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“Style”: Business Leaders Get A Lesson In Back To School Fashion

Local Business owner, Emilia Depina of Boston, Massachusetts, is out to send a positive message for the community. With a network of other business owners and supporters, she held a Fashion Show at Santana’s Restaurant in Brockton.
“Today we did a networking and fun event with food, dancing, many different business owners came by,” said Emilia Depina.
The Back to School Family Fun Fashion Show featured several designers including clothing from her shop, “I Own It Boutique”, located in Dorchester. Emilia said it’s a celebration of going back to school and having the right attitude, personality, and creativity.
“That’s what ‘I Own It’ is all about. Attitude. Winning,” she said.
Massachusetts state representative Evandro Carvalho, who’s running for re-election, opened up the event.
“I’ve been to her shop a couple times. It takes a lot of courage to open up a business, to have a successful business over time. So for her to keep going forward is important for the district and it’s important for our community. So that’s why I’m here,” said Carvalho.
“And these are the type of events we are going to do more often to show, not just Cape Verdean culture, but the culture period of what we all about. We do win every day, but we don’t show the positive. We see a lot of negative. So we are going to this (positive outreach) every time,” said Emilia.
Whether its school, business, or politics, everyone has a part in community empowerment. The motivation and support comes from within.
“Folks got to make sure they go out and vote. Whether they vote for me if they are in my district, 5th, Suffolk. Or if they are in Brockton, or anywhere in Massachusetts,” said Evandro Carvalho.
“Pulling one another up, supporting one another to become better. It doesn’t matter where you come from whether your Cape Verdean or Hispanic or black. It doesn’t matter who we are, but we pull each other up so we can be successful together,” said Emilia Depina.

Other American Dreams Report: Clinton wins we lose a little more.

The earliest election I remember is Dukakis/Bush of 1988. I had no idea who was who, or why Willie Horton was important, but there were pictures of random Cape Verdeans in my house (I’m guessing this is common in Creolo households) and Michael Dukakis was in one of them so I felt sad when he lost. After that I didn’t pay much attention to political theater but that all changed during the US Presidential election of 2000.
Democratic nominee Al Gore had won the popular vote, but eventually lost the general election to republican nominee – George W. Bush, in a contested vote recount in Florida. Political panic ensued that bordered on the hysterical.
‘’Gore has won Florida!”
‘’No! Bush has won Florida!’’
The American populace turned into the embodiment of Oprah Winfrey handing out gifts to her audience.
“You get a recount! And you get a recount! We all get a recount!’’
For 36 days the American public and indeed the world at large awaited the results, which carried with them far greater implications than simply who won the election. Chief among them was; how impartial could the Florida recount be if members of one candidate’s family currently held key positions in the Florida state government. Specifically Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush. The former being Bush’s cousin and then Secretary of State for Florida and the latter; Bush’s brother and, rather audaciously, future presidential candidate.
It was an unprecedented moment in American politics and a trial by fire for the notion of the Supreme Court as an independent arbiter of the law. At the time, the perception of whether the Supreme Court passed or failed was split down almost evenly along party lines. In hindsight however, and in the shadow of failed foreign policy initiatives, it’s clear they judged poorly.
Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.
-Justice John Paul Stevens [Dissent] Bush v. Gore (2000)
We now know that Bush won Florida by a mere 537 votes. We also know that 12,000, mostly black, voters were wrongfully identified as felons and purged from the voter files. For many the moment the worm turned was the Supreme Court ordering that the recount of Florida votes be halted due to counting methodology issues. Thus awarding Florida’s electoral votes to George W. Bush and with it the Presidency.
Could something similar happen again? Could the average American voter once again find themselves in a position of forced voyeurism to an unprecedented set of legal circumstances played out in public view? The answer is maybe.
16 years after Gore/Bush 2000, the political stage looks set again for another noisy show in power consolidation. With the one major difference being that this time around, the respective nominees are simply failing to incite the same galvanizing force of positive political will present in 2000.
And no, building a wall to keep Mexicans out doesn’t count and neither does a ban on Muslims entering the US. Similarly, neither does a refusal to acknowledge a growing list of instances where the rules were bent in your favor. Bent so sharply that it ultimately cost DNC Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, her job.

