Hey, I like where this is going. I was getting kind of tired going at it with St Antao (although I did crack myself up a few times). Cv2k was right.

Anyway I am sure if we all are patient with our CV brother he may come around. He has limited experience in the US. And since we CV's are generally great, friendly and relatively happy people it is only befitting that we "all get along".

St Antao, that must have been very funny when you CRASHED the party. As I am very silly and love a good laugh, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. Something tells me that, unknowingly, you are probably very funny. (ya know the kind that ya laugh with and sometimes ya laugh at. ). What do you do for a living?

I'll be at the party CV2k. We will probably have a great time. I'll be in Mass in the summer.

G Silva where do you live?

Manu Salah, where have you been? Knock, Knock!

I'm sorry for you Patriots fans out there - that was an unfortunate loss. It would have been nice to have a "perfect season", but you see, you should never underestimate your opponent. No matter how strong you are or how invincible you think you are, don't ever underestimate your opponent, lest you be surprised with an embarrassing defeat. In sports as well as in life, this rule is very important to adhere to.

Now, basically for me, I would say I wasn't particularly rooting for the NYP or NEP. See, I don't have a strong affinity to American football. I'm more into Basketball and LA Lakers is my favorite NBA team. But all things considered, if push came to shove and I had to choose or wish for either the NEP or NYG to win, I probably would've rooted for the NEP - because I lived there for over a decade, and also it would've been nice to see a team where the cradle of CV-America is based win the super bowl with zero loses - a perfect season.

But anyway, here are my further thoughts on the topic at-hand, that is, CV perceptions by others, in New England and other places. And the verdict is: CV perceptions in non-New England states is a lot better, in my opinion.
I will explain to you why. For starters, very few people outside of New England know about Cabo Verde. Even the educated and well-traveled people sometimes aren't familiar with Cabo Verde. They may vaguely know about it, from a geographical stand point, but that'd be it. They don't know about the stereotypes nor do they harbor any ill feelings towards us. So in a way, dealing with such minds, I and you and other CVs, have a good opportunity to plant a positive spin on our history and culture and politics. And I do it every chance I get, which kinda makes me sort of at-large envoy for shaping perceptions about Cabo Verde and its people. For example, when I meet these "minds" and tell them I'm from the Cabo Verde islands, they typically say "oh, really, is that by the Trinidad?". "No", I tell them. "it's in Africa". "Africa?" they say incredulously. I re-assure them with a resounding, "yes, Africa". And then they proceed to ask me intelligent questions about Cabo Verde. I gladly engage and answer their inquiries by telling them about our history, about our stable democracy, about Cesaria, about Cabral, about our beautiful cuisine, our festive culture, our continually improving quality of life, and so on and so forth. And guess what, virtually ever single one of them, the educated and the not so educated ones, appreciate our interactions when the conversation is over.

This has been the case whenever I've lived or passed though outside of New England, be it New York, Houston, Chicago, Washington D.C. Milwaukee or Madison, WI, or Philadelphia.

By big contrast, though, hypothetically speaking, as well as in real cases, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and other CV enclaves in New England, the likelihood of you having an amicable and informative conversation with a non-CV is relatively slim. In fact, you're more likely to have boisterous arguments about your CV ethnicity than you are to have conversations like the ones I described above, because for a large part the cliches and stereotypes of us in New England, is almost, I dare say, irreversible. That being said, I would say that it's easier for a CV living outside of New England to clearly reflect upon his or her culture and history vis-a-vis other ethnic groups, and as result, come up with a better synthesis and overall appreciation for his culture and others.

Kakau,

I second that emotion!

cvinla,

I am now writing my thesis , I work in the oil industry. Yes, the conference in texas was funny. I guess that when I was in the Stanford alumni reserved room I looked like Borat or Mr Bean.


Maica,

Basically you are telling that the cv culture is not accepted in new-england (probably because it is to close to white culture and whites don't accept it). Because it is not accepted, you want to change the cv-culture to make it fit into the expected behaviour for blacks in america. Like amilcar cabral who asked the cv to replace the cv-culture with the guinean culture, you are proposing to replace the cv-american culture by the AA culture. This will not work.

St Antao--SLap Stick comedy is one of my favorite genres so yes it would have been very funny.

Kakau,

You are so on target. This morning when I read your post I thought of all I could say but it would take some time for me to organize my thoughts and I didn't have the time. Plus it was easier to say "2nd that".

