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1900s The textile industry boom in New Bedford creates many job
opportunities for immigrant labor. In 1880 there were two mills
employing 2,700 workers, and by 1905 there were 15 mills
with almost 15,000 workers.
1900-1903 Drought and famine. 11,000 people or 15%
of the population perish.
1900 North Carver, Massachusetts. A fist fight erupts into a
riot by Cape Verdean cranberry workers. Public expression of labor
discontent was rare on the bogs. In 1933 similar dissatisfaction
led to a strike.
1902 The beloved poet, Jorge Barbosa (1902-1971) was
born in Praia. Barbosa published his first collection of poetry,
Aquipelago, even before the formation of the literary movement
Claridade.
1903 Marcelino Manoel da Graca (1881-1960), an
immigrant from his native Ilha Brava, arrives in New Bedford. In
1919 after working as a cranberry picker and later as a railroad
cook, he establishes a small chapel in a wooden shack in West
Wareham, Massachusetts and called it the United House of Prayer
for All People. While working the railroad he became a charasmatic
preacher, and made many claims of miraculous healing. By the time he
opened several churches in Charlotte, NC and elsewhere he was known
as "Sweet Daddy Grace" to his followers. By the time of his death
and internrment in New Bedford, MA., Bishop Grace had
established over 350 congregations with followers numbering over
three million. His worship services included dynamic preaching from
the philosophy of self help was characteristically accompanied by full
brass band. During the Great Depression Bishop Grace's soup
kitchens were well used my many of America's black communities.
1905 Population of the archipelago recorded as approximately
135,000.
1905 Cape Cod, Massachusetts. There are public discussions
about the need to establish segregated public schools to accommodate the
growing number of Cape Verdeans who were "planting roots" in Cape
Cod following the cranberry harvest. In Marion, Massachusetts, a
town directive was issued against further employment of Cape Verdeans
in public works. At the Wareham, Massachusetts High School
graduation program the commencement address was entitled "Drifting
Backwards" in which the valedictorian said she "deplored the influx
of cheap labor" and bemoaned the fact that "our poor American girls
are obliged to labor side by side (in the cranberry harvest) with
these half civilized blacks." Several years later (1917)
Belmira Nunes Lopes, a Cape Verdean immigrant, gave the
valedictory and spoke on the theme of "The Ideal Town" as one with
no prejudice. Lopes went on to be the first woman of color to graduate
from Harvard's Radcliffe College. [See Laura Pires Hester,
1995]
1905 The Portuguese Catholic congregation of New Bedford Cape
Verdeans begin to express displeasure with treatment which they
regarded as racially discriminatory. Cape Verdean community elders in
New Bedford organized and petitioned the Bishop of the Diocese of
Fall River to establish a Cape Verdean parish. Our Lady of the
Assumption Church was established as the first Cape Verdean
Catholic Church in the United States.
1906 As early as 1906 Cape Verdeans from Brava begin to
migrate to California and found work in the reconstruction following
the great San Francisco earthquake. Eventually communities grew in
Sacramento, Alameda, and the Napa Valley. Since the 1960s
Cape Verdeans have also been moving to Southern California.
1907 Cape Verdean novelist, Manuel Lopes born in Santo
Antao. His second novel, Os Flagelados do Vente L'este , (the
Flagellated of the East Wind), established him as a central figure
in the literary life of Cape Verde. He was a founding member of the
journal Claridade.
1910 The Portuguese King is assassinated. The monarchy is
overthrown. In 1911 the Portuguese Republic is established.
1910 Population of the archipelago is recorded as approximately
140,000. Malaria and influenza ravage the people.
1910 Workers in the port of Sao Vicente strike for better working
conditions and wages.
1910 (November) Rubon Manel, Santiago. Padre Antonio
Duarte Da Graca speaks out against the arrest and imprisonment of a
small group of women for having illegally harvested wild pulgeira
seeds. The collection and export of these soap producing seeds were
controlled by government monopoly. The priests protest gradually
spread into a revolt by many local people who march with swords and
stones and attacked the Cruz Grande prison. Da Graca slogan which
resonated with local villagers was "Now there is no black, no white,
no rich, no poor...we are all equal!". Militia eventually put
down the revolt.
