CapeVerdean Americans Documentary

on the next episode of world in America we meet a people who hail from a group of ten beautiful islands off of West Africa Cape bird will meet the lumbus who love the States and at the same time garner much love for Cape fern finally we'll taste the delicious Cape Verdean cuisine and see how music and storytelling keep their culture alive all coming up on the next world in America the brains were a very dynamic group of people who managed to make something out of nothing family is very important for keeper you know who's your mother who's your father who's your grandma our cousins we are practically one degree of separation everybody knows everybody we are not afraid to try anything one thing I think that's unique about Kate Bird is it's a connector between the old world if you will in the new because we have our foot sort of one you know one foot in Africa and one foot in the new world if the sky is up Ordonez like a Dilla cape verde is located 300 miles off the west coast of Senegal off of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean there are 10 islands officially when the Portuguese first discovered it was completely green so they named it Cape Verde which means the green cape which is pretty ironic seeing as a lot of the islands are barren and we suffer from extreme droughts it's volcanic in nature so a lot of the terrain is really rugged and rocky capered was discovered in 14th century by the Portuguese after a while once they realized that most of the land was not going to be suitable for agricultural production they made Cape Verde their slave trading posts for the Americas and through this sad existence the Cape Verdean population has been created primarily of Portuguese and then of course the enslaved Africans that they brought over from the mainland those populations began to mix it was a long period of heavy colonization and marginalization on the hands of the Portuguese government f-word was actually the last African country to get its independence the independence took place on July 5th of 1975 so a relatively young country population in cape verde is just under 500,000 it's a democratic society it's actually been awarded the distinction of being the most successful democracy in Africa kate Vernon's have the distinction of being the first African group to voluntarily migrate to the United States with the longest migration of Africans in this country the first major wave began in the early 1900's through about 1921 and most of those people came over on whaling ships I mean Bedford is has been called the 11th island for a lot of reasons most of the people came to New Bedford searching for a better life there's new Petra was a whaling capital of the world ships would start here and they would go to places like they go to Madeira and the Azores and capered and they'd get supplies and along the way they would get crew members behind me is the Lakota which is a model a replica of the whaling ship that sailed out of you Bedford now it's a 1/10 model while the men were sailing they'd go out on whaling voyages for multiple years but their wives their daughters their mothers would be here building the community so that they had something to come back to so how desperate and how brave these men were to leave capered islands and take a job on a passing whaling ship knowing they're going to go out to the oceans of the world and pick a fight with the largest mammal on the planet but they did it because then either to survive they need to take care of their families to seek their fortune I'm Len Cabral I'm the storyteller and I'm glad to be in your school the history and the experience of these courageous people are kept alive through the tradition of storytelling Len Cabral a Cape Verdean American has been telling stories for more than three decades I've been telling stories professionally for 33 years do rabbits have long or short tails well well well now they do but I'll tell you something long ago this a long time ago rabbits had very very okay since the beginning of time no matter what culture you're from people have done two things they they broke bread means they ate and they told stories while they were doing it and people still sit down eat and tell stories and in the caber alien community it's no different people sit around the table and they tell stories I'm gonna tell you a story that Mike my grandmother we called her mom I what she told me about Cape Verde Islands there's a fella over there in Cape Verde they call him no Lord no Lord he's tricky nolo lazy no lo want something for nothing all the time that's no Lord every culture has a trickster and the tricksters job is to show us the boundaries of society what's considered good behavior almost considered bad behavior so we all know how to behave so that's how we tell stories about no-load but being lazy and this is what happens when you think you know anything and don't want to help anybody to see what happens so there are lessons tales and so every culture has these lessons stories I like it when mr. Cabral tells the stories because he tells that it comes from the grandmother and look and his mother and his ancestors