I have been thinking alot about this forum and my recent participation. Although I was enjoying the banter it made feel kind of bad because yesterday I suddenly realized that I was bantering with a fellow CV. I know banter is ok but I kind of took it too far with the name game. Sorry guys ( but I think the alligator part was funny). For a minute I didn't see ST Antao and Sala Mateus as CV's because they are not your average. This made me realize that I only really know traditional 1st and 2nd generation New England CV”S. I hardly know that many immigrants since I left New England 12 years ago. I also was thinking that our CV culture in NE is different than that of CV's in Cape Verde and CV"S in Eurpoe. SO although we all share our main Cape Verdean culture there are sub cultures that exist. This why St Antao doesn't understand us and we really don't understand him. ANd I have never met a CV as passionate and knowledgeable like Sala Mateus. Most of the guys is his age group are hard headed, traditional and hate saying they are "African". hahaha!

You and I, having lived or grown up in NE have more in Common because our reference point is shaped by similar experiences due to shared our cultural environment (both CV and NE). Hope I am making sense.
This is why Sala Mateus made reference to how many American CV's don't always feel welcome by or compatible with the immigrant CV's. My mother felt this way also. She didn't like the idea that there was an American CV Club and an immigrant CV club. It's because culture changes and modifies due to our assimilation to new environments, exposure and influences by other cultures, and a few more that I can't think of right now because I have to run to an appointment.

This is like good CV therapy. To be continued.

I''m glad that you are learning things in this forum...me and maica we got tired of writing in forums some years ago and we learned a lot and personally, I will not r=write again 100 of lines about cv culture as I was doing 4 years ago.

The reason why you don't understand me is because, I don't really speak english. That's not my mother tongue, and girls just like my french accent

they lost the last game at the last minute...I saw this on the news, so the patriots are the team from boston?

salah,

you will see in very few years the cv-governement will ask to reintegrate portugal, and it is the people like you who will make calls for war, but this time, you can fight as much as you want in guinea this will not work.

The real capeverdean population is praying deeply for the reintegration of cv into portugal

Word up, salah. Word up!

Whew Salah! STINGER! St Antao I can say that a few days of negative banter made me somewhat ill.

Do you truly believe what you state or are you just trying to drive people CRAZY?

How can you write a good thesis if you are the recepient of such a enormous amount of bad vibes? You seem like a smart guy but you are very unusual. WHat is your thesis about?

I have a good advice for you all. Don't bother with St Antao. The guy is sick. I spent 10 minutes with him on Messenger, (or with whomever was translating for him) and evil cannot describe him. He's REALLY sick, I mean REALLY. You tell him one think and he'll understand something different. He says he was born in France but can't spell bonjour.

His French is so bad you would think he just migrated there from Paul (Santo Antao). And he talks about writing a thesis? Give me a break. Well that's what happens when the streets of Sarcelles (kinf of a getho) are your home.

He's either having lots of fun or he's a retarded and in either case a sick person. Just ignore him. Not worth your while...

well,

I had the opportunity to talk with you for 10 minutes, and what I saw was an arrogant and disrespectfull man. But one thing I don't do is personal attacks. Someone who is able to tell ''I am homeless'' and then 10 minutes later tell that he owns 2 companies, can't be trusted.

Life is unfair, you write ''so good french'' and it is me who is writing a thesis, unfortunatly for you Í can''t give you my brain.

Concerning the racial stereotypes, it is not because I think that cv shouldn't identify with afro-americans that I am against afro-americans. They are a different ethnic group and cv don't have to identify with them. CV identify with Portugal and this is a good things, because it is the answer that is closer to the truth. Cabral and his followers tried to erase the portuguese identity of the cv and replace it with the guinean-african culture and it failed and very soon cv will be reintegrated back into Portugal by the PAICV Funny isn't it...that's why I allways tell that the truth is unbrakable...cv=portugal

The problem is most of you 1st generation people are 30 years behind socially. You all are stuck in the so called black power era of the 60's and 70's. You have been brainwashed by the cv academic elites who are afraid to separate from AA's. These elitists who went to upper-crust New England colleges had to associate with AA's and became afraid to assert their independence. Even a latino knows enough to keep their own ethnicity.

CV people have been sucked into this new world crap where we can all mash into this Jamafrotian (Jamaican-African-Hatian) crap. Just grow some dreads and listen to the fugee's and smoke a blunt. We can start talking like Akon. It does not matter because we are all from the motherland.

If you say you aint black then you got a problem. If you go to a hatian club there aint no mistaking it for a cv club. You may find some black cv's but most cv's dont look like hatian or jamaican. You all that think that cv=black is stupid. These blacks will tell you that and next thing they is banging a high yellow criola.

Black people talk all this crap about black african pride but let them think they have some indian in them and they will be jumping around with feathers like fools at a pow-wow in mashpee.