Cape Verdean Communities in Stratford, Bridgeport, & Norwich
SubjectPortrait of
Marcelino Pedro Ramalho
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Francine Ann Canute
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Francisco N. Ramalho
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Peter Santos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Anthony Fortes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
John Cabral
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Louis Vieira
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Manuel Britto
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Daniel Santos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Tom Britto
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Phillip Valeriano
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Joseph Fortes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Teofilo Reis
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Al Cruz
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Michael Cabral
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Frank Santos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Joseph Barrette
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Louis Duarte
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Eddie Lopes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Augie Santos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Walter Lopes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Olympio Miranda
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Larry Lopes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Manuel Gomes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Joseph Cabral
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Erima Pina
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Mode Leo
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Geneva Robinson
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Josephine Fortes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Philip Valeriano
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Lil Fortes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Theresa Santos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Elizabeth Fortes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Edith Britto
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mrs. Helen Perry
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Edith Lopes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Jack Reis
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Manuel Delgado
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Manuel Ramos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Mary Ramalho Galvin
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Jack Araujo
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Johnny Alabama
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Julio Neves
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Tony Peres
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Freddie Silva
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Guilherme G. Vieira
(Cape Verdean, 1928 - 2005)
SubjectPortrait of
Johnny Lomba
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Joe Santos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Bartholomew Gomes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Nicholas Ramalho
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Jackie Deis
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Joe Gomes
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Johnny Morton
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Antonio Santos Sr.
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Johnny Spinola
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Rose Ramalho Canute
(Cape Verdean, 1930 - 2006)
SubjectPortrait of
Frank Bojo
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Barbara Ramalho Rosario
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Antonion Andrade
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Caesar Mendez
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Joaquin Araujo
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Pedero de Antonia
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Jose Narcis
SubjectPortrait of
Luis Duarte
SubjectPortrait of
Nho Manuel
SubjectPortrait of
Paul Monteiro
SubjectPortrait of
Joao F. Ramalho
SubjectPortrait of
Horace Silver
SubjectPortrait of
Joe Kennedy
SubjectPortrait of
Frank Delgado
SubjectPortrait of
Joseph Delgado
SubjectPortrait of
John Shabarekh
SubjectPortrait of
Jimmy Royal
SubjectPortrait of
John Welsh
SubjectPortrait of
Anthony DelGado
SubjectPortrait of
Doreen Rodriguez
SubjectPortrait of
Dolores Newson
SubjectPortrait of
Ronald Delgado
SubjectPortrait of
Roberta Delgado Vincent
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Matthew Santos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Abel Santos
(Cape Verdean)
SubjectPortrait of
Antonia Ignacio Ramalho Sequeira
(Cape Verdean, 1924 - 2005)
Date1930-1999
Mediumphotographs
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.390.1-.33
DescriptionPhotographs related to the Cape Verdean History Project.
2015.196.390.1: Image showing Marcelino Pedro Ramalho (brother of Nicolau and Manuel Ramalho) and family.
2015.196.390.2: Image showing Francine Ann Canute (daughter of Rose Ramalho Canute) playing her grandfather’s (Francisco Chico Clau Ramalho) violin outdoors.
2015.196.390.3: Image showing Francisco Chico Clau Ramalho’s violin
2015.196.390.4: Image showing Francisco N. Ramalho (Chico Clau) playing his violin.
2015.196.390.5: Image showing people posted with banner reading “Portuguese Capeverdean American Citizen Club Inc. Founded Oct. 23, 1944.” They are: (front row) unknown, Peter Santos, Anthony Fortes, John Cabral, Louis Vieira, Manuel Britto, Daniel Santos, Tom Britto, Phillip Valeriano, Joseph Fortes (back row) Teofilo Jack Reis, Al Cruz, Michael Cabral, Frank Santos, Joseph Barrette, Louis Duarte, Eddie Lopes, Augie Santos, Walter Lopes, Olympio Miranda, Matthew (Olinda’s husband), Larry Lopes, Manuel Gomes, Joseph Cabral, and unknown.
2015.196.390.6: Image showing Cape Verdean American Citizen Club and Auxiliary. Pictured are: (from front to back row) Mrs. Erima Pina, Mrs. Mode Leo, Mrs. Geneva Robinson, unknown, Mrs. Josephine Fortes, Mrs. Philip Valeriano, Mrs. Claudia Rosario, Mrs. Olinda (last name unknown), Mrs. Lil Fortes, Mrs. Theresa Santos, Mrs. Elizabeth Fortes, Mrs. Edith Britto, Mrs. Helen Perry, unknown, Mrs. Edith Lopez, unknown, Mr. Augie Santos, Mr. Peter (last name unknown), Mr. Olympio Miranda, Mr. Philip Valeriano, Mr. Matthew (last name unknown), unknown, Mr. Eddie Lopes, Mr. Tom Britto, Mr. Joe Cabral, unknown, Mr. Anthony Fortes, unknown, Mr. Jack Reis, Mr. Manuel Delgado, unknown, Mr. Manuel Britto, unknown, Mr. John Cabral, Mr. Louis Vieira, Mr. Michael Cabral, Mr. Peter Santos, Mr. Daniel Santos, Mr. Larry Lopes, and unknown.
2015.196.390.7: Image showing Antonia Ramalho Sequeira, President and Founding Member of the Cape Verdean Women’s Social Club in Bridgeport, presenting a plaque to Manuel Ramos in 1966.
2015.196.390.8: Image showing Mary Ramalho Galvin, Chairperson of the Cape Verdean Women’s Social Club of Bridgeport, speaking at a podium to honor Manuel Ramos, 15 October 1966.
2015.196.390.9-.10: Images showing people posed inside the Hotel Barnum ballroom in Bridgeport, November 1958. They represent the Bridgeport, New Haven, and Waterbury Cape Verdean Social Clubs and were honoring Dr. Julio Monteiro, Portuguese Delegate to the United States.