What is left, with a little over a month to go until the election, is a vacuum of political apathy where the prevailing thought has become;
‘’Trump wins, we lose’’
“Clinton wins, we lose a little more”
According to a recent Washington Post – ABC news poll, only 35 percent of registered voters have a favorable impression of Hillary Clinton and 56 percent unfavorable. With Trump, it’s 35 percent favorable and 63 percent unfavorable.

Donald Trump with Hillary and Bill Clinton

The numbers suggest that we lose about equally with either candidate but there is a solid rational to Trump being slightly more favorable. In case you’re wondering, the answer is no, I never thought I would be writing those words, but let me explain.
Trump is the outsider to American politics, which is both his appeal and major weakness. He says crass things because he understands the power of television and how to leverage that exposure. He expounds bold ideas but very little in the way of state-craft behind them. This suggests that his learning curve to the system of checks and balances between the branches of government will be steep and in itself, a strong counter-measure to the damage he could potentially do.
Clinton on the other hand has spent decades getting close to the gears of American political and financial power and has switched positions on key issues a few too many times for comfort.
“I believe that marriage is not just a bond but a sacred bond between a man and a woman,” Clinton remarked in a speech on the senate floor in 2004.
Yet as a presidential candidate in 2008, Clinton stated she favored civil unions. I know what you’re thinking, and yes, Trump has done this too. He has backtracked on statements he made in what has become a predictable sequence. He starts off in new political territory, then he makes a shift to the right, finally settling somewhere in the center.
“He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, okay? I hate to tell you,” Trump said shortly after starting his campaign in 2015.
Amid back lash and calls for him to end his campaign, he took to social media and started the shift into familiar tones of rhetoric.
“I am not a fan of John McCain because he has done so little for our Veterans and he should know better than anybody what the Veterans need, especially in regards to the VA,”
Ending finally in a base platitude.
“I have great respect for all those who serve in our military including those that weren’t captured and are also heroes,”
Which begs the question of what motivates Clinton and Trump to shift positions so easily, and what does that say about either’s governance if they won? Clinton has shown that she changes position as an act of political expediency. When asked why she changed her position on gay marriage so drastically from 2004 to 2008 she remarked that it is was to reflect the changing attitudes of the American people. With Trump the motivation is a little more abstract but three options emerge as possible rationals;
One is that Trump goes back and forth on issues in an attempt to circumvent any meaningful condemnation of his comments from the main stream media. If his support among fringe elements of the far right is any indication, then Trump shifting positions could be a wink and nod to the segment of Americans who hold negative beliefs on minorities, blacks and Jews.
Case in point is Trump’s refusal to denounce the endorsement of David Duke back in February of 2016. A stance he corrected five months later when the former Ku Klux Klan member announced his run for US Senate. Trump stating to CNN that he now rebukes David Duke’s endorsement; “As quick as you can say it.” He went on to say,
“Because last time with another person in this position, I did it very quickly. And they said, ‘He didn’t do it fast enough,’’, “Rebuked. Is that OK? Rebuked, done.”
In February Trump claimed he did not know enough about David Duke to disavow an endorsement from him. A claim many took as disingenuous considering that in 1991 Trump commented that then President George H.W. Bush was right “to come out against” Duke’s 1991 bid for Louisiana Governor. It is anyone’s guess what it means to disavow a racist anti-Semite five months after the fact, but if you happen to be a closet racist or anti-Semite, the message would be clear.
‘’I have to say these nice things to get elected but you know how I really feel.’’
The other option is that Trump has been controlled opposition to ensure a Clinton victory by any means necessary. That he has been playing the role of a bigoted demagogue to ensure public discourse never rises above the last outrageous thing he said and certainly never focuses on the many scandals Clinton has been a part of. It is interesting that almost every argument for a Clinton presidency this election cycle is framed around the notion that Trump would be the far worse choice.
The third option is that Trump is planning to launch a media empire and his 2016 presidential bid has been a marketing campaign to gather support and viewers. If so, it has worked. Whichever of those options actually turn out to be true, it is clear that we would be witnessing something not seen before. Leading to the forced voyeurism by the American public I mentioned earlier.
The United Kingdom voting to leave the E.U. has shown that option one is highly possible and that Trump could win the general election with xenophobic rhetoric. Witnessing this would be a first for anyone born after 1970.
Option two would arguably be the most brilliant act of political theater in the history of US Presidential elections and would rightly deserve a measure of admiration.
Option three would mean that to avoid a defeat at the polls, at some point Trump would have to find a pretext and drop of out the race. Sending the act of deciding the presidency, once again into uncharted territory, reminiscent of the 2000 election. With a potentially nullified Supreme Court locked at eight members, the question becomes; who would choose the presidency if the courts couldn’t? I gave a radio interview two weeks ago and the subject turned to the current US election. The DJ was an Englishman and his remark was poignant, ”280 million people in the US and these two are the two you came up with? Good luck.”
sources:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/24/politics/donald-trump-david-duke-louisiana-senate/
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/donald-trump-tv-network

