Cape Verde Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves praised the work ethic of Cape Verdean immigrants during a visit to one of the region’s oldest Cape Verdean clubs on Sunday.
“The first immigrants that came, they did all that they did in extremely harsh conditions,” Neves said through an interpreter at the Ideal Club on West Union Street, one of the oldest Cape Verdean clubs in the area. “They made it. We owe it to them.”
Neves on Sunday became the first prime minister ever to visit the club, founded in 1958 by Cape Verdean immigrants in Dorchester. The club moved to East Bridgewater after members purchased the West Union Street building in 1979.
“This is a monumental day today,” Armando Madeira, president of the Ideal Club, said after Neves and a 14-member delegation arrived with a state police escort and flanked by secret service agents. His delegation included Fatima Veiga, ambassador of Cape Verde to the U.S., and Pedro Graciano de Carvalho, consul-general of Cape Verde in Boston.
Neves addressed a crowd of more than 100 members of the Cape Verdean community during a luncheon at the club in his honor.
After Cape Verdean musicians and singers serenaded him, Neves spoke about the Cape Verdean diaspora, and he noted Cape Verdeans who have gained prominence in the region, including Bridgewater State College President Dana Mohler-Faria, and state Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth.
“Everywhere I go, I feel the strength of Cape Verdean culture,” Neves said through an interpreter in addressing the crowd. “These are the cultural elements that unite us, that help us go on.”
For Neves, this was a return visit to the region. He has visited Brockton, where thousands of Cape Verdeans have settled, several times.
His visit to East Bridgewater came the day after the prime minister attended a conference in Boston to address violence among Cape Verdean youth, which has plagued communities including Brockton and Boston for years.
The conference, “Youth in Dangerous Times: the Cape Verdean Challenge,” was held at the University of Massachusetts-Boston on Saturday and focused on encouraging Cape Verdean youth to avoid violence.
Brockton Mayor Linda Balzotti, who also attended the conference, said she planned to discuss violence among Cape Verdean youth in a meeting with Neves this afternoon in Brockton.
There is “the issue of the young people and how do we address this and how can we do it working together?” Balzotti said Sunday.
Balzotti said she would also speak with Neves about Cape Verdean small businesses in the city and the importance of voting among the Cape Verdean community.
Neves did not discuss violence among Cape Verdean youth in addressing the crowd in East Bridgewater on Sunday.
But afterwards, through an interpreter, Neves told The Enterprise that the issue of violence among Cape Verdean youth has to do with the integration of the community.
He said “the most important work that has to be done now” is for Cape Verdeans to work with community and social associations to address youth violence.
That includes working with families, churches and other organizations to empower people to work with the Cape Verdean youth to help integrate them into the community.
“It’s problems they have in integrating themselves within a different culture, a different environment, with all of the difficulties here in the country,” Neves said through an interpreter.
A lot of Cape Verdean parents are busy working – and often can’t look after their children, Brockton businessman Nathaniel Andrade said during Sunday’s luncheon.
“A lot of them don’t have the time to spend with the kids,” said Andrade, of Halifax. “I think that’s why a lot of times, the youths go astray.”
By Maria Papadopoulos
Enterprise Staff Writer
Maria Papadopoulos can be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.
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