it was really cool and I just really liked how he acted out the motions in cold stories we learn more about people through their stories we learn a lot of different cultures places that we've never been to or read about we can hear their stories and say oh they're similar to my grandmother stories while Len Cabral tells Cape Verdean stories of the past there are those whose lives will become treasured stories for future generations meet the lumbus they've been calling America home for the last three decades my name is Jeanne Lamba I'm married I have three beautiful daughters age 14 12 and 10 Jacinta Sarah and Sophia my husband's name is John originally from Cape Verde Islands I came to the United States back in 1981 I came to the United States at the age of 14 1979 we came back my family decided to come to us or leave the islands to get us better education my mom left left Cape Verdean 1968 and I was age of three my sister my youngest sister was at the age of two she came to the United States in search of a better job and a better life for us it took eleven years before she could send for us to come and live with her here in the United States so we pretty much grew up with not knowing her when we met her at the age of 14 I knew her from pictures only I had never spoken with her never seeing her in person the day that uprooted Jeanne from her lovely Cape Verde has left a wound that is still fresh even after 30 years last day and gave way it was the toughest day that started for me I remember that day very clearly everybody came out and to say goodbye to us seeing my grandmother I don't like the go there because it's still very emotional although it's been 30 years everybody you know said their goodbyes and you know they just walked us to the car you in which is drove away it was not in Cape Verde but four thousand miles away in Connecticut where John and Jeanne met and found a kindred heart in each other French class mr. chary remember sir Jerry yeah I remember yeah and very shy kid in the front of the class I thought he was Portuguese he came from Portugal and he spoke Portuguese then and then I was pretty surprised when I found out that he was keyboard him it started that me walking her to class the class he asked if he could take me to my prom I made her a deal if she lets me take her to her prom then I let her go to mind yeah what a deal we dated for seven years and eventually after that we got married some of the things that I would have loved to have done as a kid learning to play a musical instrument particularly violent I would have loved to to be able to play the violin when I was six years old I told my mom that I wanted to play the violin and since then I've I've been playing we try to make sure that all three of our girls take at least one musical instrument they take lessons I love it as the Lamba girls mesmerize their parents with their tunes Jeanne and John contemplate happily about the opportunities America offers them the first thing that really made me feel American was getting our home when we got serious about dating we started saving money we paid for our wedding and then started saving for the house and then we when we actually got the house I felt like you know we we've arrived we were now Americans you know we were living our American dream it sounds like a cliche if the best but it is America is the best country in the world the opportunities that it offers a person like me who had fourth grade education came to the United States with a huge gap graduated high school with honors believe it or not went on to college got my four-year college degree I became a computer programmer and got a profession that I made pretty good money and only in America could that happen I really mean it only here in America that happens yeah it does because everybody learning English was the initial challenge for the llamas but now the struggle is to teach the new generation their mother-tongue Creole the way that we tried to keep Kate bird alive and our children is by making sure that our children learn some of the language although it's difficult because we don't have schools where we can just send our children Jacinta we took her the first time we took it made a trip to Cape fir'd she stayed there with with my wife for three weeks and she came back speaking Creole they don't speak English there so I had to I had to force myself to learn it's hard to describe what it's like learning a language because it's just it just comes almost subconsciously the ultimate connection for an immigrant family is to give back to their homeland this is exactly what the lumbus do that's cool my oldest Jacinta who is 40 now her teacher asked if I would come to school and talk to the children and I did and of course just sending you the presentation herself I told them that in Cape Verde you were lucky to be able to have a pencil and so that caught everyone's attention and everyone wanted to learn more about Cape Verde they couldn't believe that they're in cave where you couldn't run to the store and get a toy where you may never have a brand new outfit after that presentation we decided that we wanted to do something for the kids there and we