Cape Verdean Immigrants in America: The Socialization of Young Men in an Urban Environment

207 Pages·2011·0.665 MB·English

by  Ambrizeth Lima

The New Americans
Recent Immigration and American Society

Edited by
Steven J. Gold and Rubén G. Rumbaut

A Series from LFB Scholarly

Cape Verdean Immigrants in
America
The Socialization of Young Men in an
Urban Environment

Ambrizeth Lima

LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC
El Paso 2012
Copyright © 2012 by LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lima, Ambrizeth Helena, 1965-
Cape Verdean immigrants in America : the socialization of young
men in an urban environment / Ambrizeth Helena Lima.
p. cm. -- (The new Americans: recent immigration and American
society)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59332-404-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Cape Verdean Americans. 2. Immigrants--United States--Social
conditions. 3. Immigrant youth--United States. 4. Social integration--
United States. 5. Racism--United States. I. Title.
E184.C24L53 2012
305.896'658073--dc23
2011036554

ISBN 978-1-59332-404-9

Printed on acid-free 250-year-life paper.

Manufactured in the United States of America.
Dedication
To my mother Ema Helena Ramos and my father Oceano Lima
who sacrificed their dreams so that I could have a “better life.”

Table of Contents
Preface .......................................................................................ix
Acknowledgements..................................................................xiii
Introduction.................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Ethno-Historical Frameworks and Theoretical
Lenses..............................................................................7
Chapter 2: Broken Families, Broken Hearts: Family
Separation and Reunification........................................37
Chapter 3: Who Showed You Such a Far Away Road?
Linguistic and Cultural Dynamics within the Home,
School, and Neighborhood Contexts.............................47
Chapter 4: Race, Gender, and Ethnicity.....................................77
Chapter 5: Where Past and Present Intersect: Planning the
Future..........................................................................121
Chapter 6: Conclusion..............................................................153
Bibliography............................................................................171
Index ....................................................................................187
vii

Preface
Here I am, in the middle of the ocean
on my way to America
Going to a distant land is a man’s destiny
it is a nameless destiny
that we must fulfill
- Popular Cape Verdean Song
The first time that I truly felt the impact of one particularly
pressing challenge facing my community was the day that I was
reviewing some files for the Cape Verdean Consulate in Boston.
My task was to retrieve information on Cape Verdeans who were
about to be deported to Cape Verde. As I opened one of the files,
I came face to face with a picture of one of my former students.
This was not just any student; he was a very respectful young
man who did very well at the local high school where I worked,
and who had gone on to college to pursue a degree in computer
science. In the course of his studies at the university there was an
incident that landed him in court. He was later found guilty of a
crime and was deported to Cape Verde. I remember that after
reviewing his information, I closed the file and left. Deportation
then became personal to me because it had hit home. Little did I
know that I would be looking at many more pictures of young
men who, at some point or another, had sat in my classroom and
that this new phenomenon would become the heartache of the
Cape Verdean community.
It all began in the early 1990s, when there was a sudden and
deadly rise in gang activity. The streets of many New England
ix