1913 1691 Cape Verdeans legally immigrate to the United
States. Almost all of the immigrants from Cape Verde arriving in
the USA before 1922 enter through the ports of New Bedford or
Providence.
1914 World War I begins in Europe. Portugal declares its
neutrality.
1915 Pedro Cardoso publishes the first book of Cape Verdean
poetry in Praia, Caboverdeanas.
1915 Fishermen in Sao Vicente stage a strike in protest against
new taxes imposed on them.
1916 A total of 1829 legal immigrants from Cape Verde enter
the United States.
1917 Cape Verdean Benificente Association founded in New
Bedford. The organization would be the first of many mutual aid
societies and voluntary groups to be founded by Cape Verdeans in
America.
1918 Armistice signed ending World War I.
1918 Theophilus Freitas of Sao Nicolau is captain of the New
Bedford whaler Pedro Varela on her last voyage. Other Cape
Verdean whaling captains of courage and perseverance include Teofilo
Gonsalez (Gon«alves) of Brava, Luis Oliveira, Jose Senna,
Julio Fernandez, and Jose Perry.
1919 The heirs of Manuel Antonio Martins sell the salina and
their salt production business to a firm from Bordeaux, France and a
new company was established, Societe Salines du Sal. They install
a tramway which revolutionized their ability to transport the salt to
the port. The 1100m tramway enabled the company to transport 25
tons per hour. The company ceased all exportation in 1985. At
its peak, the village of Pedra de Lume was an excellent example of a
"factory town". Literally every building, including the general
store, the water supply, workers residences and everything else except
the church were owned by the foreign company.
1920 A total of 1,506 Cape Verdeans legally immigrate to the
United States.
1920 The population of the archipelago recorded at approximately
160,000. There is a dramatic excess of unmarried females on
some islands due to immigration patterns. In Brava the ratio of women
to men was 188 to 100.
1920 After several failed attempts to re-start the commercial salt
business in Santa Maria a Portuguese firm establishes the Compania
do Fomento. In 1917 Fomento formed a joint venture with a
Belgian firm already doing business in the Congo. This new market
played a major role in the economic viability of Santa Maria until the
end of the colonial era.
1922-1966 The United States government enacts new laws to
restrict the immigration of non-European peoples. Cape Verdean
immigration to the U.S. was reduced from a level of about 1500
per year to a mere trickle. These were years of separation within the
Cape Verdean extended family. The intimate cultural contact between
the American community and the villages of the Cape Verde Islands
was dramatically changed as the two communities became isolated from one
another. U.S. immigration records list 22,624 legal arrivals
from Cape Verde into the Port of New Bedford and Providence
between 1860 and 1930.
As a direct result of America's "closed door" policy, Cape
Verdeans begin to seek out other countries for immigration. Today
there are Cape Verdean communities in Portugal, France, Italy,
Sweeden, Norway, Spain, Luxembourg, Brazil, Argentina,
Angola, Senegal, Cote D'Ivoire and numerous other countries.
1924 American anthropologist, Albert E. Jenks, publishes a
report entitled "New Englanders Who Came From Afric Isles" in
which he asserts that the leaders of the Cape Verdean community in
New Bedford began to prefer the designation of "Cape Verdean" to
describe their ethnicity rather than being classed as Portuguese and as
an alternative to being known as "black Portuguese". Since the
early 1920s Cape Verdeans in America have been struggling to be
recognized as a distinct ethnic group with a specific cultural
heritage. (see Halter p. 152 ff).
1926 Portuguese economics professor, Antonio Oliveira Salazar
orchestrates a coup d'etat and overthrows the Portuguese government
and launches the "New State" fascist regime. From 1928 to
1974 Salazar and later his protege, Marcello Caetano, ruled
Portugal backed up by a very repressive state secret police
organization, P.I.D.E.
During most of the Salazar regime, tabanka was discouraged, and at
times actively suppressed.
1926 Joao Cristiano DaRosa, a Rhode Island Cape Verdean,
establishes the first Portuguese-language newspaper in America.
1929 Cape Verdean American lawyer and entrepreneur, Roy
Teixeira and Albio and Antonio Macedo join forces to purchase the
300 foot ex-clipper ship Coriolanus, the largest of the Brava
packet ships. In later years Teixeira would be legal counsel to many
of the Cape Verdean packet ship captains.
