Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.460c, Connecticut Historical S ...

Interview with the Santos Brothers, Roberta Vincent, & Freddie Gonsalves

IntervieweeInterview with Roberta Delgado Vincent (Cape Verdean)

IntervieweeInterview with Alfred Gonsalves (Cape Verdean)

IntervieweeInterview with Abel Santos (Cape Verdean)

IntervieweeInterview with Matthew Santos (Cape Verdean)

IntervieweeInterview with Antonio Santos Sr. (Cape Verdean)

IntervieweeInterview with José Santos (Cape Verdean)

IntervieweeInterview with The Santos Band (Cape Verdean)

InterviewerInterviewed by Antonia Ignacio Ramalho Sequeira (Cape Verdean, 1924 - 2005)

InterviewerInterviewed by Lynne Williamson

Date1999 April 17

Mediumreformatted digital files from audio cassette - MP3 files

DimensionsDuration (side 1): 46 Minutes, 1 Seconds Duration (side 2): 37 Minutes, 31 Seconds

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

CopyrightIn Copyright

Object number2015.196.460a-d

DescriptionInterview with the Santos Brothers (Abel, Matthew, Antonio Sr., and José), Roberta Vincent, and Freddie Gonsalves. They were interviewed by Antonia Sequeira and Lynne Williamson at the Cape Verdean Santiago Society in Norwich, Connecticut on April 17, 1999, as part of the Cape Verdean History Project. The interview was recorded on both sides of the cassette tape.

NotesSubject 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 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: Alfred (Freddie) Gonsalves and José Santos, Cape Verdean stonemasons, are members of Cape Verdean families that have worked in this occupation for several generations in the Norwich area. They learned from their fathers in the course of working on masonry since their teens and have built successful businesses in southeastern Connecticut while serving important roles in the Cape Verdean community, most notably as president and past president of the Santiago Society, a Norwich Cape Verdean cultural organization. Freddie designed and oversaw the reconstruction of St. Anthony’s Chapel, rescuing and re-siting this historical Norwich Cape Verdean landmark after it was threatened with demolition in 2004. Freddie won a Connecticut Historic Preservation award for this work in 2008 and has also received a Cape Verdean Hall of Fame award. José Santos and his brothers were members of the popular Cape Verdean music group The Santos Brothers.

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.

Subject 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.

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.

Additional materials exist 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.

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