Chiquinho (novel)
The novel Chiquinho , written around 1936, is the main work of the Cape Verdean writer Baltasar Lopes da Silva .
He tells the life story of a boy from the island of São Nicolau , of attending school in the rural surroundings of his home island, attending the grammar school on the neighboring island of São Vicente , his return to his homeland, where he now works as a school teacher himself, and finally his departure to the "promised land" America to escape the severe famine that, as so often, afflicts the entire Cape Verde Islands in the year of his return .
Chiquinho first appeared in Portugal in 1947. Even today, the subject of the novel is indicative of the reality of life for many inhabitants of Cape Verde , whose majority of the population does not live on the nine inhabited islands of the archipelago, but z. B. lives in America, the Netherlands or Portugal. Even if the regularly recurring periods of drought no longer lead to dramatic famine as they did in the middle of the 20th century, emigration has remained the goal and means of social advancement for many young Cape Verdeans. Baltasar Lopes novel works out the inner contradiction of Chiquinho, who on the one hand feels deeply connected to his homeland, but on the other hand cannot ignore the fact that staying in the small, traditional island world would inhibit his own development. After all, his love for Nuninha, the daughter of his host family from São Vicente, cannot prevent him from leaving for America by steamer.
Baltasar Lopes da Silva carried out intensive ethnographic studies for his main work. Between 1930 and 1938 he collected materials on the cultural life on his home island (which also became the home island of the fictional character) and on various personalities of Cape Verdean everyday life (Nhô Chi'Ana, Nhô João Joana, Nhô Loca, Sr. Euclides Varanda, Chico Zepa, Manuel de Brito “Parafuso”, José Lima etc.). The basic structure of the novel was sketched around 1936, but it was not until 1938 and 1941 that the author finished the novel in Lisbon.