1930s During the Great Depression an average of 50% of the
Massachusetts and Rhode Island Cape Verdean labor force was
unemployed. The average period of unemployment was 18 months.
Manuel de Gra«a born in Brava in 1881, immigrated to
Massachusetts as a young boy with his family. Bishop Grace (or
"Sweet Daddy Grace" as he was affectionately called by his
followers) established an evangelical church, the House of Prayer
for All People, which by the 1940s had a membership among
African Americans numbering over three million. During the Great
Depression Bishop Grace's soup kitchens were well used in many of
America's black communities.
1930 The Portuguese firm of J. A. Nacimento establishes a
tuna fishing and cannery business in Santa Maria. For most of the
20th century Cape Verde has had several small tuna canneries which
in spite of their archaic equipment and technology produce products for
domestic and export markets.
1931 Famine in Fogo and Santiago.
1932 The Santiago Society of Norwich, Connecticut, is
established.
1933 Manuel Q. "Chief" Lido organizes the International
Longshoremen's Association Local 1329 in the Port of
Providence, RI. A brother local was formed in New Bedford in
1936. Cape Verdeans still retain effective control of these two
labor organizations. Julio J. ("Juli") Alves, Sr.
(1917-1980) was elected to lead the union as
secretary-treasurer of ILA locals 1413 and 1465 in
1971.
1933 (September) Plymouth and Bristol Counties,
Massachusetts. 1500 Cape Verdean cranberry pickers stage a
strike for better working conditions, guaranteed employment until the
end of the season, and the right to organize. Bog owners bring in
private security guards and eventually outside "scab" workers to break
the strike. This would be the first agricultural strike in the history
of Massachusetts.
1933 Antonio DeJ. Cardozo (1904-1984), an immigrant
from Fogo and a onetime cowboy on a Texas ranch, becomes the first
student to be granted admission to the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University. Cardozo would become a successful
Boston attorney.
1934 The Nantucket Light Ship is struck by a freighter and sinks
killing its mostly Cape Verdean American crew. Attorney Alfred
J. Gomes (1897-1974) rallies the Cape Verdean community
to establish the Seamen's Memorial Fund to provide scholarship
assistance. Gomes also organized famine relief campaigns in response
to drought in the islands. Many Cape Verdean organizations support
both island relief and local educational and cultural issues.
1934 (June 7). Protesters carrying black flags march in the
streets of Mindelo, Sao Vicente against the government's lack of
response to mounting famine conditions. Under the leadership of Nho
Ambrosino, a popular local leader, the protesters sack and loot food
warehouses and commercial establishments. The event has been
celebrated in Cape Verdean song and art as the "revolution of
Captain Ambrosio".
1934 (November 8). Captain Albertino de Senna of the
Manta, the last of the New Bedford whaling ships, now a Brava
packet sets sail from Providence for Cape Verde. After 107 days
the ship was given up for lost. Soon after the schooner Winnepesauke
was also lost with all hands.
1936 The Claridade literary movement is founded in Cape Verde
and begins its exploration of the sources of Kriolu cultural identity
and analysis of the socioeconomic conditions in Cape Verde.
1937 Cape Verdean American Women's Social Club founded in
New Bedford. Maria L. Livramento (from Sao Nicolau) started
the club in her home and remains active to this day.
1939 Soldiers of the Germany's Third Reich invade Poland and
World War II begins in Europe. In spite of its formal
neutrality, the Salazar government of Portugal maintains close ties
to the fascist regimes of Spain, Italy and Germany throughout the
War. The German SS actively cooperate with Portugal and train the
Portuguese secret state police.
1939 The government of Benito Mussolini given authorization to
build a transit airport on Ilha do Sal to support Italy's expanding
contact with South America.
1941-1943 Famine and drought in all of the islands. Fogo
looses approximately 7500 people (31% of its population); Sao
Nicolau looses 28% of its population.
1940s-1960s A small segment of the rural "badiu" population
on the island of Santiago engages in periodic spontaneous revolts in
opposition to Portuguese Catholicism and colonial administration.
