Good to know!

Thank you for sharing your wonderful story Danielle! I’m so glad you had a great experience in Cape Verde and that you felt inspired by your ancestral home. I had a big smile on my face reading about your experiences. Cape Verde is already so amazing, I can’t imagine what it’s like when you have a deeper personal connection as well!

The driver asks us if we’d like to take a drive up the mountain and sample some GROGO! Yes!, Grog, like the pirates drank back in the 1500-the 1600s. He took us to a 400-year-old grog distillery, where they still make the spirits. They even had an old grinder there that was used about 300 or 400 years ago to made grog. As we drove through the hills and valleys of the mountain, we could see the small little towns where people’s families lived for centuries! We saw the town of Paul that had a beautiful statue of The Christ high on a hill. There were many travelers there, surprisingly from THE NETHERLANDS and the U.K. HIKING! We couldn’t believe all of the Europeans that knew about Santo Antao and were staying at some of the rustic bed & breakfasts DEEP within the mountain! The views of the sea that wrapped around the island were the most beautiful I’d ever seen. It was like looking at postcards. We passed by some of the town’s cemeteries (in Paul) and saw some of the names on the headstones of the families we grew up with! We know these families that came to the U.S. cir. 1888- some of whom were even related to us! I sent the photos I took of the cemetery stones to some of the families back home to show that I visited their/our ancestral holy land, in real-time via text!

We also saw the popular beverage company of CV called Tropical farm or plantation and found out that we descend from the family who owns/owned and operates the facility within the rainforest there! Oh! There are 300-year-old historic family homes deep within the mountaintop of Santo Antao – if you saw them. The homes/farms with the palm leaf rooftops! The CV government pays the families to preserve the original state of the properties.

It was just a day trip to Santo Antao but we were so upset we didn’t stay overnight. Leaving Santo Antao made me cry. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around how could my family leave CV but then heard the voices of my grandmother, great-aunts, and great-uncles telling me their stories of coming to America. Drought, famine, the revolution for independence, and the way they were treated by the Portuguese government drove our families to seek a better life and for survival. I mean, CV is just so remote and Santo Antao is even more remote to leave. It couldn’t have been easy to travel in the late 1800s. I keep asking myself, how did all of our families leave CV to settle in the U.S. Portugal, and beyond?! We are such loving, resilient, and resourceful people.

I work in the American music industry here in Los Angeles but always kept up with the CV music scene, paying homage to my grandmother, who shared her love for our music with me throughout my life. Many of the well-known CV musicians and entertainers my organization brought to Los Angeles for CV events are my very close friends/family. They have been telling me for over 20 years, Danielle, you must go to CV and see your family. They are still there… It didn’t make sense to me until I visited our homeland. I know where I come from (I’ve always known to some degree) and it didn’t start in the U.S. Visiting CV redefined my life and changed my Aunite Michele. OMG, I’m starting to cry now, writing you just thinking about how much I have to get back.

Marek much love & respect to you for covering and photographing this magical place. Your story was so beautiful to me. Thank you for sharing your adventure to Cabo Verde/Santo Antao with the world! Si Deus Quizer…
Danielle in Los Angeles