The Cape Verdean Connection program provides an opportunity to experience a culture that blends West African and Portuguese elements in unique and moving ways. It also provides a clear perspective on two important aspects of how culture is understood and made part of public discourse at the end of the 20th century. One is the idea of transnationalism—in a sense, the way that culture and community can be seen to be independent of territorial boundaries. The other is the opening of national institutions like the Smithsonian to new cultural needs.