Cape Verdean immigration in Pedro Costa’s Fontainhas trilogy: Narratives of deterritorialization

Abstract

This article will focus on the narratives of space and deterritorialization in Pedro Costa’s Fontainhas trilogy. This trilogy is made up of Ossos (‘Bones’) (1997), No Quarto da Vanda (In Vanda’s Room) (2000) and Juventude em Marcha (Colossal Youth) (2006), which explore the lives and narratives of Cape Verdean immigrants and their descendants living in the famed shantytown outside Lisbon’s limits. The analysis of Pedro Costa’s trilogy will focus on Fontainhas inhabitants’ inability to possess their territory as the result of an existence shaped by a movement of perpetual deterritorialization. As I will argue, this process reflects Portugal’s failure to fulfil the promises of the Carnation Revolution, remaining inhospitable for immigrants.