2015.196.390.11: Image showing posed photograph of musicians at the Port Chester, New York Cape Verdean Club. Pictured left to right: Jack Araujo, guitarist from Bridgeport, Connecticut; Johnny Alabama, bassist from Waterbury, Connecticut; Julio “Chau” Neves, violinist from Stratford, Connecticut; Tony Peres with maracas; and Freddie Silva, guitarist from New Bedord, Massachusetts. Vocalist is Rose Ramalho Canute. 1940s
2015.196.390.12: Image showing saxophonist Billy Dias with his father in Stratford, Connecticut.
2015.196.390.13: Image showing people at a musicians’ gathering at 55 Dewey Street in Stratford, Connecticut, the Ramalho home; 1930s. Pictured left to right: violinist Johnny Lomba of New Bedford, Massachusetts; guitarist Joe Santos of Waterbury, Connecticut; guitarist Peter Santos of New Haven, Connecticut; and Bartholomew Gomes of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
2015.196.390.14: Image showing people at a musicians’ gathering at 55 Dewey Street in Stratford, Connecticut, the Ramalho home. Pictured left to right: Nicholas Ramalho, Johnny Lomba, Joe Santos, Peter Santos, and several unidentified people in background. 1930s
2015.196.390.15: Image showing Jackie Deis and Nicholas Ramalho at the Buster family home on Mead Street in Stratford, Connecticut. The drums in the photo belonged to Charlie Buster. 1930s
2015.196.390.16: Image showing Jackie Deis at the Buster family house on Mead Street in Stratford, Connecticut. 1930s
2015.196.390.17: Image showing musicians at the Cape Verdean Social Club located at 200 North Washington Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut, approximately 1945. They are Joe Gomes (maracas), Johnny Morton (guitar), Tony Santos (bass), Johnny Spinola (guitar, vocals), Rose Ramalho Canute (vocals), Julio “Chau” Neves (violin), and Jack Araujo (guitar).
2015.196.390.18: Image showing the “Waterbury and Bridgeport Band”: Joe Gomes, Joe Santos, Tony Santos, Frank Bojo, Joe Silva, Johnny Spinola, Julio “Chau” Neves, Teofilo Reis, and Jack Araujo.
2015.196.390.19: Image showing Joe Ramalho playing maracas.
2015.196.390.20: Image showing Barbara Ramalho Rosario playing piano.
2015.196.390.21: Image showing musicians: Antonion Andrade (Antoninho Boca Largo) with violin; Rose Ramalho Canute, vocals; Teofilo Reis, maracas; and Caesar Mendez in background. 1940s
2015.196.390.22: Image showing musicians at the New Rochelle Cape Verdean Club: Joaquin Araujo, Johnny Alabama, Julio “Chau” Neves, Tony “Mickey Mouse” Peres, Freddie Silva, and Rose Ramalho Canute. 1940s
2015.196.390.23: Image showing Cape Verdeans at harvest time on Hamilton Street in New Haven, September 1935. The musicians and their families are at Louis Viera’s home. Musicians pictured: Dan Santos, Pedero de Antonia, Olympio Miranda, Jose Narcis, Luis Duarte (Liz Tuda), Peter Santos, Nho Manuel, Francisco Miguel Santos, and Auggie Santos. Louis Viera is seated in front row with a kettle of corn, along with the Santos children. Bridgeporters are included in the photograph.
2015.196.390.24: Image showing portrait of Paul Monteiro, born 1904 on Sao Nicolau. He left Cape Verde as a whaler on the barque Wanderer. When that ship sank in 1924, he settled near his brother who worked at Bridgeport Brass. Paul Monteiro lived in Bridgeport’s Cape Verdean neighborhood with his niece Marge Santos. He died in July 2002.
2015.196.390.25: Image showing Joao F. Ramalho and jazz great Horace Silver (a Connecticut Cape Verdean) at the Tribute to Harold Rumpley Jazz Concert in Hermosa Beach, California on 23 October 1999.
2015.196.390.26: Image showing the DelGado Sextet in Norwich, Connecticut. Musicians are Joe Kennedy, Frank Delgado, Joseph Delgado, John Shabarekh, Jimmy Royal, and John Welsh.
2015.196.390.27: Image showing the Delgado Musicians from Norwich, Connecticut: Joseph, Frank, and Anthony J. DelGado Sr.
2015.196.390.28: Image showing wedding photo of Anthony J. DelGado, Sr. and Mary Santos Delgado, Norwich, Connecticut.
2015.196.390.29: Image showing the Delgado family of Norwich, Connecticut: L to R - Joseph A. Delgado, Mary (Delgado) Nordé, Candido J. Delgado Sr., Anna G. (Soares) Deas, Anthony J. DelGado Sr., Frank A. Delgado.
2015.196.390.30: Image showing the Delgado children of Norwich, Connecticut with Doreen Szpyrka; Anthony DelGado, Jr.; Dolores Newson; Brenda DelGado; Ronald Delgado; Laura DelGado-Clemons; and Roberta Delgado Vincent.
2015.196.390.31: Image showing Roberta Delgado Vincent and Brenda DelGado, with (L to R) - Doreen Szpyrka; Mary (Santos) Delgado (Mother) and Dolores Newson.
2015.196.390.32: Image showing Roberta Delgado Vincent holding a plaque while standing in front of the Cape Verdean flag.
2015.196.390.33: Image showing The Santos Band: Antonio “Tony” Santos, Joseph “Joe” Santos, Matthew “Tia” Santos, and Abel Santos.