came up with this idea of putting together kits for Cape Verde and so we had one set of kit was school supply so it would have a notebook pencils crayons ruler things like that and then we put together a second kit and it was personal hygiene so we put toothbrushes soap toothpaste we put them together and we made so many kits we just had one day of just assembling all the kits and then we would pack them in barrels and we sent them over to Cape Verde I also have an organization that I run that's called Cape Verdeans United and we build a playground for the children in Cape Verde as well as since school supplies and we make sure that our children are involved in planning the activities planning the fundraiser packing the barrels they are involved in every little aspect I personally distributed the kits to all the kids and when we came back in fourth grade my third grade class got together and we watched the video of the distribution first I wasn't allowed to go like I couldn't I wasn't going to be able to go because my mom couldn't afford to pay for my plane ticket but I decided that I wanted to go back so badly I missed it so much that I sold sugar cookies and I raised enough money to pay for my own plane ticket to be able to go to Kate Bird and help my mom build the playground when people don't have a lot the little things are what matter and that's what as Kate veridian's that's what we value are the little things Pawtucket Rhode Island is home to a substantial cape verdean community and at the same time to Rosina restaurant where you can find a variety of traditional flavors of caper Micra some queso Newsom Pomona Sara Casa de the reason I opened this restaurant is to have a place where anybody can come and enjoy our cuisine and our culture Cape Verdean culinary techniques take a juicy steak to a whole new level I'm chef Kosta and I'm gonna show you how to do that steak rz4 so much later after we slice a piece we're gonna tenderize it it was a little bit of a salt we hit up a little bit of oil we fry it both sides my thing about five minutes depends on the temperature you wanted we use some garlic it's a little bit of hot sauce you see meant to special software rose in your style we got it just add a little bit in here add a little bit of heavy cream fry one egg one egg is right I check it out Lorenz happen to be no review of Cape Verdean cuisine would be complete without mentioning the traditional kasuba our main dish introvert is ketubah which we have every day for dinner the ingredients for the trooper is we have me corn of collard greens got beans you got three different types of beans the garlic onions peppers we got the yuca and the sweet potatoes we lower shorter in a neutral arena we let it cook for about 2-3 hours all the ingredients we cook them perfectly announcer they don't pastel de tune a crispy and wholesome Cape Verdean side dish employs tuna fish in a mouth-watering manner you're gonna fire high heat some peppers some onions some crushed peppers now I'm crushing the tuna the fish juice aha hot sauce that was pretty much done he's ready to be wrapped up in a wartime I got to know fillers was ready we're gonna stuff him in a one time and fry my if you're ever in Pawtucket Rhode Island make sure to check out the Rosie Nia restaurant for a taste of Cape Verdean cuisine music is a universal language utilizing this language marcy de pinna celebrates and shares cape verdean music with her listeners once a week once again you're locked into Caribbean zone 107.9 you're here with your girl DJ MD the dancefloor doctor your cure for the monday blues that's how we do here on the movement Cape Verdean vibes I'm a host of a weekly radio show it's every Monday from 7:00 to 9:00 on the Caribbean zone 107.9 FM in New Jersey we're also online at Caribbean zone comm and basically I'm the only African on a curvier radio station my mission with the show is sort of twofold one is to present Cape Verdean ZAR music to help them to remember sort of where we've come from who we are and to show kind of what's new and happening so I play everything I play tradition I play new stuff a lot of the songs that I've played to for you tonight for classic songs talking about the types of things that encompass the everyday life in capered the second mission is to connect Cape Verdeans with other people of African descent whether you be African American Caribbean or from you know the mainland Africa I want to show rhythmically how all of these musics connect and then from that connection show how we're all one and I even play music beyond that because really the human race is all one as Cape Verdean Americans continue to cherish and share their traditional music or keep their storytelling tradition alive or give back generously to their homeland we are clearly reminded that the Cape Verdean American community is such a vibrant piece of the American cultural puzzle

Channel: keepfocusongood

Views: 147,635

Keywords: Documentary, Literature, People, American, History, Culture, Heritage, CapeVerdean, Americans, United States (Country), Historical

Id: X0S3n96ITZY

Length: 22min 55sec (1375 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 28 2013