Let’s take a walk down the block.
Today we’re on the southern end of Main Street in Brockton, in the Campello neighborhood.
It’s a nice summer day, so people are out and about. Some drop into the many shops, salons and eateries lining the busy, narrow, two-way street. Others hang out on the sidewalk.
Almost everyone we encounter on this end of the block is Cape Verdean, and you hear Kriolu spoken more than English.
“If you sit down and think about it, Cape Verde has become Brockton,” said Moises Rodrigues, a familiar face in the area.
He came to Brockton as a teenager decades ago, and is now the head of the Cape Verdean Association of Brockton, a nonprofit offering various social services.
Rodrigues is also an at-large city councilor. He served as mayor for seven months in 2019 following the death of former mayor Bill Carpenter, and he’s now running to become Brockton’s mayor this November — just months after Cape Verde marks its 50th Independence Day.
Rodrigues says running the city would be a reflection of his community.
"I don’t see it as politics. I see it as just saying hello to either friends or families."Moises Rodrigues, Brockton City Councilor
“They’re my people, and I don’t see it as politics. I see it as just saying hello to either friends or families,” Rodrigues said. “I might be the one getting elected into the office, but it’s we who are getting elected into the office — we as people from this community.”
A growing community
Brockton became the first majority-Black city in New England in 2020, according to U.S. Census data. That shift is due in part to the nearly 20,000 Cape Verdeans who live here. They are often categorized as Black, although not all of them identify that way, and many have mixed ancestry.
Census data also show that about 70,000 Cape Verdeans live in Massachusetts — the largest population outside of Cape Verde itself — and Brockton claims more residents from the archipelagic nation than any other city in the country.
Brockton is also home to a large Haitian population and other members of the African diaspora. Still, there’s a reason people affectionately call Brockton the “11th island” of Cape Verde — a 10-island archipelago off the Western coast of Africa.
“You feel like you are in Cape Verde,” Rodrigues said. “From restaurants, to churches, to, you know, barbershops, factories, convenience stores, grocery stores, you name it, you know, you’ve got it in here.”
The only things missing are the palm trees, pristine beaches and mountains that decorate Cape Verde. Instead, Main Street is bustling with traffic and storefronts, including Vicente’s Supermarket, Alves Grocery and Sodades restaurant — where, according to local lore, boxing legend Rocky Marciano trained.
The word “sodade” carries a lot of significance here. Aminah Fernandes Pilgrim, a local historian who leads the Brockton Black History Tour, says it’s a Kriolu word that “refers to the longing, the homesickness for Cabo Verde.”
“So for the businesses to have that name, it is a nod to that feeling that all the immigrants in the generations of Cape Verdeans have, being away from Cape Verde,” she said.
Rodrigues adds that feeling has dissipated as more Cape Verdeans have joined their relatives in the U.S.
A rich migration history
Fernandes Pilgrims says early migrations began in the 1700s. Back then, many Cape Verdeans left the small country for maritime jobs like fishing and whaling.
“Many of the earliest Cape Verdean immigrants started out in Cape Cod, places like Nantucket and New Bedford because those were centers for whaling,” she said. “After that died down in the early 20th century, they entered into...agricultural industries like cranberry picking, strawberry picking, blueberry picking, and they ended up in places like Scituate [and] Plymouth, where those things were concentrated.”
She also says climate-related issues like drought and famine forced people to leave Cape Verde. As they arrived in the U.S. and dispersed, they found work in Brockton’s factories.
Today, there are more than 60 Cape Verdean-owned businesses in Brockton — many on or around Main Street, and many women-owned.
“If we think about the story of immigration, the first waves were male...so who was left behind to keep things going? It was women,” Fernandes Pilgrim said. “So we have an entrepreneurial spirit.”
The industries are diverse in type, too. In recent years, Main Street has welcomed film production company Anawan Studios, and Dr. Ellie Paris’ social bookstore that doubles as an ice cream shop — both owned by Cape Verdeans.
Fernandes Pilgrim says these developments have made Brockton not just a cultural hub, but also an economic engine for Cape Verde.
“Cabo Verde is very dependent on remittances, and Brockton is a hub of that,” she said. “We just passed Atlantic fishing, and those barrels have a long history of going backing forth, everything from life-saving food to the latest fashions…but also we can look right across the street at M&M, where they can send cash.”
Cape Verde became an independent nation on July 5, 1975, breaking free from Portugese colonial rule. It is largely touted as a democratic success, but there are still challenges at home and abroad.
In the cluster of islands, climate change and economic slowdown are among the top issues. Here, many Cape Verdeans are navigating a language barrier. With federal immigration policy shifting, others are burdened by the risk of a loved one being deported because they committed a crime or overstayed their visa.
Across the street from Sodade restaurant is a barbershop of the same name. Its owner, Lucio Fernandes, has lived in Brockton since 2001, and says it feels familiar.
“Everywhere you go, they speak creole, [have] special cuisine, the dishes everywhere, you got all the super markets that sell literally everything from Cape Verde,” he said.
Still, one feeling lingers.
“That’s my home. You’re always going to miss it.”
For people celebrating back in Cape Verde, Fernandes has a message: “A small country, to be independent for 50 years, we came a long way. So let’s enjoy it.”
