The Cape Verdean Oral History Project, under the auspices of the Rhode Island Department of State Library Services, began in 1972. It was the second program of its kind undertaken by the RIDSLS, and was conducted by the noted Cape Verdean historian, linguist and writer, Alberto Torres Pereira.
The collection contains interviews of individuals and recordings of events. The interviewer on most of the tapes is Alberto Torres Pereira, the project organizer. The interviewees include workers, teachers, artists, and officials in Rhode Island. There are also men and women, both young and old, who were born in Cape Verde or in the U. S. The topics covered on the tapes include observations and insights into the dialects spoken on each of the Cape Verde islands as well as the dress and customs peculiar to each island. The tapes contain expressions of feeling about immigration and how the interviewees feel now after some time in the United States. Notable on many of the tapes is the desire expressed to return to Cape Verde "once more before I die." Of note are interviews with two Cape Verdeans who, in their youth, worked on the whaling ships that sailed from New England ports.
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Cape Verdean Oral History Project: Interview with John Delgado and Phillip John Martin by Alberto Torres Pereira
John Delgado and Phillip John Martin
Recorded in the yard of Mr. Delgardo's home.