English 280: The Journalistic Essay

By Adilson Tavares

If we ask someone about the reasons that makes a Cape Verdean stay in the U.S. it will certainly be easier for him to answer than if the question was to an American wanting to stay in Cape Verde. USA and Cape Verde are two countries that are extremely different but there are many aspects that they have in common.  The first is that the U.S. is one of the most developed countries in the world and Cape Verde is one of the poorest countries. Because of that many Cape Verdeans come to the U.S. and don’t want to go back home. It is also true that, although not in the same proportion, the same happens to most of the Americans that go to Cape Verde. I did some research on this and then tried to figure out why it happens. What is it that the US offers to the Cape Verdeans and vice-versa? It is like seeing the cat running after the mouse and then the mouse running after the cat.

As I know many Cape Verdeans here and Americans who still live or lived in Cape Verde, I talked to some of them in order to help me with this issue that I’ve been struggling with. I first talked to Mr. Carlos Tavares who is a pastor at a Nazarene church of Brockton and has been living here for ten years. During an interview he told me that “Coming to USA, offers a wonderful time and opportunity to experience firsthand a whole new way of life in a country where the weather, religion, culture, dynamics, language and much more – are quite unlike anything we might have experienced before.”

I spoke to some of my other friends such as Marcelino da Veiga who has been living in the US for ten years, Ludmila Barbosa who has been living here for twenty years and Lourenco Borges who has been living here for seven years. They all work as cookers, janitors, or dishwashers. These kinds of jobs are easier for them to get because they don’t require much education and knowledge of the language. The opinion that they gave me about this issue were consensual. All of them said that the preference to stay in the U.S. was due to the many job opportunities that they found and that they earn much more than what they earned in Cape Verde, even though in the U.S. the job is much more demanding and it’s hard to save much money due to the elevated taxes that they have to pay.

So what makes the Americans willing to stay in Cape Verde? Cape Verde is a country that is very poor but it is famous because of its “Morabeza”, which is the nice way people there receive and treat foreigners. It’s also famous because of its traditional food, culture, music and it has the most beautiful beaches of any west coast African nation. I always remember Debbie Jefferson’s words, “The US is a kind of materialistic country, and people there value the things that they have more than the interpersonal relationships.” She is American and works as a professor at a Cape Verdean University, American Culture and Civilization is one of the subjects that she teaches there. Debbie has been living in Cape Verde for almost eighteen years and she once said that “one of the things that most impressed me since I first got here, was the way people treat you, the curiosity that they have about yourself and the love they give you even if they don’t know you well.” She also says that although she misses her family, she prefers to stay there because “here you have time to do everything you want to do, you work but you do have time to do others stuff you like too,” so life is easier and lighter than in America, “Cape Verde is a peaceful country and it lives a pure democracy which gives it a safe environment.”

However these are not the only factors that captivate Americans to stay in Cape Verde. For instance some women go there and get married to Cape Verdean men and form a family, but this happens mostly to men because in Cape Verde men are the predominant force, they are much more beneficiated than women. So as the Americans are used to being sweeter to women, the Cape Verdeans women easily fall in love with them. Brian O’Connor and Nick Adams are two examples of the many ones that went to Cape Verde as a Peace Corps Volunteer but decided to settle down and live there. Nick said to me “I’m coming to US to visit my family in Washington D.C. but then I will go back to Cape Verde. It’s a wonderful country, I have applied for a job and I’m waiting to be called and then definitely move.” Brian stayed there and said that “I love the food here, the safe life, the girls (laughing), the people, so everything.” He bought a house and he works as a teacher at a High School in Santiago Island.

Once Nick told me that in fact sometimes your happiness is far away from where you are and in a completely different environment, and rarely you have the chance to find it out, “It doesn’t matter the quality of life, the race or the continent, and you must believe that it might be waiting for you wherever you go.”

The “true” happiness for many Cape Verdeans is in America or in a more developed country. During an interview Lourenco told me, “I had a happy life back home, though something was missing! I came here seeking what any Cape Verdean dreams of, financial stability!” and Carlos added “Logically and financially moving to U.S. was the right thing for me to do…”