In the early 1960's the movement took on political significance
and its members were labeled as os rebelados [rebels] by the
authorities who were quick to sense the incipient communism in some of
its precepts; formerly, the adherents of the movement had been called
simply increntes [unbelievers].
Among their precepts was a refusal to accept religious rituals
performed by priests; performed their own baptisms, weddings and
venerated, in particular, a copy of the Bible brought from America
some years earlier. Adherents worked the land communally, refused
contact with outsiders, and forbade the killing of any living
creature. It was their refusal to deal with money, have contact with
priests, or allow their homes to be fumigated in an anti-malaria
campaign that brought os rebelados to the government's attention. The
movements leaders were eventually arrested, brutally interrogated, and
finally dispersed among the other islands. (J. Monteiro 1974:
107-8 cited in Meintel 1984: 142)
In the 1960s-1970s the Rebelados spiritually embraced the
PAIGC anti-colonialist liberation movement and its founder,
Amilcar Cabral. The struggle and the spirit of the Rebelados revolt
is celebrated in the poetry of Corsino Fortes and others.
1941 With the advent of World War II the shipping traffic
calling at Mindelo slows to 214 vessels ushering in a total economic
collapse.
1941-1945 World War II.
1941 Edinburgh, Scotland. Protestant missionaries publish
Pedas di Scitura na Crioulo di Djabraba, selections of Holy
Scripture in the crioulo of Brava.
1943 (August 23). A group of men from Brava, some born in
America, risked a clandestine Atlantic crossing aboard the packet
Mathilde and set sail for New England in the middle of World War
II. They planned to secure emergency relief supplies and immediately
return to Brava. The Mathilde was lost at sea with all hands
somewhere near Bermuda.
1945 (October 21), New Bedford Standard Times reports "
Nearly 150 German prisoners of war assisted in harvesting the
[cranberry] crop this season".
1940s-1950s Luso-African students in Portugal begin to
actively network and embrace the strategy of Pan-Africanism and
national liberation. At the forefront of this movement of African
students were Eduardo Mondlane, founder of Frente de Liberta«ao de
Mo«ambique (FRELIMO), Amilcar Cabral, founder of the
Partido Africano da Independencia da Guine e Cabo Verde
(PAIGC) and Agustinho Neto, first president of the Movimento
pelo Liberta«ao de Angola (MPLA).
1946-1948 Famine and drought. Santiago looses 65% of its
population. Population of the archipelago drops to 140,000.
In 1946 alone 30,000 people or 15% of total population
dies.
1946 Cape Verdean Americans returning from military service in
World War II established the Cape Verdean American Veterans
Association, New Bedford. Over the years the organization has
played a central role in advocacy for Cape Verdean recognition within
the USA. Cape Verdeans served in all branches of the U.S. war
effort in the Pacific and in Europe. Most served in segregated black
units. Some of the others with a lighter complexion found themselves
assigned by their superiors to white units.
1946 Portuguese Secret Police (P.I.D.E.) establish a
prison at Chao Bom, Tarrafal, Santiago Island to incarcerate
political dissidents and anticolonialists from Portugal, Cape
Verde, Guine and other African colonies. Ironically, Tarrafal
prison would be a great breeding ground for post colonial leadership in
Lusophone Africa and Portugal. The powerful Cape Verdean morna
Seis anos na Tarrafal (Six years in Tarrafal) memorializes the
plight of political prisoners and was very effectively used as an
organizing tool during the years of the anti-colonial struggle.
1947 Balthazar Lopes DaSilva ( 1907-1989) a founding
member of the Claridade Movement, publishes Chiquinho, the first
novel by a Cape Verdean author on a Cape Verdean cultural theme.
However it would take until 1987 for a novel to be published in the
Cape Verdean Kriolu language, Odju d'agua by Manuel Veiga.
1949 (February) Collapse of Assistencia, Praia, Santiago.
"Assistencia" was the popular name of the colonial government's soup
kitchen and welfare building. The walls of the building were made of
round boulders gathered from the beaches and held together with very
little cement. On day the building collapsed, crushing hundreds of
the city's poorest and most destitute people. The incident has been
celebrated in poetry and song as a metaphor for colonial neglect in
Cape Verde.