NotesSubject Note: Connecticut has the third largest Cape Verdean population in the United States (after Rhode Island and Massachusetts), with active and growing communities in Bridgeport, Waterbury, and Norwich. Starting in 1996, the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program of the Institute for Community Research (and now at the Connecticut Historical Society) participated in a statewide public history project with one of the state's most interesting but little-known ethnic groups. The Cape Verdean presence in New England dates to the 18th century, and new immigrants from Cape Verde continue to arrive. However, libraries, even in cities with a sizeable Cape Verdean presence, hold little information about the history and culture of this group generally, and virtually nothing about Connecticut's estimated 5,000 Cape Verdeans. Yet the cultural traditions of Cape Verdean-Americans remain strong, deeply felt, and regularly practiced. From their early presence as whalers on New England schooners to the burgeoning popularity of their distinctive music both globally and locally, Cape Verdeans have contributed much to the character, the labor force, and the culture of southern New England.2015.196.390.1: Image showing Marcelino Pedro Ramalho (brother of Nicolau and Manuel Ramalho) and family.
2015.196.390.2: Image showing Francine Ann Canute (daughter of Rose Ramalho Canute) playing her grandfather’s (Francisco Chico Clau Ramalho) violin outdoors.
2015.196.390.3: Image showing Francisco Chico Clau Ramalho’s violin
2015.196.390.4: Image showing Francisco N. Ramalho (Chico Clau) playing his violin.
2015.196.390.5: Image showing people posted with banner reading “Portuguese Capeverdean American Citizen Club Inc. Founded Oct. 23, 1944.” They are: (front row) unknown, Peter Santos, Anthony Fortes, John Cabral, Louis Vieira, Manuel Britto, Daniel Santos, Tom Britto, Phillip Valeriano, Joseph Fortes (back row) Teofilo Jack Reis, Al Cruz, Michael Cabral, Frank Santos, Joseph Barrette, Louis Duarte, Eddie Lopes, Augie Santos, Walter Lopes, Olympio Miranda, Matthew (Olinda’s husband), Larry Lopes, Manuel Gomes, Joseph Cabral, and unknown.
2015.196.390.6: Image showing Cape Verdean American Citizen Club and Auxiliary. Pictured are: (from front to back row) Mrs. Erima Pina, Mrs. Mode Leo, Mrs. Geneva Robinson, unknown, Mrs. Josephine Fortes, Mrs. Philip Valeriano, Mrs. Claudia Rosario, Mrs. Olinda (last name unknown), Mrs. Lil Fortes, Mrs. Theresa Santos, Mrs. Elizabeth Fortes, Mrs. Edith Britto, Mrs. Helen Perry, unknown, Mrs. Edith Lopez, unknown, Mr. Augie Santos, Mr. Peter (last name unknown), Mr. Olympio Miranda, Mr. Philip Valeriano, Mr. Matthew (last name unknown), unknown, Mr. Eddie Lopes, Mr. Tom Britto, Mr. Joe Cabral, unknown, Mr. Anthony Fortes, unknown, Mr. Jack Reis, Mr. Manuel Delgado, unknown, Mr. Manuel Britto, unknown, Mr. John Cabral, Mr. Louis Vieira, Mr. Michael Cabral, Mr. Peter Santos, Mr. Daniel Santos, Mr. Larry Lopes, and unknown.
2015.196.390.7: Image showing Antonia Ramalho Sequeira, President and Founding Member of the Cape Verdean Women’s Social Club in Bridgeport, presenting a plaque to Manuel Ramos in 1966.
2015.196.390.8: Image showing Mary Ramalho Galvin, Chairperson of the Cape Verdean Women’s Social Club of Bridgeport, speaking at a podium to honor Manuel Ramos, 15 October 1966.
2015.196.390.9-.10: Images showing people posed inside the Hotel Barnum ballroom in Bridgeport, November 1958. They represent the Bridgeport, New Haven, and Waterbury Cape Verdean Social Clubs and were honoring Dr. Julio Monteiro, Portuguese Delegate to the United States.
2015.196.390.11: Image showing posed photograph of musicians at the Port Chester, New York Cape Verdean Club. Pictured left to right: Jack Araujo, guitarist from Bridgeport, Connecticut; Johnny Alabama, bassist from Waterbury, Connecticut; Julio “Chau” Neves, violinist from Stratford, Connecticut; Tony Peres with maracas; and Freddie Silva, guitarist from New Bedord, Massachusetts. Vocalist is Rose Ramalho Canute. 1940s
2015.196.390.12: Image showing saxophonist Billy Dias with his father in Stratford, Connecticut.
2015.196.390.13: Image showing people at a musicians’ gathering at 55 Dewey Street in Stratford, Connecticut, the Ramalho home; 1930s. Pictured left to right: violinist Johnny Lomba of New Bedford, Massachusetts; guitarist Joe Santos of Waterbury, Connecticut; guitarist Peter Santos of New Haven, Connecticut; and Bartholomew Gomes of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
2015.196.390.14: Image showing people at a musicians’ gathering at 55 Dewey Street in Stratford, Connecticut, the Ramalho home. Pictured left to right: Nicholas Ramalho, Johnny Lomba, Joe Santos, Peter Santos, and several unidentified people in background. 1930s
2015.196.390.15: Image showing Jackie Deis and Nicholas Ramalho at the Buster family home on Mead Street in Stratford, Connecticut. The drums in the photo belonged to Charlie Buster. 1930s
2015.196.390.16: Image showing Jackie Deis at the Buster family house on Mead Street in Stratford, Connecticut. 1930s
2015.196.390.17: Image showing musicians at the Cape Verdean Social Club located at 200 North Washington Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut, approximately 1945. They are Joe Gomes (maracas), Johnny Morton (guitar), Tony Santos (bass), Johnny Spinola (guitar, vocals), Rose Ramalho Canute (vocals), Julio “Chau” Neves (violin), and Jack Araujo (guitar).
2015.196.390.18: Image showing the “Waterbury and Bridgeport Band”: Joe Gomes, Joe Santos, Tony Santos, Frank Bojo, Joe Silva, Johnny Spinola, Julio “Chau” Neves, Teofilo Reis, and Jack Araujo.
2015.196.390.19: Image showing Joe Ramalho playing maracas.
2015.196.390.20: Image showing Barbara Ramalho Rosario playing piano.
