It’s 7 PM in Cape Verde, two hours later than in Argentina, and Rosana Monteiro Lima has just returned from her farm, about 20 minutes from her natural phytocosmetics business Mamdyara, in Mindelo. Passionate about medicinal plants, «like a good Argentine,» her dream was to have a space to cultivate and share with customers.
«I lived in Argentina until I was 39. I always had Cape Verdean influence at home because my father was from Cape Verde and left for Argentina when he was 17. He was part of the second wave; my father was born in ’32. He arrived in Ensenada, at the port of Buenos Aires, and then to Dock Sud, to one of the largest communities,» Rosana recounts.
Her father, João Rómulo Monteiro Lima, left Cape Verde by ship, passed through Senegal, and arrived in Argentina as a stowaway. He became a professional maître and eventually owned a boat club on the Costanera called Ciudad de Corrientes. He was one of the founders of the Cape Verdean Club and the Mutual Aid Society.
«My father, like all Cape Verdeans, is resilient and creative. The truth is I discovered that my father was a fighter, but at the same time he enjoyed what he did. That vein I discovered in him is something I brought here to Cape Verde,» she says.
Rosana studied computer science and then biology in La Plata. She had two great colleagues, a botanist and an ecologist, who reminded her of the influence of her maternal grandfather, a Guaraní indigenous person. When her mother passed away, her father was depressed, and among the siblings they decided he should return to Cape Verde. Rosana accompanied him and never left.
«I could never have imagined it. Suddenly I arrive here in Cape Verde. From the plane it looked like three grains of sand. I always say it was like a hand of God that took me and placed me here,» she recalls.
Adaptation was not easy. She didn’t understand Creole, but the Cape Verdeans, polyglots, started speaking to her in Spanish. She still speaks Spanish. She was a pioneer in seeking regulation for her natural products.
«People are open. They call it morabeza, this welcoming of people, something that Argentines also have,» she explains.
Now, with Cape Verde’s qualification for the World Cup, football passion has exploded. Rosana and her family, including her Senegalese husband and her children, lived through the Blue Sharks’ matches intensely.
«With my other son, who left for the Canary Islands, we were all cheering for Cape Verde. Now our hearts are going to break on Friday. Because we were very focused on the Blue Sharks, we cried, we went out to celebrate, we waved the flag,» she confesses.
«My older children, who are soccer fanatics, said: ‘Wow, at first they all huddled against Spain and defended well, but in the second match they scored goals, they dazzled the other players.’ We saw that they had achieved a football quality that excited us all. That day the three of us—my husband, my youngest son Mohamed, and I—were completely absorbed, with stomachaches, suffering so they wouldn’t score a goal. The whole society here talks about that suffering. We went crazy. We went out to celebrate, something I had never done before,» she adds.
Rosana hopes that the passion for football will be a tool for transformation for young people, keeping them away from vulnerability. Meanwhile, on Friday, her heart will be divided between Argentina and Cape Verde.
Para mí esta mina es una vendepatria de mierda, se va a romper el corazón? Pero si Cabo Verde es una colonia del imperialismo, el fútbol es el opio del pueblo y ella una traidora. Viva Argentina y la lucha anticolonial, che.
Para mí esta mina es una vendepatria, se fue a una isla perdida y ahora sufre por Cabo Verde? Me parece que quiere que le ganen para no sentirse tan boluda. Argentina carajo, vamos a pasarles por encima como a todos. Aguante Messi y los negros de mierda que no entienden nada.