Jag Vs. Djagasida

So this is another dish which I have heard about but am not quite ready to critique yet. But already I have heard a huge buzz about it. Basically it is one of those dishes that Cape Verdeans whose families have been in America for a very long time have held on to as something to show their identity. But just like any cultural dish from any culture, it has changed over the years.
I went to middle school with Cape Verdeans who were mostly second generation. They spoke Creole at home and that was probably their first language before they started school. So I figured that most Cape Verdeans were newcomers and that for whatever reason they all congregated in Boston, and then later when I went to Stonehill, I noticed Brockton had a huge Cape Verdean Community too. But if I had come across Jag, which is Rice and beans, at some parent cultural event, I’m not sure as a child that I would be able to eat it and say, “Oh this is definitely Cape Verdean Jag and not Arroz Con Frijoles from Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic.” At that point in my life with would have all been stuff to put on my plate and stuff my face with. (I was pretty chubby in middle school.) But basically, Jag is rice and beans. But every household may make it differently, and most of all there seems to be a huge difference between American Jag and Djagasida from a Cape Verdean household where the language spoken at home is still Kriolu.
When I first met Cape Verdeans from New Bedford in College I ignorantly said out loud, “How did you get there?”
The response was, “I’ve never met any Cape Verdeans outside of New Bedford.” Come to realize, Cape Verdeans were brought in as expert whalers. So basically, in Moby Dick, Ishmael and Queequeg should have been hanging out with Danilson and Alcindo… maybe eating Djagasida before they got onto the boat to go hunt the White Whale.

Jag

If that group of Cape Verdeans stayed in America among themselves absorbing American culture, it is inevitable that the dish and the name of the dish would change. So now when an “Original” Cape Verdean American meets up with a second generation Cape Verdean he will want to talk about the culture and reaching far back to his or her grandmother’s cooking, a grandmother that may have already been 3rd generation herself he will say, “Oh do you guys cook Jag at home too?”
A second generation Cape Verdean said that he has had this conversation a few times and at first was confused when hearing Jag. Jag? Like the show? Like Judge Advocate General? Like lawyer for the Navy? Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson and a few Good men and…

“I WANT THE TRUTH!”
“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!”
But he let the older generation Cape Verdean American continue and talk about the ingredients and realized he was probably talking about Djagasida, but that is a long word for someone whose family may not have spoken Kriolu for three generations. So maybe it got shortened to Jag.

