Joe DaMoura ’00 is the president of the Cape Verdean Museum in Pawtucket, R.I., which celebrates the history and culture of Cape Verde and Cape Verdean Americans.

Joe DaMoura ’00 and his family have a nickname for URI, their alma mater. “We call it the DaMoura college. Five of us are grads,” he says. “When I was a student at Hope High, I’d visit my older brother, Antonio, on the URI campus. He launched the country’s first Cape Verdean student organization there. I couldn’t wait to go.” Joe is number three of the sibling alums; he graduated with a degree in English and psychology.

Some 25 years later, he’s president of the Cape Verdean Museum, the only one to celebrate the islands’ culture in the U.S., he says. The museum in its current location is the culmination of a three-year, $400,000-plus fundraising effort to migrate the 20-year-old institution to a spiffy Pawtucket space. It also reflects the islands’ robust immigrant community in Rhode Island, estimated at 18,000.

It’s been a long and winding road for a child who moved to Rhode Island from Cape Verde when he was just 6, along with his newly widowed mother and nine of his brothers and sisters. None of them spoke English.

“We came to a new country, on an airplane. I wore my first shorts suit and new sandals. It was exciting. When you know nothing better, it’s a big deal. I couldn’t sleep the entire trip.”

The family settled into their South Providence home near relatives, and his mom got a job in a pewter factory, making key chains and belts. “She’d bring work home at Christmas so we could help and make extra money,” DaMoura says. And at Fox Point Elementary School, he learned English—and the value of education. “It prepared me the best.”

After URI, DaMoura taught elementary school in Providence for several years. At 6-foot-6, he has a compelling presence, says Yvonne Smart, a retired Providence librarian who’s known DaMoura since he was a child. “When Joe was at the library, the kids latched on,” she remembers. “He liked to read and the kids related to him,” she says. “It was fun seeing this big guy sitting in a little chair with them. He really was a positive male figure. He talked to them about the importance of school.”

After a disability forced him to leave teaching, DaMoura continued cohosting and producing a Cape Verdean-focused program on the URI radio station, WRIU. Three years ago, he assumed the daunting task of the Cape Verdean Museum presidency and focused on fundraising for a new building. “This was personal to me. It was the biggest honor,” he says.

Marissa Lopes, a high school friend and third-generation American-born Cape Verdean, is the museum board’s secretary. “He’s so dedicated and passionate about our history,” she says. “He’s attuned to the community. He has a big personality. He’s put his heart and soul into making the museum happen. We couldn’t see his vision for it, but we see it now.”

The newly renovated 4,000-square-foot former restaurant/bar had its grand opening in April 2023. Some of DaMoura’s favorites among the thousands of artifacts on display are an oversized water jug and a corn husker like those he remembers from his own childhood.

“I love educating about our people and how important Cape Verde is to American history and to world history,” he says. “This is personal to me.”

—Sarah Francis

Photo: Jesse Burke

A Taste of Cape Verde—Stateside

Visit

The Cape Verdean Museum (617 Prospect St., Pawtucket, R.I.) offers exhibits on everything from music to whaling, as well as an extensive library of books and films.

Eat

Just a short drive from the museum, you can experience one of the centerpieces of Cape Verdean culture: the food. The menu at 10 Rocks Tapas Bar and Restaurant (1091 Main St., Pawtucket) features Portuguese, West African, and Caribbean flavors. Owner Carmen Monteiro (proud mom of a URI grad!) focuses on traditional dishes with a modern twist. The restaurant’s name, 10 Rocks, is a reference to the 10 islands that make up the Cape Verdean archipelago.

Listen

Joe DaMoura ’00 started broadcasting the Cape Verdean Afro Beat program in 1992 on URI’s radio station, WRIU. Tune in on Saturdays from 2–4:30 p.m. at 90.3 or wriu.org.

Celebrate

An annual Cape Verdean Independence Day Festival is held in July at India Point Park in Providence.

—Anna Vaccaro Gray ’12, M.S. ’16