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“My father used to always say ‘Make sure you study. A book is less to carry than a pick and shovel.’ Because he didn’t want us to have to work as hard as he did. ”
Colleen Pina-Garron
Colleen is a retired probation officer, Cape Verdean cookbook author, and a community ethnographer for this project. Her father, Henry Pina, was a founding member of the United Social Club, a construction worker, and a stevedore from the 1950s to the 1970s. In this excerpt, Colleen defines a “shape up” and describes the role the stevedores played in doling out jobs on the waterfront before unionization. She paints a picture of the social fabric of the Cape Verdean community from her experiences growing up in Bay Village to her parents’ involvement in the city’s social clubs. She recalls the value her father placed on education and his hope that she wouldn’t have to make the same sacrifices he did. He lived to see her buy her own home.
This interview was originally conducted in English.
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Background Information:
Colleen provides a rich description of growing up in the Bay Village housing development and the importance of the many Cape Verdean social clubs in the city. Her father, Henry Pina, worked as a stevedore. Stevedores managed the hiring of longshoremen, laborers who do the heavy work of offloading cargo. Stevedores would post notices in Cape Verdean clubs the day before a ship arrived announcing a shape up and anyone seeking work would show up at the docks the next morning to compete for a job. Stevedores also operated the cranes and moved cargo on the ships. Lumpers, also mentioned in this interview, unload fresh seafood from fishing boats.