2015.196.390.21: Image showing musicians: Antonion Andrade (Antoninho Boca Largo) with violin; Rose Ramalho Canute, vocals; Teofilo Reis, maracas; and Caesar Mendez in background. 1940s
2015.196.390.22: Image showing musicians at the New Rochelle Cape Verdean Club: Joaquin Araujo, Johnny Alabama, Julio “Chau” Neves, Tony “Mickey Mouse” Peres, Freddie Silva, and Rose Ramalho Canute. 1940s
2015.196.390.23: Image showing Cape Verdeans at harvest time on Hamilton Street in New Haven, September 1935. The musicians and their families are at Louis Viera’s home. Musicians pictured: Dan Santos, Pedero de Antonia, Olympio Miranda, Jose Narcis, Luis Duarte (Liz Tuda), Peter Santos, Nho Manuel, Francisco Miguel Santos, and Auggie Santos. Louis Viera is seated in front row with a kettle of corn, along with the Santos children. Bridgeporters are included in the photograph.
2015.196.390.24: Image showing portrait of Paul Monteiro, born 1904 on Sao Nicolau. He left Cape Verde as a whaler on the barque Wanderer. When that ship sank in 1924, he settled near his brother who worked at Bridgeport Brass. Paul Monteiro lived in Bridgeport’s Cape Verdean neighborhood with his niece Marge Santos. He died in July 2002.
2015.196.390.25: Image showing Joao F. Ramalho and jazz great Horace Silver (a Connecticut Cape Verdean) at the Tribute to Harold Rumpley Jazz Concert in Hermosa Beach, California on 23 October 1999.
2015.196.390.26: Image showing the DelGado Sextet in Norwich, Connecticut. Musicians are Joe Kennedy, Frank Delgado, Joseph Delgado, John Shabarekh, Jimmy Royal, and John Welsh.
2015.196.390.27: Image showing the Delgado Musicians from Norwich, Connecticut: Joseph, Frank, and Anthony J. DelGado Sr.
2015.196.390.28: Image showing wedding photo of Anthony J. DelGado, Sr. and Mary Santos Delgado, Norwich, Connecticut.
2015.196.390.29: Image showing the Delgado family of Norwich, Connecticut: L to R - Joseph A. Delgado, Mary (Delgado) Nordé, Candido J. Delgado Sr., Anna G. (Soares) Deas, Anthony J. DelGado Sr., Frank A. Delgado.
2015.196.390.30: Image showing the Delgado children of Norwich, Connecticut with Doreen Szpyrka; Anthony DelGado, Jr.; Dolores Newson; Brenda DelGado; Ronald Delgado; Laura DelGado-Clemons; and Roberta Delgado Vincent.
2015.196.390.31: Image showing Roberta Delgado Vincent and Brenda DelGado, with (L to R) - Doreen Szpyrka; Mary (Santos) Delgado (Mother) and Dolores Newson.
2015.196.390.32: Image showing Roberta Delgado Vincent holding a plaque while standing in front of the Cape Verdean flag.
2015.196.390.33: Image showing The Santos Band: Antonio “Tony” Santos, Joseph “Joe” Santos, Matthew “Tia” Santos, and Abel Santos.
In 1996, CCHAP began a three-year project to document Cape Verdean musicians and tradition bearers across the state, especially in Waterbury, Bridgeport/Stratford, and Norwich. Together with community scholar Antonia Sequeira, CCHAP conducted analog tape interviews; videotaped performances; photographed festivals and community activities; and collected copies of rare books of songs, CDs and tapes, historical photographs, and research materials. In several cases the documentation preserves records or images of people and places that no longer exist. This work resulted in a publication called "Connecticut Cape Verdeans: A Community History" that was distributed to every public library in the state and given to as many Cape Verdeans as possible in the region. On July 17, 1999, the Waterbury Cape Verdean Social Club hosted a concert featuring musicians interviewed during the project, and a panel discussion was held at the Bridgeport Public Library. The materials collected by Antonia and the project team became a valuable archive of Cape Verdean life in Connecticut - information that had never been collected and made available to the public before.
CCHAP continues to expand the collection through ongoing work with this community, most recently assisting and documenting the historic preservation of St. Anthony’s Chapel and local stonemasons in Norwich. Cape Verdean musicians involved in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program have also been recorded for the archive. These and other materials comprise a unique collection within the CCHAP archive. Very little available information exists in print on Connecticut Cape Verdeans, while community scholars actively collect family histories and host regular music events. Original interview recordings and copies of materials gathered are now part of the CCHAP archive at the Connecticut Historical Society. Some materials were also copied and donated to the Cape Verdean Women’s Club in Bridgeport.
Building on the earlier oral history work conducted by community scholar Antonia Sequeira, CCHAP collaborated with her and a number of Cape Verdeans to develop "Cape Verdeans in Connecticut: A Community History Project." In conversations with community members of all ages CCHAP heard time and time again of the importance of music to Cape Verdeans. More than entertainment, Cape Verdean music provides both a focus of ethnic uniqueness and a historical record of events, memories, and the movement of people. Music also serves to link Cape Verdeans in diaspora with loved ones back home and across the world. Music, situated at the heart of Cape Verdean cultural expression, became the project's entry point into an examination of tradition, growth, and change in the Connecticut community. The goal of the project was to collect video- and audio-taped interviews with musicians and other tradition bearers, along with their family photographs and other memorabilia, in order to gain an insight into the patterns of social change and cultural life in this community in Connecticut. The primary resource material gathered through the project is now archived at the Connecticut Historical Society.
The inspiration for this project began when Antonia Sequeira of the Cape Verdean Women’s Social Club of Bridgeport, along with her friend and colleague, videographer Joan Neves, participated in the Inner City Cultural Development Program organized by the Institute for Community Research and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. A grant from that program enabled Joan to travel to Washington, DC in 1995 for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival which that year featured Cape Verdean culture. Inspired by that experience, Joan and Antonia began to plan for a long-term project to document local Cape Verdeans and the community’s history in Connecticut. They found a partner in Lynne Williamson, then Director of the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program, the statewide folk and traditional arts program at the Institute for Community Research. Together the team obtained grants from the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund Community Folklife Program. For three years Antonia, Joan, and Lynne conducted taped interviews with Cape Verdean musicians and tradition bearers across the state, also documenting Cape Verdean neighborhoods, festivals, and activities.
