The concept of diaspora is often defined as a fluid, unbound space or group, transcending assumptions of belonging, territory, and fixed identity. It has been linked to notions such as hybridisation (Kalra et al, 2005) and Third Space. I use the example of the Cape Verdean diaspora in Argentina and in the United States, arguing that the Cape Verdean diaspora is made of multiple narratives and experiences in two societies where normative whiteness prevails.

Patterns of racialization as well as postcolonial legacies in Argentina and in the US have shaped the Cape Verdean diaspora. With its colonial past, and its framing as “the whitest country in Latin America”, Argentina has only recently started to officially acknowledge the presence of Afro-descendant communities as part of the nation despite the fact that most of them have been physically present in Argentina for centuries (Monkevicius & Maffia 2014). The cultural practices of Argentina’s Afro-descendant communities have been either assimilated into other practices or appropriated as non-Black, and Blackness in Argentina’s imaginary has been suppressed. Cape Verdean migrants who arrived from the beginning of the 20th century identified as Portuguese as a coping strategy for the structural racism of Argentina’s society (Maffia 2010). Moreover, there was a high degree of intermarriage and a limited reproduction of practices linked to the “homeland” (Maffia 2009). In the past, there have been movements calling for the independence of Cape Verde from Portugal initiated by the diaspora in Argentina. However, this “long-distance nationalism” (Anderson 1992), was sometimes frowned upon as politicised practices that emphasised difference from the rest of Argentine society (Maffia 2008). In recent years in Argentina, the Cape Verdean diaspora has displayed a particular endeavour to unite with other Afro-descendant communities including recent migrants from West Africa (Maffia & Zubrzycki 2014).

In the US, although there is an assimilative model of integration and normative whiteness arguably prevails (Hurd 2008), the Cape Verdean diaspora was shaped differently. Although early immigrants identified as Portuguese, it was to ‘signify nationality’ and establish difference from other African American communities (Sanchez Gibau 2005, Halter 2008) rather than as a survival strategy as it was in Argentina. Consequently, when further waves of immigration occurred after Cape Verde became an independent republic (Sanchez Gibeau 2005), Cape Verdeans in the US were able to show a stronger loyalty to their homeland than in Argentina.

Belonging to the Cape Verdean diaspora is manifested in different ways across the US and Argentina. In that sense, diasporas can transcend boundaries within and across nation-states. This has implications within the greater debate surrounding the notion of diaspora, as it implies that diasporas can, and do, have territorial ties without necessarily engaging in essentialising practices.