The ship-building yard under the tree ...

Cape Verdians never cease to surprise  and impress me ...
On the way to Veneza, a small village in the community of São Miguel, there is a small beach on the right hand side, where a small ship-building yard has been set under a tree.

Three ship wrights work there, in an almost handicrafted type of way, planing off the wooden boards of the two unfinished  fishing boats they were working on (when I met them) ...

 

I don't exactly know how long this ship-building yard has been here for (they wouldn't tell me) or how long it will keep on being here for  (they wouldn't tell me either) ...
They may not know ... (I believe) ... but what I know is that very rarely do Cape Verdians find excuses for not doing whatever they may be capable of doing  ... because of not having the adequate means to do it ...

Against the wind ...

I have just finished reading  the Planeta 2009 awarded book "Contra el viento" by Ángeles Caso, who in unveiling the life of the character of her book, São takes us right into the hardships and misfortunes of this ordinary Cape Verdian woman and all that she had to go through, from the earlier stages of her childhood, within a family she knew was not her own to her adulthood mishaps, which ultimately led her to going abroad in search of a better life ...

The obstacles this woman  has had to overcome were innumerous but the inner strength and determination with which she forced herself to keep on going forward are undoubtedly an example of "heroism" ...

What makes the difference is that this heroic character has not been invented ... , neither have all her misfortunes ... São lives in Spain and has been helping the writer in the upbringing of her child.

What mostly impressed me in this book was what has actually always impressed me in Cape Verde ... the capacity these women have to continue moving forward when the chances of  having any sort of success in their personal lives are almost non existent ... their strong belief in being able to turn some of their dreams and expectations in "attainable" goals against all odds ... being able to overlook the fact that irrespective of the wind blowing against their will, their strength lies on  their inner drive to face it ...

Selling tobacco, Assomada market, Santiago island, 2009 (Left). With three of her children, Veneza, Santiago island, 2009 (Right)

There are many Sãos in and out of Cape Verde ...
... I have met a few, whose stories have not been unveiled ...  and may never be...

Going against the wind seems to be Cape Verdian women's birth trait ...

May they continue to be strong in their ongoing "struggle" against the wind ...

The Art ..., the art of story telling ... or Casa da América Latina ...

Outside Casa da América Latina in Lisbon there is a mural painted by several African and South American painters which does not immediately catch people's attention.


I have mentioned it to several people I know, who had no idea of what it was or even what it looked like ... and although I can't find a direct answer as to why they have never felt its presence, I would say that maybe the bright yellow  imposing façade of the collonial like house condemns the background painting to natural oblivion.

Every picture tells a story and every stroke of paint leads the way to travelling in the immense world of our imagination, but so do stories.

Today, as I walked into the magnificient yellow painted façade to listen to a story-teller from Cuba I had no idea that I would soon become a child sitting by a big tree in Africa ... eyes and ears open to  a contagious shade and colour like voice, as Rosália led us into a world of interwoven simple stories with a striking educational value.

Living the life of each character, she was responsible for the "colouring" of the whole drama, adjusting gestures and movements to "paint" the scenario ... pausing to add the next paint stroke to the story ... singing  and dancing  to better mix  the already profuse tinged palette ... inviting the audience's cooperation  to  give it the final touch ...

"Era una vez un cocrodilo verde" ...

The workshops in Calheta and the parent involvement ...

Mothers of the newcoming children enrolled in the workshops sitting at Sillibel's patio watching their children (Left) as they colour mandalas (Right)

We all know how parent involvement is important and how much it pays off in other significant ways regarding the children's education.

Mothers around here do want to get involved in their children's education, and I say mothers, because most families are single parent ones ... but one of the problems is that most of them are fairly young and have difficulties to understand what is really wanted from them as parents, as all they have ever heard of is work as a source of financial support and not much more than that ...

Academic achievement is something they expect their children to have, as if it were a hidden dream of theirs, that never came true regarding themselves ... but because they force their way through life, in order to (sometimes) barely survive ... they feel to "help" their children learn and further develop themselves implies using force ... which again is not much different from the methodology used by most teachers I have talked to.