Antonia Sequeira and Lynne Williamson served as project co-directors. The full project team included Joan Neves as videographer, Koren Paul who transcribed the interview tapes, anthropologist Laura Pires-Hester, Pelagio Silva as concert organizer and emcee, and video producer Pedro Cardoso. Jo Blatti and Susan Hurley-Glowa contributed essays to the project book. Other Cape Verdean resource people included Jorge Job, John deBrito, Raquel Figueiredo, Elaine Santos Kain, José Conceiçao, Carlos da Graça, Johnny Andrade, Romeo Moore, Mary Anne Monteiro, Maria Lalache Spencer, Luca Cardozo, Marge Santos, Duducha, Mary Santos Sullivan, Claudia Silva, Anna Stanley, Anna Soares, Gertrude Duarte, Phyllis Williams, Roberta Delgado Vincent, Freddie Gonsalves, Philip Marceline, Antonio Sr., Abel, José and Matthew Santos, as well as Joao Cerilo Monteiro, Ray Almeida, and Ron Barboza.
The project was supported by the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund Community Folklife Program through the Fund for Folk Culture; the Connecticut Humanities Council; the Institute for Community Research; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.
Cape Verdean traditional culture inevitably changed with the mass migration of people from the islands to America. Transplanted practices have themselves evolved in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as the second and third generations are born and grow up in a vastly different society. Many in Cape Verdean communities in Connecticut adhere to traditions which although altered in some ways, maintain both the flavor and meaning of their origins. The constant influx of new Cape Verdeans from the islands freshens familiarity with older customs while bringing forward cultural expressions which before 1975 were forbidden under Portuguese colonial rule.
Many Connecticut Cape Verdeans and community organizations remain actively involved in sustaining heritage through regular educational and cultural activities. Wherever they settled, Cape Verdeans formed clubs and associations, a direct maintenance of the island tradition of tabanka. These mutual aid societies in Cape Verde provided essential assistance and services for local inhabitants suffering from constant drought, poverty, and colonial neglect. In America early immigrants from the town of Praia on the island of Santiago organized the Holy Name Society in Boston. Men from this group traveled all over New England, especially during the Depression, to distribute clothes, food, or services. Antonia Sequeira remembers them helping her father to dig and plant a garden behind the family's house in Stratford. In the late 1930s and 1940s, communities established Cape Verdean social clubs which still flourish, a direct continuation of the tabanka tradition. The concept of assistance for those in need continues in the regular Cape Verdean practice of sending oil drums packed with clothes and other American goods to families in the islands, especially during the frequent drought-related famines.
Separation from their homeland led many Cape Verdean immigrants to compose mornas, songs of great longing and sadness. Mornas remain beloved especially by the older generation who remember the reasons for composing them. Other traditional musical forms such as coladeira, mazurca, and samba are enjoying something of a revival among younger Cape Verdeans, while the African-influenced funana is wildly popular on the contemporary club scene. Playing instruments, singing, dancing, and drumming still happen spontaneously at festivals and social gatherings. Despite the cold of a Connecticut winter, some hardy musicians go door to door in Waterbury, Bridgeport, and Stratford, performing canta reis, the traditional New Year serenades. Cape Verdean wakes sometimes feature the choroguiza, a chant lamenting the deceased. The tradition of sending verbal messages via packet boats to families back in the island kept immigrants in touch across the ocean. The popular coladeira Rozinha is a mantenha, a message to Rozinha from her lover working abroad, asking her to wait a year until he can return to marry her. Connecticut musicians such as Jorge Job have been composers of mornas and other Cape Verdean song styles, while the Waterbury community maintain the repicar de tambor, a drumming and dance tradition practiced at the Festa de Sao Joao in June.
The project and the collected archive materials include many examples of locally composed and performed music, along with interviews with musicians and culture bearers and photographs, videos, and other recordings of them.
Subject Note for Bridgeport Cape Verdean Community: Bridgeport is home to the largest settlement of Cape Verdeans in Connecticut. Drawn to this city by the labor needs of factories such as Bridgeport Brass, Carpenter Steel, Stanley Works, and shirt manufacturers, first men and then their families moved into the area of North Washington, Lexington, and Housatonic Avenue near the old brass works. Known as the Hollow, this section continues as a center where Cape Verdeans live, eat, shop, and attend St. Augustine's Cathedral and school on the corner of Washington and Pequonnock streets. Central High School, with fifty Cape Verdean students, has an active Cape Verdean club under the direction of educator Antoinette Soares Carpenter. Nineteen students in Bridgeport report Krioulo as their home language.
Historically, immigrants to Bridgeport were from the island of Sao Nicolau, with a few from Fogo. Now newcomers come from several of the islands. Community leaders established the Cape Verdean Social Club in the early 1940s, taking over the site of Avelino Fernandes' restaurant at 200 North Washington Avenue. Men would gather there, as they do at all the clubs today, to socialize, share music informally, play the card game biska and the board game ouri. Events such as weddings, christenings, wakes, and religious celebrations of saints' feast days brought families to the club. Today the Associaçao de Clube Caboverdiana stands at the corner of Linen and Lexington streets, not far from the Vasco da Gama Portuguese Social Club where joint events are sometimes held.
Excluded from the men's associations, a group of young women from Bridgeport and Stratford, including Antonia Sequeira, formed their own organization in 1944. From the Portuguese Busy Bees they became the Cape Verdean Girls Social Club and then the Cape Verdean Women's Social Club. During the Second World War they sent gifts to men in the service and organized benefit dances and victory celebrations. Education has always been a revered goal of Cape Verdeans. The women's club continues a tradition begun by Bridgeport Cape Verdean Caesar Pina in 1957 of offering about ten scholarships each year to outstanding Cape Verdean high school students planning to attend college. Developed in 1993, the Cape Verdean Cultural Foundation devotes itself to presenting musical events and educational activities.
