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Visit of the President of Cape Verde to the Cape Verdean Community in the USA

ProducerProduced by Sodadi Cabo Verde - TV

Date2005 June 18

Mediumreformatted digital file from VHS tape

DimensionsDuration: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes, 37 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionReformatted digital file from a VHS tape containing a program of the President of Cape Verde's visit to Rhode Island and Connecticut. The tape was produced by Sodadi Cabo Verde Cable TV in Bridgeport, Connecticut on June 18, 2005.

Title of the video is "Visita do Presidente de Cabo Verde Dr. Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro a Comunidade Caboverdiana em USA".

Object number2015.196.593a-b

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: On June 18, 2005, Joan Neves videotaped activities during the visit of the President of Cape Verde, Dr. Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro, to the Bridgeport area. The video was broadcast on TV Sodadi Cabo Verde, a program on the public access television channel CTV-Cable 34 in New Haven, Connecticut. Antonia Sequeira and Joan placed a copy of the videotape in the Cape Verdean Community History Project collection after the event.

Biographical Note: Joan Neves has served as an educator in the Bridgeport school district and Norwalk Community College, and is an experienced videographer. She participated in the 1995 Cape Verdean Connections Program at the Smithsonian Festival. Her planning role has focused on developing programming based on the large body of material relating to Cape Verdean community traditions and events which she has documented on video. She prepared the weekly Cape Verdean program TV Sodadi Cabo Verde broadcast on the public access television channel CTV-Cable 34 in New Haven, Connecticut. Joan is the daughter of violinist Julio Neves (Chou) who played in many bands.

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.

Musicians like Francisco “Chico Clau” Ramalho used to play often at Cape Verdean venues around New England and eastern new York, along with musicians such as guitarist Jack Araujo and viola player John Paul who always sang the New Year canta reis greetings. The musicians played for dancing, first a waltz, then a fast polka, then a morna for a rest, then perhaps a slow dance like the mazurca, Antonia's favorite - "You feel the music, you never looked at your feet!"

Antonia's sister Rose Ramalho Canute, a talented singer, learned Cape Verdean songs while their father Chico Clau played his violin. Starting in her teens Rose traveled with violinist Julio Neves' band to play at community clubs throughout southern New England. Pioneer producer and distributor Al Lopes, a viola player from New Bedford, Massachusetts, made one of the earliest Cape Verdean-American music recordings, of Rose singing the morna Bissau.

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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