Djagasida

“When people tell me about that dish I don’t even feel like correcting them, so I just nod and I say, Oh yeah Jag, I think I know what your talking about.” said Carlo, who was telling me the story. But you can imagine that some people, stepping off the plane from Cape Verde, might not be as understanding and maybe even laugh at saying Jag and also the difference in the recipe. Apparently there is a way to make it without rice. That Djagasida is actually grinded corn and typically there are beans in it. But Jag, that is to say American Jag, is always rice and beans. Now if this a difference in the islands or a difference due to being in America… that is something I have to look into. But a lot of new generation Cape Verdeans will say that perhaps the older generations wished for a taste of the old country but didn’t have the ingredients and so they created this new dish. That the old generation was thinking of Djagasida, but they just say Jag because it’s easier.
This definitely happened with Chinese food. Crab Rangoon, or baby corn or a lot of variations of traditional foods were first changed because of a lack of ingredients… but also changed for the restaurant business, to feed to non-Chinese American tastes. But that’s a little different because JAG seem to be something that was cherished in the Cape Verdean American home. Not something that was made up and looked down on, like chicken fingers or beef teriyaki that was just for Gwai lo’s and Jook Sings. (Gwai Lo means ghost man, for whites. And Jook Sing is Bamboo, hollow and empty but enable t pass for either group. The Chinese equivalent for the phrase “Fake Verdean”)
Sometimes “ethnic” foods like this find their way into the traditions of the American Mainstream. For instance, American Apple Pie, is usually thought of the most American (and the whitest American thing) that exists. But American Apple pie used to be called Jewish Apple Pie not that long ago.
Hot dogs were German Frankfurters. And I remember the Polish members of my family cooking and talking about “Kabasi.” I remember reading the package out loud which said, Kilbasa, and suddenly there was a bit of confusion in the kitchen amongst my grandmother and her sisters. Why did they call it Kabasi instead of Kilbasa? And back to American Chinese food, that greasy fried food has become a staple for American New Year’s. Cape Verdean Americans are a smaller group. The numbers make it harder for the food to have become mainstream American and switched to American tastes. Instead it is actually developed for the taste of the Cape Verdean community in America, specifically New Bedford and other Whaling towns.
Danielle Texeira Medina, who grew up in Falmouth, recounted some of her memories of Jag. “My family made it all different ways. My Favorite was summer jag, which had summer squash in it. It’s basically rice and beans. Most often we would have it with kidney beans but I can remember having it with peas too.” In other words, this is a cherished dish, a way to return home. And the changes were not made to cut corners to make a quick buck, but to nourish the grandchildren with fresh ingredients in the new world. As one new generation Cape Verdean put it, “We have to start respecting the New Bedford Jag. Because it’s been around now for more than 100 years.”

The Essence of Time

“Once upon a time,” memories fill my mind with past events woven with their own distinct emotions. Seconds wrapped in waves of the Atlantic crash upon my chest and my eyes well as I remember home, arid air sifting through my hair, warm rays penetrating through my already bronzed dermis as glands release glistening emeralds, pastry scents tickle my nose while the breath of my father fills my lungs and the endless chatter from my mother couple with echoes of laughter from my siblings to lasso my heart to decades ago. Segments of my childhood appear as slides on a movie screen upon my mind’s lens, as the present day moves on.

Time can be quantified; it takes the Earth 23hours and 56minutes to spin on its axis and 365.25 days to complete one revolution. As the days and years extend, reflection is our only gauge to measure the quality of time we have actively embraced. Each second carries a thought, an emotion, an experience, and a lesson… all of which will never be replicated nor repeated again, just like us the planet is evolving; the universe will give birth to new suns and Earth and its inhabitants will move in orbit with change. Photos hang and digital screens slide and we are locked in time as memories narrate the space we once occupied.

As a child I believed time was on my side and every birthday was not only a blessing but, for me, it was a point when I believed the hands of time would release me from the strict and stern hands my parents held me with. I’ve come to miss those parental hands that held warmth in their clasp; with hopeful presses that time would discipline me, gently. I’ve learned that as I move through this space, each breath measured is indicative of the happiness in my heart and the essence of time is patience. Time transitions us through stages, sometimes we rise and other times we fall, but we must not deter from the present, that is where the gift for the living lies. Therefore, we must stand in appreciation and move with the hands of time. Nothing is promised but that “once upon a time” there was a “Big Bang” in a vacuum where chance and chaos brought harmony. Thus, in the Now, do not rush nor repent, there is purpose in your living and only with patience and appreciation will you learn to find it. This is fulfillment, the only way you can live for eternity.

Dear Time,

I held you in my hands as I pedaled you upon the rocky terrain of my home across the blue Atlantic
I kissed you in the wind as I raced you upon the black asphalt on this foreign land
I dreamt of you among the distant stars in the orbits of unknown galaxies

Time, will you ever escape me?
For you are the rhythms that pulsates my heart to live and my flesh is your captive.

Time, this is my plea…
Give me the space to reminisce the years you’ve inscribed upon my memories
Allow sorrow to fill my soul when I cannot hold you
And please time, please, let happiness wrap arms of love around every void I’ve allowed you to leave

Time, will you ever let me expire?
Cause I want to live beyond the hands you carry me with
I want the days to rise in essence of my energy
And rest in the embers of my soul
So I may feel the rhythms and pulses of this universe in me

Time, set me free!

Portuguese is to Cape Verdean as Mandarin is to Taishanese.