The Cape Verdean community used to hold a special Thanksgiving Day Mass every year at St. Augustine's Cathedral. Musicians such as violinist Julio Neves and others have played at the service. Priests would come from Roxbury, Massachusetts and sometimes Cape Verde to celebrate mass in both Portuguese and Krioulo. The choir sang religious songs and mornas and afterwards everyone would go to the Bridgeport Cape Verdean Club for breakfast. The parish demographics have changed in the 21st century, and mass is now offered in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Subject Note for 2015.196.390.23: Louis Viera, a Cape Verdean musician and resident of New Haven – the September 1935 photograph (in the archive) of Cape Verdean musicians at the corn harvest was taken on his property. The corn harvest was very important in the Cape Verde islands, as it was a staple crop and featured in many traditional foods such as kachupa and ingrao. The image shows Cape Verdeans at harvest time on Hamilton Street in New Haven, September 1935. The musicians and their families are at Louis Viera’s home. Musicians pictured: Dan Santos, Pedero de Antonia, Olympio Miranda, Jose Narcis, Luis Duarte (Liz Tuda), Peter Santos, Nho Manuel, Francisco Miguel Santos, and Auggie Santos. Louis Viera is seated in front row with a kettle of corn, along with the Santos children. Bridgeporters are included in the photograph.
Subject Note for Norwich Cape Verdean Community: The Cape Verdean Santiago Society Inc., a Norwich-based social and cultural organization incorporated on June 6, 1939, was housed in a building at 84 Talman Street in the heart of the Norwich Cape Verdean community. Norwich today is home to more than 1,500 Cape Verdeans, descendants of immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa as well as newcomers from the islands. The population continues to grow as Cape Verdean-Americans save money to bring their families from the islands in order to provide a prosperous life for them in America. Many older Cape Verdeans and the new arrivals speak the language Krioulu, a blend of African and Portuguese dialects. Norwich Free Academy has several Cape Verdean students attending.
Retired whalers, stone masons, and builders from the islands of Fogo, Brava, and Sao Nicolau settled in Norwich in the late 19th and early 20th century. Census records show that many of these immigrants lived in neighborhoods close to the Norwich harbor and were employed as coal shovelers for railroad and steamship companies as well as continuing their original occupations.
The main Cape Verdean neighborhood in Norwich developed on the hilly east side, along Talman Street, anchored by the social club, and continued through the Laurel Hill area to Sunnyside Avenue. The close-knit community maintained traditional ties of kinship and reciprocity. The Santiago Society long served as a focal point for the community, offering social and economic assistance. Named after the island of Santiago, whose city Praia is the capital of Cape Verde, the Norwich Society developed out of the local branch of a mutual aid association in Providence. In 1939, the Santiago Society established the social club on Talman Street and organized activities every weekend, providing a place of contact where new arrivals could mix with other Cape Verdeans, giving them a sense of belonging to a community and helping to ease their homesickness. The social club also hosted wedding receptions, baby showers, fund raising events, and other celebrations. Members would engage in the traditional games of bisca and ouril and share stories. A deeply religious group, Cape Verdeans often held traditional wakes at the Club. Women would chant the choroguiza, crying and talking about the deceased in communal mourning. Afterwards members distributed food to the bereaved family. Generations of Norwich Cape Verdeans made the Club the heart of their community, but unfortunately the Club burned down on January 23, 2007, and has disbanded.
Cape Verdeans everywhere have a gift for music, and in Norwich there have been two popular bands playing Cape Verdean and American styles of music: the Santos Brothers Band and the Delgado band. Descendants of these families still live in the area today. Two Cape Verdean families in Norwich produced popular bands. The Santos Brothers - Abel, Matthew, Antonio Sr., and José, along with their sister Lena on vocals - played Cape Verdean dance music on the radio in Norwich in 1947 and at clubs and dances all over New England until the mid-1970s. When their parents hosted kitchen dances, the brothers watched the grownups to learn how to play the viola, mandolin, and guitar. They have passed their musical ability onto the next generation - Antonio Sr. has formed a band, The Santos Family Band, with son Antonio Jr. and daughters Wendy, Leona, and Lisa. They were inspired by the Delgados, a well-known quartet (later a sextet) who played Krioulo music together as boys starting in the late 1920s. (Some members of the Delgado family spell the name differently). Later with their sister Mary as singer, the group performed jazz, ragtime, and popular tunes at speakeasies and clubs, appearing with Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong, among other jazz greats.
Several Cape Verdean leaders have visited Norwich: General Consul Maria de Jesus Mascarenhas and Cape Verde Ambassador José Brito attended a celebration of the reconstruction of St. Anthony's Chapel held at the American Legion in Norwich on October 30, 2005. Cape Verde Prime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves and his delegation visited Norwich in 2007; a special reception in his honor was held by the community.
Starting in 2021, a team of Norwich Cape Verdeans and researchers have conducted a project with historian Rachel Carley to compile a detailed community history to research, document, and make accessible the rich history of Cape Verdeans who have settled in the Norwich area and who continue to be an important part of the community today. This project will also highlight the built environment that helped to shape Cape Verdean life in Norwich. For many members of ethnic communities, their traditions have deep roots in history and culture, and are an important source of cultural identity and knowledge. Former Santiago Society Board member Alfred H. Gonsalves states, “If our history is not documented, it will be lost forever. One of our main project activities will be to interview older Cape Verdeans who have a wonderful store of memories and knowledge, so that we can gather this information and pass it on to our young people.”
