
helped to establish various scholarships and awards, such as the Verdean
Veterans Achievement Awards, the Memorial Scholarship Fund/The
Seamen's Memorial Scholarship, to benefit Cape Verdean American
FILM, TELEVISION, AND THEATER
Michael Costa, a Hollywood producer, headed the UPN (United Pictures
Network) network into the late 1990s. Well-known as a producer of
television commercials, Ricardo Lopes headed Kelly, Denham Productions.
The music group Tavares, enjoyed fame in the late 1970s with their hit
song, "More Than A Woman," featured in the Hollywood movie
Saturday Night Fever.
Famous jazz musicians, Horace Silva and Paul Gonsalves were Cape Verdean
Americans who became internationally famous. In his 1956 appearance at the
Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, Gonsalves went down in history
with a 27-chorus solo in the song, "Diminuendo." That
recording, re-released in 1999, was considered one of the all-time
Henry Andrade, an olympic high hurdler who is a dual citizen of Cape
Verde and the United States, trained to represent Cape Verde in the
Atlanta Olympics.
classic jazz performances. Another musician, Ethel Ramos Harris, a Cape
Verdean American violinist, established a scholarship in order to foster
continued music education for Cape Verdean American youth. Jose Gomes Da
Graca, a violinist known mostly in the islands and to the New Bedford Cape
Verdean community as Djedjinho, was became even more popular after his
death, in 1994, when his son, Alcides Da Graca, a New Bedford special
education teacher, along with his brother Laurindo, also a teacher,
recorded a CD of their late father's music.
In 1999, the best-known Cape Verdean American sports figure was Dana
Barros, a professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics. Another
well-known sports figure was Wayne Fontes, a New England native who was
raised in the nation's football capital of Canton, Ohio, first a
professional football player, who then went on to coach the Detroit Lions
NFL team in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Also, Henry Andrade attended
the Olympics in Atlanta in 1992 as a dual citizen of the United States and
the Cape Verde Islands. He was representing Cape Verde.
Tom Riordan, writing for The CVN, in February of 1999, said that,
"Cape Verdeans and the Internet are made for each other,"
since they were "so far-flung" around the world and around
the United States. Each of the islands in the Republic of Cape Verde is
separated from the others and two-thirds of people who defined themselves
as Cape Verdeans live overseas. Half of those overseas are scattered
throughout the United States, with half throughout Europe, Africa, and
Brazil. A quick tour of the Internet in 1999 called up hundreds of Cape
Verdean-related sites or links, including:
"Cape Verde Home Page" at
"" at
"Embassy of Cape Verde" at
and "Proud to Be Cape Verdean Home Page" at
The CVN, a Cape Verdean-American Newspaper.
Publishes local Cape Verdean-Massachusetts news, and information regarding
the American, International and Republic of Cabo Verde communities.
Thomas D. Lopes, P or, Dr. Norman Araujo, Chief Advisor.
417 Purchase Street, New Bedford, Massachusetts 02741.
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 3063, New Bedford, Massachusetts 02741.
Telephone:
(508) 997-2300.
TELEVISION
CABO VIDEO, Cape Verdean Television.
Broadcast in approximately 50 cities and towns in Massachusetts and Rhode
Island from Channel 20, New Bedford, M Cuencavision Channel
26, and, Channel 19 UHF, Boston. Founded in 1989, this station
provides a source of information regarding events occurring in Cabo Verde,
and supports Cabo Verde in the United States. Independent video production
company, solely-owned. Weekly 90-minute Cape Verdean program televised in
Portuguese and Crioulo. Covers news from Republic of Cabo Verde, and
events in the United States, including medical information, legal
information, historical footage, and music videos.
Edward Andrade.
1147 Main Street, Brockton, Massachusetts 02301.
Telephone:
(508) 588-8843.
(508) 588-8843.
Organizations and Associations
Atlanta, Georgia Area Cape Verdeans.
Annual picnic for Cape Verdeans living in the Atlanta area.
Michael Rose.
4716 Halliford Way, Marietta, Georgia 30066.
Telephone:
(770) 925-8331.
Cape Verdean American Veterans Association and Auxiliary.
Stephen Cabral.
Verdean Vets Hall. 561 Purchase Street, New Bedford, Massachusetts 02741.
Telephone:
(508) 993-7320.
Cape Verdean Civic Club.
Organizers of the 4th of July Cape Verdean Festival in Boston. Meeting
location is the Ideal Club.
Omar Oliveria, (781) 892-6627; Noemia Monteiro, (617) 442-7656; Ze Preto,
(617) 427-1896; or Toni Silva, (508) 583-8960.
14 West Union St., West Bridewater, Massachusetts.
Cape Verdean Creole Institute, Inc.
Founded in 1996. A nonprofit organization whose goal is to promote the
Capeverdean language.
Manuel DaLuz Goncalves, President.
308 Columbus Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02116.
Cape Verdean Cultural Conferences, Inc.
Jose Ramos.
Cape Verdean Student Association.
Social and service organization of college students in the Massachusetts
and Rhode Island area seeking to affirm their Cape V
service projects include assistance to children and students in Cape
Verde, with food, school supplies, and clothing.
Chapters include: University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, M
Boston C Boston U Northeastern University (Boston);
University of Massachusetts at A and the University of Rhode Island
in Providence, Rhode Island.
Clube Cabo Verde.
A Cape Verdean-American social organization, planning the Festival of St.
John the Baptist in June, on the island of Brava.
Kevin Spry.
88 Wales Street, Taunton, Massachusetts 02780.
Museums and Research Centers
Kendall Whaling Museum.
Dedicated to the history of whaling off the New England coast. Includes
the history of Cape Verdean natives who served on the whaling ships as
harpooners, captains, and shipmates.
27 Everett Street, Sharon, Massachusetts 02067.
Telephone:
(781) 784-5642.
New Bedford Whaling Museum.
The history of the Cape Verdeans who served out of the New Bedford whaling
ships, among other historical-related exhibits.
Anthony Zave, Director.
18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, Massachusetts 02740.
Telephone:
(508) 997-0046.
Sources for Additional Study
Aisling, Irwin, and Wilson, Colum. "Cape Verde Islands."
The Bradt Travel Guide.
United Kingdom and Old Saybrook, Connecticut: Bradt Publications, 1998.
Beck, Sam.
Manny Almeida's Ringside Lounge: The Cape Verdeans'
Struggle for their Neighborhood.
Providence, Rhode Island: Gavea-Brown Publications, 1992.
Belmira Nunes Lopes, Maria Luisa.
The Autobiography of a Cape Verdean-American.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Latin American Literary Review Press, 1982.
Hayden, Robert C.
African Americans and Cape Verdean-Americans in New Bedford. A History
of Community and Achievement.
Pernambuco, Brazil: Federal University, 1993.
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