1949 Ilha do Sal airport was completed by the Portuguese
following the Italian defeat in World War II. By 1949 the
airport is fully operational and has been gradually improved ever
since. The airport remains one of the largest employers in the country
and the most important source of foreign revenue.
1951 Eruption of the volcano in Fogo.
1956 Jazz saxaphonist, Paul Gonsalves, son of Cape Verdean
immigrants, (1920-1974), receives major critical accalim
for his improvised solo of Duke Ellington's "Diminuendo and
Crescendo in Blue" at the Newport Jazz Festival (captured on
Columbia Records). Gonsalves was Ellington's principal soloist
for over 25 years. (see Hayden 1993 and Barboza 1992 for
additional material of Cape Verdean musicians).
1956 Amilcar Cabral founds the African Party for the
Independence of Guine and Cape Verde (PAIGC). Cabral, born
in Guine of Cape Verdean immigrant parents, was an agricultural
engineer, poet, and Pan Africanist. He led the protracted
political and armed struggle for the independence of both Cape Verde
and Guinea-Bissau.
1957 Baltazar Lopes DaSilva publishes O Dialecto Crioluo de
Cabo Verde, spearheading the movement to legitimize and standardize
the Kriolu language.
April 3, 1959 Portuguese troops open fire on striking workers at
the Pijiguiti Docks in the Port of Bissau, Guinea killing over
50 people. PAIGC initiates the 13 year armed struggle for
independence.
1959-1960 Drought. No mortality recorded. Adequate
measures taken by the government to guarantee minimal food
requirements.
April 1961 At a meeting in Casablanca, leaders of the anti-
colonialist movements in all of the Portuguese African colonies act to
create the Conference of Nationalists of the Portuguese Colonies
(CONCP). The organization enhances dialogue and strategic
planning among the African anti-colonialist movements.
1960s Revolutionary poetry movement builds opposition to
colonialism. Poets Ovidio Martins, Kaoberdiano Dambara, Corsino
Fortes, Onesimo Silveira, Abilo Duarte and many others used their
poetry to raise the popular consciousness and public debate about
conditions under colonialism and the need for change.
Mid-1960s. Charles Fortes leads a movement to organize a Black
Coalition in the State of Rhode Island and forms the Providence
Corporation. The group's primary focus was to pressure for entry of
minorities into the building trades, increase minority enrollment in
area colleges and build solidarity across different segments of the
community. Many other Cape Verdean civic action groups would look to
the example of Fortes' leadership.
1964 The schooner Ernestina arrives in New Bedford on its last
commercial voyage to America.
1967 Belgian inventor and industrialist Georges Vynckier built a
small guest house on the beach at Santa Martia, Sal. With
investment incentives from government authorities and the assurances of
South African Airways to lodge its crews, Vynckier began to build
Hotel Morabeza. Throughout the period of sanctions against the
apartheid government of South Africa, SAA planes would make
refueling stops in Sal. At its peak there were almost 40 SAA
flights per week in and out of Ilha do Sal. Revenues from these
airport services, fuel sales, and hotel fees were a major source of
revenue for the country. (In the 1970s, many of the secret talks
which led to normalization of relations between South Africa and
Angola would be hosted by Cape Verde).
1968 Drought in all of the Islands.
1969 Manuel T. Neves begins publishing a tabloid, the Cape
Verdean News, Lynn, Massachusetts.
1969 The Rev. Martin Gomes, a popular New Bedford athlete
whose grandparents were immigrants from Sao Nicolau, is the first
Cape Verdean American ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic
Church.
1970 Riots erupt in New Bedford's West End, a predominantly
African American neighborhood, immediately following an unprovoked
drive-by shooting of a Cape Verdean American youth by whites. Cape
Verdean and African American community leaders and youth broaden
political alliances to respond to local crisis. Joaquim A. "Jack"
Custodio takes to the radio airwaves and begins a 25 years career as
a "talk show" host and critic of government desegregation and human
rights efforts. Manuel Costa, Sr., becomes first Cape Verdean
to run for city wide office in New Bedford.