I realize I did not properly introduce myself in written form and maybe we even got off on the wrong foot. In fact, readers may wonder why someone Chinese and white has the audacity to comment on Cape Verdean culture. I have been doing something similar with Boston’s Chinatown, the community which I am a part of. So it isn’t a huge jump to write about Cape Verdeans, a people who I had gone to school with for years… and yet seemed to know nothing about.
And when writing about these two cultures I can’t help but start to compare the communities.
And the truth there are some ideas that buzz around in both communities that if shared could really bring both groups forward… perhaps even save one from cultural extinction.

Boston’s Chinatown

One thing that I noticed that Chinese Communities have that Cape Verdean Communities (so far that I’ve seen) seem not to have is your Chinese School. Chinatown has Kwong Kow. Newton has GBCCA. There is a Chinese school in Malden. It’s a place not only to learn Chinese but a place to learn Chinese Cultural things. Folk dance, Chinese Yo Yo, Chinese dulcimer, painting, Lion Dance, Kung Fu… you get my drift.
I assume that Cape Verdean Community centers offer similar programming. But What I noticed talking to people is that it seems to be offered primarily to adults. It’s not a summer camp or after school program to push your kids into so that they can learn how to speak their language.

When Kwong Kow was more Taishanese, it was a place where, after all those hours, it was expected that you be able to write your name in Chinese, say a few words in “herng ha wah” the hometown language, in this case Taishanese, and hang out with some other Taishanese and Chinese people. But slowly other types of Chinese came in, Communist China became a powerful country, Kwong Kow slowly started to use Simplified Chinese as well as the Traditional Chinese characters and to start teaching Mandarin. In fact much of their summer camp and after school is now conducted in English and there are just Chinese classes. This is viewed as moving forward and at first glance, the Chinese community got it and the Cape Verdean community could learn from that.

But letting these ideas sit around a little bit, I realized that Taishanese culture is slowly strangling itself to death, while Cape Verdean Creole Culture, though around for 500 years, is just getting starting to come into its own power, Cabo Verde network, perhaps being on of the first steps of organization toward greatness. For instance, Professor Manuel De Luz Goncalves has recently written a Cape Verdean-English dictionary. So this is what I hear when asked about why there aren’t Cape Verdean schools. That it is a new idea. While Chinese is one of the oldest languages there is.

Manuel Da Luz Gonçalves has compiled the first-ever Cape Verdean Creole to English dictionary, with 40,000 words. (Banner photo)

However, I have never seen a Taishanese- English dictionary. The explanation for this is that the writing is the same. But there are Cantonese and Hong Kong ways to write down certain words which do not translate directly into Mandarin. There are many Taishanese (and Cantonese) phrases which you can’t write down in Chinese…. But Jook Sings (Chinese Americans) will easily use these words to Google stuff using a non standardized English spelling, and Google will understand it and get you write where you need to go. In other words, though the Chinese community seems to be ahead, the Taishanese Community, in terms of cultural awareness. Seems to be behind Cape Verdean culture.
Many Cape Verdeans used to call themselves Black Portuguese. And here is where you really see that Cape Verdean culture is moving toward something greater, where Taishanese culture is slowly and willingly allowing Mandarin culture to finally, after thousands of years of civilization, to kill it off. There are no Cape Verdean children’s schools because children in Cape Verde learn Portuguese in schools. So the equivalent organization in America would be a Portuguese school. And why have that? Why not just learn English? But once you suddenly start to feel that you are NOT black Portuguese, but you are awakened to a Cape Verdean pride, then you start to look at yourself and your community differently.
Portuguese is the language of the empire and Cape Verde is the colony, with its own culture and language which has been mixing for 500 years, and may have basis in a native culture which depending on which article online you read, was there, or was not there. Cape Verdean Independence happened in July 5, 1975, so that even though the culture has been around, that pride in it, to organize to preserve and promote it is just getting started. But it is there.
Taishanese in the meantime are slowly being further absorbed into Mandarin Culture, the Communist Chinese Empire. Many Taishanese Americans are starting to have that pride in a culture they lost. But nobody is doing anything about it yet. More self identified groups like Hakka, Hokien, and those types are similarly doing what I see being done in Cape Verdean Culture. I thought after studying Cape Verdean culture for a few years, I may be able to bring something back to the Chinatown Community. What I have found is that after one festival in Onset, I already have many things that I can bring back.

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