Biographical Note: Manuel Lolly Ramos lived in Milford, Connecticut. He played the twelve-stringed viola. This guitar-like instrument, one of the components of the traditional island string band, provided the soft background rhythm; Lolly's viola was made in Cape Verde. He toured with the Cape Verdean dance band Irmaos (Brothers), also featuring Edmund, Charlie, and Jimmy Ramos; Larry Fernandes; Steve Almeida; Billy Dias; and Lloyd Gonsalves, until the early 1990s. The Ramos Brothers often visited the homes of family and friends in the Bridgeport area to perform canta reis at New Year. Lolly served as emcee for many of the Cape Verdean Womens Social Club events in Bridgeport through the years.
Biographical Note: Antonia Ignacia Ramalho Sequeira was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1924, the daughter of Ignacia (Soares) and Francisco “Chic Clau” Ramalho, immigrants from the Cape Verdean island of Sao Nicolau. Her parents lived first in Warren, Rhode Island, where they worked in the mills, moving to the heart of Bridgeport’s Cape Verdean community on Lexington Avenue shortly before Antonia was born. Antonia spoke only Krioulu until she went to school, after the family settled in Stratford in 1930. The Ramalhos were the first Cape Verdeans in Stratford’s Dewey Street area but others soon followed. Their neighbors Peter and Isabel Fernandes often hosted Cape Verdean sailors who would play music while Isabel sang and taught Antonia and her sisters “all the old songs.” Special family and community occasions such as christenings, as well as impromptu gatherings of friends, would lead to kitchen dances often lasting two or three days, with local families and traveling musicians joining in. Antonia loved the special community feeling of this music and dance, recalling, “People would come over early in the morning and they’d just play music. In the summer we would sweep the dirt and dance in our bare feet.” Antonia’s sister Rose, a talented singer, learned many Cape Verdean songs from her father who played the violin and toured with several bands. Pioneer music producer and distributor Al Lopes from New Bedford made one of the earliest Cape Verdean-American recordings, of Rose singing the morna “Bissau.”
Inspired by her traditional musical family and vibrant Cape Verdean neighborhood, Antonia developed a deep love and knowledge of her culture. She retained detailed memories of people and events, especially those related to music, and was able to record these memories on tape over the years. Always a collector and deeply involved in many organizations and activities, she kept detailed records of the community and its social events. Antonia’s collections of family and historical photographs comprise a rare documentary record of Cape Verdeans in Connecticut during the first half of the 20th century.
Among her numerous organizational affiliations, Antonia was a founding member of the Cape Verdean Women’s Social Club of Bridgeport (established 1944), and served as its president from 1965 to 1967 and again from 1970 to 2002. She spearheaded many projects designed to bring Cape Verdean heritage to public attention. In 1978, Antonia worked with Theresa Cardozo and others from the Women’s Social Club to sponsor a month-long series of lectures, exhibits, and concerts highlighting Cape Verdean culture at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. She was a member of the Connecticut Friends of the Ernestina/Morrissey, a group responsible for bringing the schooner to Captains Cove in Fairfield in 1983, as a way to educate audiences about Cape Verdean immigration. Antonia, or “Tiny” as she was often called, held memberships and active roles in the Cape Verdean Women’s Scholarship Committee, the Cape Verdean United/Unidade Caboverdeana, the Cesar Pina Scholarship Committee, the St. James Choir, the Cape Verdean Cultural Foundation of Connecticut, and the Red Hat Society. Antonia coordinated regular cultural displays at the Bridgeport Public Library and the annual Thanksgiving Day Mass celebrated by Pio Groton of Boston at St. Augustine’s Church in Bridgeport. She was involved in providing donations to the Thomas Merton Soup Kitchen in Bridgeport and the celebration honoring Francisco Borges, the first Cape Verdean Treasurer for the State of Connecticut.
Alongside her love of Cape Verdeans and their culture, Antonia nurtured her family. She was married to Russell Sequeira and they lived in the same house where she grew up, raising their family of two sons and one daughter. Antonia also worked for many years at Burndy Corporation in Milford.
Antonia’s community showed its appreciation for her unwavering commitment by honoring her in several ways: she was selected as Woman of the Year in 1984 and had her name etched in the State Capitol Building in Hartford. The Cape Verdean Women’s Club held a special dinner dance in her honor in 2003 to mark her years of service to that group, and dedicated the Antonia Sequeira Library, an archive of her collected materials.
Antonia reached out to a wider public in the 1990s with her message of Cape Verdean pride. Representing the Cape Verdean Women’s Social Club, she participated in a new program for urban artists organized by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Institute for Community Research. Her friend and colleague in that program, Joan Neves, was able to travel to Washington, DC in 1995 for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival which that year featured Cape Verdean culture. Inspired by that experience, Joan and Antonia began to plan for a long-term project to document their local community and its history. They found a partner in Lynne Williamson, then Director of the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program, the statewide folk and traditional arts program at the Institute for Community Research. Together the team obtained grants from the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund Community Folklife Program. For three years Antonia, Joan, and Lynne conducted taped interviews with Cape Verdean musicians and tradition bearers across the state, also documenting Cape Verdean neighborhoods, festivals, and activities. Their work resulted in a publication called "Connecticut Cape Verdeans: A Community History" that was distributed to every public library in the state and given to as many Cape Verdeans as possible in the region. The Waterbury Cape Verdean Social Club hosted a concert featuring musicians interviewed during the project, and a panel discussion was held at the Bridgeport Public Library. The materials collected by Antonia and the project team became a valuable archive of Cape Verdean life in Connecticut - information that had never been collected and made available to the public before. Copies are now housed at the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, and the Cape Verdean Women’s Club in Bridgeport.
Antonia’s work on the community history project continues to bear fruit. The book has been used by Cape Verdean organizations in Norwich and other Connecticut cities to educate people about the culture and especially the community’s gift of music. Younger Cape Verdeans in Waterbury, Norwich, and New Haven are coming forward to carry on the oral history work that Antonia believed in so fervently. Antonia passed away on February 28, 2005. She will be remembered as a tireless ambassadress for Cape Verdean culture; as a tradition bearer herself - someone who lived a life of deep Cape Verdean-American identity; and as a woman of grace and love. Her contributions will live on and nourish her people and our world forever. Antonia was posthumously inducted into the Cape Verdean Hall of Fame, in Swansea, Massachusetts.