1971 Transitional Bilingual Education Act passed by the
Massachusetts State Legislature. In 1975, Cape Verdean
parents and teachers of immigrant children in the Boston Public
Schools organized to petition the Massachusetts House of
Representatives to create a Cape Verdean Kriolu language bilingual
education program. The Commissioner of Education officially
recognizes Cape Verdean Kriolu as a "living language in
Massachusetts.
1971 Internationally acclaimed rhythm and blues group of five Cape
Verdean American brothers change their stage name from the
"Turnpikes" to their family name, "Tavares". In the course of
their career they produced 13 hit records and have sold over five
million recordings around the world.
1972-1976 Mary Santos Barros, daughter of Sao Nicolau
immigrants, serves as a member of the Massachusetts State Board of
Education. In 1989 Barros, a steadfast community advocate, is
elected to a seat on the New Beford City Council.
1972 Salah Matteos, a Cape Verdean American, travels to
Guinea Conakry and meets with PAIGC leadership. Upon his return
to America, Matteos established the PAIGC-USA Support
Committee and begins organizing in Southern New England
communities. In the Fall of 1972 he conducts a regional
conference in support of PAIGC in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1973 Judge James J. Bento (1898-1980) retires from
the bench of the 4th District Court in Plymouth County
(Massachusetts.) Bento was active in Cape Verdean community
affairs in the Cape Cod and New Bedford area throughout his life.
January 20, 1973 Amilcar Cabral is assassinated in his
Guinea- Conakry headquarters by agents of the colonial government.
("The criticism by opponents of the PAIGC was that it was
dominated by Cape Verdeans. The effort to divide Cape Verdeans
from Guineans was also an element in the plot to assassinate Amilcar
Cabral...". At secret meetings in New York City, New
Bedford, Massachusetts and Providence, RI, in 1972 and
1973, PAIGC officials were engaged in building their political
support and conducting informational programs. The Cape Verdean
diaspora community and individual families were deeply divided at this
time over the issue of Cape Verdean identity and support for or
opposition to the PAIGC. (see Lobban, Richard in Cape
Verde: Crioulo colony to Independent Nation, 1995, notes p.
11-12)
September 24, 1973 PAIGC declares the independence of the
Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Luis Cabral, brother of the slain
Amilcar, is the country's first president.
February 1974 Cape Verdean-American Federation convention in
Providence, RI. This landmark meeting drew over 800
representatives from Cape Verdean American communities throughout
USA. At the center of conference deliberations were the questions
about the political future of the Islands and the cultural identity of
Cape Verdeans within American society.
April 25, 1974 Portuguese armed forces overthrow the fascist
dictatorship in Lisbon.
1975 (and 1978) adequate rainfall guarantees the harvest in
the Islands.
1975 Judge George N. Leighton (Leitao), son of Cape
Verdean immigrants, was nominated by President Gerald Ford to serve
as U.S. Distict Courct Judge for the Northern District of
Illinois. Leighton serves on the Federal bench until his retirement
in 1987. He was listed by Ebony Magazine as one of the "most
influential Black men in America".
January 1975 Raymond A. Almeida, a Cape Verdean American
from New Bedford, incorporates Tchuba, the American Committee for
Cape Verde, Inc., in Boston. For three years the organization
published the Tchuba Newsletter and lobbied state and federal
officials to provide assistance to the new Republic of Cape Verde.
The organization also worked in support of the Cape Verdean
Institute of Solidarity in Praia.
February 22-23, 1975 Attorneys Aguinaldo Veiga, Roy
Teixeira (Sr. & Jr.) and Antonio DeJ. Cardoso convene the
Juridical Congress of World Cape Verdean Communities at the
Sheraton Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, and declare independence
in exile. These political forces gathered in a desperate attempt to
prevent approaching transfer of power by Portugal to the PAIGC.
Outside of the Sheraton, pro-independence forces from throughout
New England rallied in a demonstration organized by the
PAIGC-USA Support Committee. Political divisions within the
Cape Verdean- American community were exacerbated by this event.
The UCID political party developed out of this Congress.
June 25, 1975 Mocambique assumes its independence under
FRELIMO. Samora Machal is the nation's first president.
