| Popis: |
The first Cape Verdeans arrived at the northwest coastal fishing town of Burela in 1977, making this one of the most established immigrant communities in Galiza. Particularly in the case of the earliest immigrants, men were usually employed in the deep-sea fishing industry, which meant extended absences from home, leaving family and community responsibility largely in the hands of women. Most come from the Cape Verdean island of Santiago and identify as ethnically badiu, an identity strongly associated with African heritage and a history of resistance to European colonial practices of slavery and cultural assimilation. Based on a participatory ethnography methodology that included fieldwork in Burela (Galiza) and Santiago (Cape Verde), I explore the central role played by women in domestic and community contexts. Through a community initiative designed to promote women’s empowerment, these women formed a music group that revived and reinterpreted a traditional genre that had been largely forgotten. This group served as a vehicle for integration and transformation of participants’ lives; however, with time, it has become the site of intra-community conflict that more recent social interventions of a more bureaucratic and assimilationist nature have not managed to resolve. |