 

 Neuza's mother, a young mother of 10 children (Left) and Tarine's mother (Right)

Dedicating some time to increasing the awareness of these mothers by emphasising the importance of them being the "backbone" of their children's school development, by encoraging them, not to help the children when they have homework to do, as that would be asking them to do something most of them cannot do, but at least understand how important it is for them to allow children some time for school related activities, even if they do not immediately understand the benefit ... by letting them see what their children are capable of doing, rather than just focussing on pass/fail marks they cannot understand.

As some of them watch their children while painting or once they see what they have actually painted, one gets the feeling they would like to be given the chance their children are being given now ... and the more I think about it the more I would like to design a workshop in which I would have them involved, not simply as mothers of these children but as "children" themselves ... the children some of them have certainly not have had the time to be ...

Nate, mother of seven (Left) is the example of an "interested" mother, whose children (Leinira and Cesaltina) have attended every possible workshop related to their age. Mothers of the children (Right) who attended the last workshop at the closing ceremony, in which I must proudly say 4 fathers were present.

"Street Art" in the heart of Lisbon ...

I started getting interested in "street art" when I  first visited San Francisco in 1989 and then again in 1990.

Although none of the artistic murals I have seen since then, with just a few exceptions, has really attracted my attention, I must confesss that from time to time I'd rather see some graffiti covering the walls of many of the "dying buildings" within our city, than the plain "demolishing like" façades ... looking us in the eye, as if to remind us that nothing is everlasting ...

As I was wandering around the city this morning ... I came across these buildings, which I just had to photograph prior to them being eventually demolished or painted over.

It was not only the overall image that attracted me, but especially the details (one that cannot be easily detected is the "eye" which being supended slightly moves back and forth, giving those who look at it the idea of being under surveillance.

Note: According to the Lisbon cultural agenda these artistic demonstrations are included in the Crono Project headed by the urban artist Pedro Soares Neves, and whose aim is exposing artistic façades, which are to be painted by some of the most outstanding urban artists until  June 2011.

The façades on the top left have been painted by the Brazilian twin brothers Gustavo and Octávio Pandolfo, as well as the Italian artist Blu. The façade on the right has been painted by the Spanish artist Sam3.

"Rabelados" Art Galery façade ...

A lot has been written about "Rabelados" and their principle of "independence", which dates back to the 1940s when they first opposed the introduction of a new Catholicism teaching system  in Cape Verde and which ultimately led to them being "banished", persecuted, emprisoned and even tortured.

 

A few years ago, the project developed by the Cape Verdian painter Misá in the Rabelados community of  Espinho Branco brought "colour" into the community and made their culture and traditions known to the "outside world" ...

I don't know if the Art galery I photographed in Cidade Velha and which was closed is actually a Rabelados galery, as in accordance with what is written on its façade ... but I quite like its paintings ... 

Why? I don't exactly know ... (I always seem to repeat myself when it comes to Cape Verdian art ) but there's something about ...  the simplicity of the lines ... and the naivety of  the expressions ... that I really like.

Figurative diversity in "our" glazed tiles ...or aesthetic "blindness"

Having been (... or should I say being ...) one of the most expressive and original contributions of the Portuguese artistic creativity to the Universal culture, the "glazed tile" Art has gone beyond  its use as a merely ornamental form of Art, excelling in its figurative diversity having moved away from the traditional geometric moorish influenced designs and flemish mannerist style. 

Amongst the many panels I have been drawn to, particularly over the last two years, these have caught my attention, because of the originality of the themes.

In the National Azulejo Museum (Left) and in the Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira, Lisboa (Right)

 

"Monkey business " (3rd quarter of the XVII century) - Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira, Lisbon.

Glazed tile façades and murals are present in our daily life and yet we don't seem to pay them the attention they deserve ...

Could it be that  amongst the various things we have been losing ... we are (also) losing our aesthetical sense ?...