July 5, 1975. Independence of the Republic of Cape Verde is
proclaimed in Praia. Aristides Maria Pereira is elected the
nation's first president. Pereira, born in Boavista, worked as a
telecommunications administrator in Guinea and a founding member of the
Party. He was the Secretary General of the PAIGC after the
assassination of Cabral. Pedro Verona Pires, born in Fogo
(1934) and a commandant of the armed forces in Guinea, was
elected prime minister. The United States joined many governments in
according diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Cape Verde on the
day of its independence.
A delegation of six Cape Verdean Americans from Tchuba, the
American Committee for Cape Verde, Inc. (Boston) attend the
independence ceremonies in Praia.
Cape Verde assumes its independence with less than three months
essential supplies of food and medicine and a very weak private sector.
Unemployment and popular expectations are equally as high. In a very
good year Cape Verde can expect to produce only about 20% of the
food it requires. The role of immigrant remittances in the national
economy takes on a greater importance. By the 1980s almost 25%
of the Gross National Product of Cape Verde is derived from
immigrant remittances.
Cape Verde sends its first Ambassador to the USA. In 1977,
a General Consulate is opened in Boston.
1975 November 11) Angola assumes its independence under the
government of the MPLA. Dr. Agustinho Neto is the nation's
first president. Many years earlier Neto, a Medical doctor, was
held as a political prisoner in Cape Verde by the Portuguese secret
police. Many rural Cape Verdeans in Santo Antao and elsewhere have
fond memories of Doctor Neto. Neto died in 1979.
1976 President Aristides Pereira of Cape Verde presents the
vessel Ernestina to the "people of the United States" on the
occasion of the bicentennial of American independence. Built in
Essex, Massachusetts in 1894, the restored Ernestina is today
berthed in the Port of New Bedford.
In 1976 the schooner Ernestina sailed from Mindelo enroute to
Providence. Less than a day out of Cape Verde, the vessel was
dismasted and forced to return to Sao Vicente. The historic voyage
of re-patriation would have to wait for several years.
1976 Smithsonian Institution invites the Cape Verdean Folkloric
Group from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to participate in the
African Diaspora program of the Festival of American Folklife on
the National Mall in Washington, DC.
1978 Mindelo, Sao Vicente. First conference of International
Cape Verdean Communities. PAIGC-USA Support Committee and
Tchuba, American Committee for Cape Verde, Inc. were invited to
form delegations and participate in the conference. Cape Verdean
associations from over 15 nations are represented at the Conference.
1978 Prime Minister Pedro Pires makes his first official visit
to New England Cape Verdean communities in Boston, New Bedford
and Providence.
1978 Extension School of Harvard University offers a course in
Cape Verdean Kriolu.
1978 Cape Verdean immigrant, Alcides Vicente, begins the first
regular radio broadcast in the United States in the Cape Verdean
language. The program services Rhode Island. A few years later,
Romana Ramos Silva joins Vicente to continue the program to the
present day. There are Cape Verdean radio and TV programs
throughout the southeastern New England region.
1979 Mindelo, Sao Vicente. Colloquium on Crioulo. Under the
direction of Manuel Veiga, Dulce Almada Duarte and other Cape
Verdean scholar-activists present the first draft of a proposed
standardized orthography.
November 1980 Nino Vieira leads a coup d'etat in
Guinea-Bissau and overthrows President Luis Cabral. Cabral
receives safe passage to Cape Verde.
The schooner Ernestina sails from Sao Vicente to Newport RI and
onto Providence and New Bedford. The formal repatriation process
for the vessel moves forward. Today the vessel is the centerpiece of
the historic Port of New Bedford.
Jan/Feb 1981 Following the split within the PAIGC in
Guinea- Bissau, the African Party for the Independence of Cape
Verde (PAICV) is created in Praia.
1983 First visit of President Aristides Perreira to New
England Cape Verdean communities in Boston, New Bedford and
Providence. Honorary Doctorate degrees were conferred at Rhode
Island College (Providence, RI) and Sacred Heart University
(Fairfield, CT).
1984 (July) Praia. At the invitation of President Pereira,
a group of high school graduates and faculty from the Cape Verdean
Bilingual Program of Madison Park High School (Roxbury,
MA), visit Cape Verde. The visit is organized by Manuel DaLuz
Goncalves, Cape Verdean teacher and long time bilingual education
activist.
