Personal Narrative: Cape Verdean

To be Cape Verdean is not simply to have Cape Verdean blood within you, rather it is also to have a certain amount of pride and respect for our ethnicity and culture. In saying this, my Cape Verdean heritage doesn’t just mean something to me, but rather it is me. It is everything that is embodied within me and what I do.
From birth, I was raised by a strong Cape Verdean family filled with hard working women and men. Not only were they hard working, but as I grew up, they instilled in me the values of love, respect, and the importance of family that they have obtained within themselves. Furthermore, growing up with such prominent figures within my life, not only did their presence show me the dignity that it took to be Cape Verdean, but it showed me how much my heritage played a crucial role in developing my morals. Being raised in a Cape Verdean community, this revealed to me the values of respecting others and respecting myself as a young women. This respect now allows me approach others with …show more content…
For centuries, even when Cape Verdeans traveled to Southern Massachusetts to join the whaling industry, Cape Verdeans were hard workers. This is also true for my family, and now myself. Coming from Freetown, all my life I attended schools where I was mainly the only minority. In this, a substantial amount of people underestimated my ability and intellect on an academic level. By working hard, not only was I able to break both academic and social barriers as a minority within the school, but I finished high school as salutatorian with a 4.4. GPA. In this achievement, and all my years through those same school systems, I displayed to all those people who doubted me not only my intellectual ability but my pride to be Cape Verdean- in the way I walked, talked, and lived. Therefore, being Cape Verdean means to me that hard work is not segregated by