Carmen Souza few times, once on a family trip when she was ten and again as an adult in 2010, she grew up speaking Creole and eating Cape Verdean cuisine. While still a child, she began singing gospel music in the church choir. Her parents maintained close ties with the diaspora, and Souza's childhood was filled with the music and culture of Cape Verde, along with that of the former Portuguese colonies of Angola, Brazil, Mozambique and São Tomé. Souza's father, Antonio, a merchant sailor, insisted she should learn English and German. After spending just one year at college, she left to
Brazil–Uruguay relations and in 1828 the Treaty of Montevideo, fostered by the British Empire, gave birth to Uruguay as an independent state. The political scene in Uruguay following its independence from Brazil became split between two parties, the conservative "Blancos" and the liberal "Colorados". The "Colorados" were led by Fructuoso Rivera and represented the business interests of Montevideo; the "Blancos" were headed by Manuel Oribe, who looked after the agricultural interests of the countryside and promoted protectionism. In 1838, the Kingdom of France started a naval blockade over the port of Buenos Aires, in support of the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, who had declared