Racialized Youth Identities in Boston's Cape Verdean Community
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Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Honors Theses Student Research 2013 Uphams Corner and "Other" Spaces: Racialized Youth Identities in Boston's Cape Verdean Community Jessica F. Pires Colby College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Colby College theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed or downloaded from this site for the purposes of research and scholarship. Reproduction or distribution for commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the author. Recommended Citation Pires, Jessica F., "Uphams Corner and "Other" Spaces: Racialized Youth Identities in Boston's Cape Verdean Community" (2013). Honors Theses. Paper 697. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/697 This Honors Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. UPHAMS CORNER AND “OTHER” SPACES: RACIALIZED YOUTH IDENTITIES IN BOSTON’S CAPE VERDEAN COMMUNITY Written By Jessica F. Pires Anthropology Honors Project Advisor: Britt Halvorson Reader: Mary Beth Mills May, 2013 2 DEDICATION I lovingly dedicate this thesis to my parents, Maria Lina and Bob Moorehouse. My accomplishments, including this project, would not have been possible without their daily motivation and guidance, and to them I am eternally grateful. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Britt Halvorson for her invaluable guidance throughout this project. She was always there to nurture my a-ha moments and motivate me during moments of doubt. Working together for the last several months will remain a fond memory, and I will miss her dearly. To Mary Beth Mills, I would like to thank you not only for your help this year but also for sitting with me one afternoon in April 2010 as we discussed my future as an anthropology major. I would like to express my gratitude to Chandra Bhimull who has challenged me to take intellectual risks, asked me the most difficult questions, and taught me to never apologize for the amount of time I spend with the television on; you have been one of my greatest inspirations at Colby and I am forever thankful. To Carole Levine, thank you for your friendship over the last four years and for listening to me rant about the research process every day at 12:15pm in the bookstore. To Isadora, sis, thank you for keeping me on task. Finally, I must thank my “cube-mates”, Rachel and Ellicott, who consoled me through fits of hysteria. We got through this together! 4 Contents DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 6 Ethnographic Basics............................................................................................................. 11 Reflexivity’s Place in This Ethnography ............................................................................. 12 Theoretical Frameworks: Race, Space, Identity .................................................................. 14 Racializing Spaces ........................................................................................................... 16 Racializing Identities ....................................................................................................... 20 Moving Forward .................................................................................................................. 23 CHAPTER 2: SITUATING OURSELVES: CAPE VERDE .................................................................. 25 The Importance of the Other Local Context ........................................................................ 25 Cape Verdean History .......................................................................................................... 26 Discovery, Slavery, and Colonialism............................................................................... 26 Famine and Emigration .................................................................................................... 28 Toward Independence ...................................................................................................... 29 Moving Forward .............................................................................................................. 31 Race in Cape Verde ............................................................................................................. 32 Badiu, Assimilado, and Racialized Island Spaces ........................................................... 32 Race and Class in a Mixed Society .................................................................................. 36 Situating Ourselves: Cape Verdean Diaspora(s).................................................................. 39 Transnationalism .............................................................................................................. 40 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER 3: HISTORICIZED IDENTITY MAKING, CONSTRUCTION, AND MANAGEMENT ............. 43 Situating Ourselves: Cape Verdeans in the U.S. Context .................................................... 43 Outside of Boston: A Broader Context ............................................................................ 43 History and Historicized Identities .................................................................................. 44 Identity Strategies and Self-Identification ........................................................................... 54 Cape Verdean-Portuguese ................................................................................................ 56 Cape Verdean-Black ........................................................................................................ 58 Cape Verdean-African ..................................................................................................... 62 Cape Verdean and Cape Verdean-American ................................................................... 65 Rethinking the Cape Verdean-American Identity ................................................................ 68 CHAPTER 4: RACIALIZED NEIGHBORHOOD SPACES AND MOMENTS OF IDENTIFICATION .......... 69 Investigating Racialized Neighborhood Spaces ................................................................... 70 Situating Ourselves: Boston’s Neighborhoods .................................................................... 74 Points of Intersection; Moments of Identification ............................................................... 81 5 Points of Intersection: Boundaries, Streets, and ‘Hoods.................................................. 82 Points of Intersection: Blackness and the African-American Community ...................... 88 Points of Intersection: Miscategorization and the Latino Community ............................ 92 Points of Departure: Leaving Uphams Corner................................................................. 96 CHAPTER 5: NAVIGATING AUTHENTICITY: PERFORMANCES, POSITIONALITY, AND CAPE VERDEANNESS ........................................................................................................................ 100 Locating Authenticity ........................................................................................................ 100 Placed-Based Authenticity and Migratory Generations .................................................... 102 Linguistic Use .................................................................................................................... 107 Kriolu: A Linguistic Key to Identity .............................................................................. 107 Implications of English Use ........................................................................................... 112 Cultural Consumption ........................................................................................................ 114 Cape Verdean Cultural Consumption ............................................................................ 114 “Other” Cultural Consumption ...................................................................................... 118 Conclusion: Understanding Spectrums of Cape Verdeanness ........................................... 122 CHAPTER 6: EVERYDAY NEGOTIATIONS OF MULTIPLE OR NARROWED IDENTITIES ................ 127 Negotiating Everyday Pressures ........................................................................................ 128 Bureaucracy and Race........................................................................................................ 129 Points of Departure ............................................................................................................ 132 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 135 6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION My tiny world revolved around Store 24, KFC, and the park across the street. Through the Hamlet St. parking lot we would wander into the “Spanish” grocery store. I would drag my toddler feet,