Biographical Note: The Delgado Brothers from Norwich -Tony, Joe, and Frank - were jazz musicians in the 1940s and 1950s who formed a quartet and later a sextet playing violin, accordion, guitar, mandolin, and saxophone. They played Krioulo music together as boys starting in the late 1920s. Later with their sister Mary as singer the group performed jazz, ragtime, and popular tunes at speakeasies and clubs, and opened for some of the great musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Nat King Cole. They are members of the Delgado Family that descends from the Chapel founder Joseph C. Delgado.
Biographical Note for The Santos Brothers: When their parents hosted kitchen dances, the brothers – Antonio Sr., Abel, Matthew, José and their sister Lena on vocals - watched the grownups to learn how to play the viola, mandolin, and guitar. The band played Cape Verdean dance music on the radio in Norwich in 1947 and at clubs and dances all over New England until the mid-1970s. The Santos have passed their musical ability onto the next generation – Antonio Sr. formed a band with his son Antonio Jr. and daughters Wendy, Leona, and Lisa. "Cape Verdean music will never die, I tell you...now it's picking up fast, younger ones are learning it. We look back, way back when it first started from our grandfathers all the way down, and it's still coming up." Their enthusiasm and the popularity of Cape Verdean dance music has encouraged the city of Norwich to book Cape Verdean bands for its city-wide summer concert, and to hold a Cape Verdean Festival in 2019.
Biographical Note: Roberta Delgado Vincent has been an advocate for the Cape Verdean community and the Delgado Family in her hometown of Norwich, Connecticut for decades. She spearheaded the successful campaign for the preservation and reconstruction of the Delgado Family Chapel, which until 2004 stood where it was originally built for over 75 years. Knowing that it was a historical landmark that could be threatened, Norwich architect Richard Sharpe submitted a nomination to the State Historic Preservation Office and on August 6, 2003, St. Anthony Chapel was listed on the State Register of Historic Places by the Connecticut Historical Commission. The Chapel, which had fulfilled Joseph C. Delgado’s dream, became a symbol of the arrival, establishment, and settlement of the Cape Verdeans in the City of Norwich. Roberta brought together a coalition of architectural historians, builders, folklorists, and artists to develop an organization whose focus was to save the Chapel as an icon of Cape Verdean history and culture. In 2004, A Capela do Santo Antonio, Inc. was incorporated as a non-profit organization, and Roberta proceeded to organize grassroots fundraising efforts for its preservation. In late 2004, the present owners of the house and land where it stood decided to raze the Chapel, despite an agreement not to do this. With very little warning, they scheduled the demolition. Roberta and her dedicated helpers rushed to the scene to salvage what they could of the precious contents and some of the structural components, and to take precise measurements so that reconstruction could eventually take place. The Norwich Bulletin took notice of these events and wrote an editorial decrying the unfortunate circumstances of the Chapel’s deconstruction and praising efforts to rebuild through alliances with the Norwich Historical Society and the City.
Roberta and her supporters raised $4,500 from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation for the Chapel restoration. She negotiated with St. Mary’s Church in Norwich, which approved the reconstruction to be made in the Meditation Area in September 2005. The restored Chapel - rebuilt by Cape Verdean labor - was blessed and opened on April 29, 2006, by Most Reverend Daniel P. Reilly, former Bishop of Norwich. Roberta hosted a feast for the community that was attended by hundreds, including the mayor of Norwich and local state representatives. In the fall of 2006, the Cape Verdean Ambassador visited the site, and in 2007 the Cape Verdean Prime Minister toured the chapel as part of his visit to Norwich.
The Chapel reconstruction is not Roberta’s only accomplishment as a Cape Verdean cultural activist - she has served the community in many different capacities. She has been a supporter and office holder of the Cape Verdean Santiago Society for over a decade, organizing an annual dinner dance that honored a Cape Verdean community leader each year. This was the Club’s biggest function and grew out of Roberta’s love for music and her heritage as the daughter and niece of the famous Delgado Band. Roberta has an insatiable curiosity about Cape Verdean culture and history, and she attended the 2005 conference in Washington, Connecting the Global Cape Verdean Nation, with her niece. Roberta has authored a piece on Cape Verdean history in Norwich for the Norwich Historical Society’s city history, and she has written for the Diocese of Norwich newsletter. In March 2007, she sponsored a public showing and discussion of Susan Hurley Glowa’s documentary on Norberto Tavares, Journey of a Badiu, at Norwich Free Academy - home of many Cape Verdean students. Roberta and a team including historian Rachel Carley have received a 2021 grant from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation to conduct research documenting Cape Verdean history in Norwich, along with some mapping of places where the community lived, worked, and gathered. This context will help to inform a second grant for updating Cape Verdean National Register district nominations based on Ethnic Heritage as a theme of historic significance.
Biographical Note: Brenda P. DelGado is a former Executive Director and Health Care Administrator with more than 30 years experience with both the State of Connecticut and the non-profit sector. She is a founding member of the A Capela do Santo Antonio, Inc. and a former Board member of the Santiago Society in Norwich Connecticut. Brenda also helped to establish an annual scholarship for a student of Cape Verdean heritage at the Norwich Free Academy. She is the granddaughter of Joseph C. Delgado whose vision and talent built the Saint Anthony Chapel and who helped to establish the Santiago Society. Brenda is the fourth daughter of Anthony J. DelGado Sr. Brenda and her father spell their name with a capital “G.”
Additional material exists in the CCHAP archive for this community and these activities.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
Exhibition Opening - A Life in Stone: The Cape Verdean Stonemasonry Tradition in Eastern Connecticut
Alfred Gonsalves
2008 January 4
General Consul Maria de Jesus
2005 October - November
Alfred Gonsalves
2005 September 17
Carlos Santiago Arroyo
2017 June 16
Antonia Ignacio Ramalho Sequeira
1996-1999