1986 (October 19) Samora Machel, President of Mozambique,
is killed when his plane explodes under suspicious circumstances.
1987 In the 1980s Cape Verde "attracted the highest per
capita international aid of any West African country.... In
1987, the country received $86 million in aid - equivalent to
half of the gross national product, or $246 in aid for each
islander. (NY Times Mar. 2, 1989: A15.)
1989 Edward Andrade, a Cape Verdean American, and Joao
Rodrigues Pires, a Cape Verdean resident in Praia, establish
Cabovideo, a joint business venture producing weekly television
programming in the USA and Cape Verde.
1989 Praia. Conference on Literacy and Crioulo. Continued
scholarly elaboration of a new orthography for Crioulo and its use in
adult literacy.
1990 Prime Minister Pedro Pires formally initiates the political
opening or "Abertura", a deliberate strayegy to open up the
political process for eventual multi-party elections in Cape Verde.
1990 The World Bank reported that of the 344,350
population in Cape Verde, 45% were under 14 years old and less
than 6% were over 65 years old. The infant mortaliy rate of
1,000 live births was 55. Life expectancy at birth was 65
years.
Jan. 13, 1991 First multi-party elections in Cape Verde.
Carlos Wahnon Veiga (MpD - Movement for Democracy) elected
Prime Minister.
February 17, 1991 Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro, former
President of the Cape Verdean Supreme Court, elected President of
the Republic.
1993 (November) U.S. Congressman Barney Frank of
Massachusetts makes the first ever official visit by a Member of the
U.S. Congress to Cape Verde. Frank's congressional district
includes the New Bedford-Wareham area which is home to the largest
Cape Verdean American community.
As a result of talks initiated during this visit, a group of private
New Bedford commercial fishing industry representatives begin a
dialogue with the Cape Verdean government to establish a joint fishing
venture in West African waters. In spite of this strong occupational
tradition, Cape Verdeans have not been a part of the fishing industry
in New Bedford or elsewhere in the USA.
1994 Cesaria Evora, dubbed the "Barefoot Diva" by French
music fans wins a prize for selling over 150,000 CDs in
France. Her triumph signals the arrival of Cape Verde on the
"World Music" scene. (see 1994 World Music (The Rough
Guide, pp. 274-281.) In September-October 1995 after
signing a contract with Atlantic Records, Cesaria made her first
professional concert tour of the USA and Canada.
1995 Eruption of Pico volcano on the Island of Fogo. (April
2-3).
1995 President Mascarenhas of Cape Verde opens the 1995
Festival of American Folklife at the Smithsonian Institution. The
Cape Verdean Connection program brings together over 100 musicians
and grassroots tradition bearers from Cape Verde and the Cape
Verdean-American community. The Festival draws over one million
visitors to the National Mall and provides Cape Verdeans with the
highest level of visibility they have ever had in the United States.
1995 Cholera epidemic in Cabo Verde. Over 10,000 cases
reported. Over 210 deaths attributed to the epidemic by September
1995. Cape Verdean doctors petition their Government to take
more aggressive action to fight the epidemic.
1995 (October) Cape Verdean President Antonio Mascarenhas
Monteiro makes his first official visit to New England Cape Verdean
communities. Mascarenhas was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by
the University of Rhode Island.
1995 (December 17) National elections in Cape Verde. The
ruling party MpD (Movement for Democracy) retains power in Cape
Verde.
1996 For the first time Cape Verde sends a team to compete in the
Olympic Games (Atlanta, Ga).
1996 Cape Verdean Americans successfully organized a grassroots
campaign to urge the U.S. government to extend food assistance to
Cape Verde for three years beyond the scheduled termination of the
program by USAID. As a direct result of these efforts, the
U.S. committed an additional $5 million dollars in food aid. In
the best of years Cape Verde is seldom able to feed more than 20%
of its population from its own agricultural production.
1997 (January 27) Antonio Laurenco Lopes of Juncalinho,
Sao Nicolau celebrated his 100th birthday at Our Lady of
Assumption Church in New Bedford. Tony Lopes served aboard the
whaling schooners William Graber and Claudia. During the 19th and
early 20th century many Cape Verdeans made their way to a new life
in America as crewmen on the Yankee whalers.
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