The Spirit of Cape Verde Fills Brooks Park

 HARWICH – The community came together on Saturday in Brooks Park for the seventh annual Cape Verdean Festival,  celebrating the 50th anniversary of the archipelago's independence from Portugal.  

 It was a day of music, dance and Cape Verde cuisine. The Harwich Cape Verdean Committee provided scholarships to Jaylene Pires, who will be heading to Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire in the fall with a goal of becoming a physician’s assistant, and McKenzie Anacki, who will be going to the University of New Haven to study forensic psychology.  

 The sunshine mixing with the archipelago’s proud culture fostered the Cape Verdean spirit that has long been an integral part of the community.  

 “I’d say it went quite well, the vendors were happy and the people seemed to enjoy the day,” said Harwich Cape Verdean Committee treasurer Warren Miranda.

 Select board chair Donald Howell provided opening remarks about the many contributions the Cape Verdean community has made to Harwich over the years. “The Cape Verdeans have helped to build the Harwich you see today,” he said, extending the board’s “warm wishes” on this day of independence.

This year the festival honored the late Manuel F. “Buddy” Rose for his service to the town and community. Born in Harwich more than 80 years ago, he was active in the community and a strong supporter of the Cape Cod Senior Softball League. Mr. Rose played in the league until he was 81 and was known as the “cleanup hitter.” He was named to the Senior Softball Hall of Fame.   

Mr. Rose moved to Dennis in 1972 but remained active in Harwich, assisting to build the Memorial Field upon which softball games are played, said his son, Manuel F. Rose III. 

Mr. Rose served in the U.S. Air Force and worked for many years with Bay State Piping in Barnstable. He loved gardening and was a third generation mason, according to his son. Mr. Rose was always available to help people working in the trades with issues, his son said.    

It was a day to look back on the migration of the Cape Verdean population to Southeastern Massachusetts. Melanie Botvin, associate curator of exhibits at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, said the diaspora is the largest in the United States, in fact the largest Cape Verdean population outside of the archipelago. She said 10 percent of New Bedford’s population is Cape Verdean.

They came on whaling ships which, as early as 1790, stopped at Carbo Verde for provisions and crew. The visits accelerated in the early to mid 1800s. The islands were a natural stopping off location for whaling ships, said Botvin.

Whaling captains would leave New Bedford short of crew members and take on hardworking Cape Verdean crew, she said, and many of those crew members would settle in the New Bedford area. They would find work in textiles and agriculture, such as cranberries and blueberries, and continue whaling. As whaling initiatives began to diminish, many ships were converted into passenger and cargo vessels transporting people to New Bedford up until the 1960s.

Botvin said New Bedford was often called the Cape Verdean Ellis Island.

The whaling museum, which was founded in 1903 and became known as the New Bedford Whaling Museum in 1980, focuses on the Cape Verdean culture, including research into the towns surrounding New Bedford. The whaling museum has two current exhibits about the Cape Verdean experience, “Lens of Contemporary Art” and “Community Storytelling,” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Carbo Verde’s independence from Portugal on July 5, 1975.

The festival also included the Effortless Steppas, a group of youngsters from Brockton, performing Cape Verdean dances.

Miranda said the eighth annual festival will be held next July