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Elizabeth Manekin Interviewing Johnny Costa John Nichols Brown CenterMarch 12, 2008 ______________________________________________________________ 
Elizabeth Manekin
: Alright. I think this is good.
 Johnny Costa
: We'll see.
Manekin
: I'm Elizabeth, Manekin and I am interviewing Mr. JohnnyCosta and today is March 12, 2008, and we are in the John NicholsBrown Center at Brown University.
Manekin
: Alright.
Costa
: That's my mother and her best friend. That's my brother andhis wife. That's something I put together.
Manekin
: Alright. So this is an album you've created from your wholelife, some of it in Fox Point, some of it not.
Costa
: Well-
Manekin
: Your family mainly?
Costa
: Mainly. That's my kids. That's when they’re- he's 47. She's 45.
Manekin
: Now you said your parents were born in Fox Point.
Costa:
Yup
Manekin:
Where were their parents from? Were they born there aswell?
Costa
: My. No. My grandmother was- my father's mother was- myfather's grandparents were born in the Cape Verde Islands, SanNicolau. St. Nicholas.
Manekin
: Ok.
Costa
: My mother's father was born in Brava, Cape Verde Islands mymother's mother was born in San Vicente. St. Vincent. Cape VerdeIslands.
Manekin
: And when did they come to Providence?
Costa
: My grandmother. My father's- my father, he came- My father'sparents came here about 1900, because they got married here in 19,November 8th, 1903.
1
 
Elizabeth Manekin Interviewing Johnny Costa John Nichols Brown CenterMarch 12, 2008 ______________________________________________________________ 
Manekin
: Ok.
Costa
: At the Barker Playhouse was a church at the time. But theyhad a- it was an Episcopalian Church. But, they were married by aCongregationalist Minister. And my grandmother, my mother's parentscame here, oh, about I’d say about 1907, and they got married in 1909at the Sheldon St. Church. That's a marriage license right there.
Manekin
: Wow. And what did they do for a living? Do you remember?Do you know?
Costa
: My grandmother was a cook and a seamstress, and she didpressing for a lot of people on Benefit St.- lawyers and judges. Mygrandfather was a teamster. He was so light, they didn't know hewasn't, they didn't know he was Cape Verdean or Black. So he becamea teamster. Unfortunately, he got hit. He got run over by one of thewagons that, low boys, they call them- horse and buggy- in October1911, and he died June 1912. My mother was born March 11, 1912.Never got to know her father. And he kept, well they-he had gangreneand he didn't want to be a one-legged man, so he just let it go anddied. But he was only 31 years old.
Manekin
: And so-
Costa
: My father's mother. My father's father was a fisherman. Heworked on whalers. He was a-- I'm not really sure what he did but hemade most of the sweaters- he knit. He made all the sweaters for theguys and hats on the ship, on the whalers.
Manekin
: And he was a whaler, did they go back and forth to-
Costa
: From New Bedford. Out of New Bedford.
Manekin
: Ok.
Costa
. From New Bedford. Down in New Bedford. They lived onWickenden St. I don't know, about 10 years. And then they moved toRochester, Massachusetts over down by the Cape. And then theycouldn't take none of that country folk so they came. They ended upcoming back here- my grandmother never got used to this country.She was back and, she must've made 8 trips back and forth to theCape Verde Islands. And they left in 19- 1930, 1935. No, wait aminute- 1935. Early ‘35. And never came back after that trip. Andthey died around 1946. Both from sugar diabetes. They died 10 days
2
 
Elizabeth Manekin Interviewing Johnny Costa John Nichols Brown CenterMarch 12, 2008 ______________________________________________________________ apart. In San Nicolau. St. Nicholas.
Manekin
: So, there-- I've seen and read that there was a large CapeVerdean population in Fox Point and in Providence even as early as --sort of the 1930s,1900s. Your grandparents still wanted to go back?Did they-
Costa
: Back and forth.
Manekin
: They went back and forth all the time.
Costa
: Yep. My grandmother, she, she-- every other kid was born inthe Cape Verde Islands.
Manekin
: Ok.
Costa
: My father when he was 2 years old he ended up going backthere, and stayed a while and he when he came back, he couldn'tspeak English. And but he learned and he spoke English well, youknow, read and write.
Manekin
: And did your parents have a lot of siblings? You said thatthey alternated-
Costa
: Uh, no. My mother, my mother's family only had two: mymother and my uncle George and my grandparents had 3 boys and 2girls-- my father's family. One of the boys died young, and they endedup with two boys and two girls.
Manekin
: And did they all live around here as well?
Costa
: Well, my Uncle John, my Aunt Antonia, my father Tony lived inProvidence and my Aunt Anna lived in New Bedford.
Manekin
: Did you go to New Bedford a lot as a child growing up?
Costa
: Yes we did.
Manekin
: You did.
Costa
: To visit our- In 19, 1948 my father got hit by a, a car in Harlem,New York that crippled him for life. While he was in the hospital-- hegot hit on a VJ day 1947-- and we were back and forth we'd spend 3 or4 weeks in a, during vacation in New Bedford. And 3 or 4 weeks during
3
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