Visions of the Azorean Capote in Mark Twain and Raul Brandão Travelogues

A comparative analysis of the traditional Azorean hooded cape as seen from mirrored literary perspectives

Azorean women outside a church wearing the “capote e capelo” | Public domain photo uploaded by and colorized by the author

The capote e capelo was a traditional garment worn by women in all the islands of the Azores until the outfit fell into disuse around the 1930s.

Nowadays, the capote has become a symbol of Azorean culture, an heirloom vacuum-sealed and treasured as a relic by some families, as I had the chance to witness in my last visit to Faial.

I have been to the Azores several times, and I’m profoundly fascinated by the archipelago and its people. During my last visit to Horta in Faial, I took with me only two books, and it was during my time on the island, I noticed all the intricate parallelism and mirrored analogies between both travel books.

The most striking analogy I’ve uncovered lies in the way the capote e capelo serves almost as a focal point in Mark Twain and Raul Brandão’s description of life on Faial island.

Twain, with his often satiric gaze, offers the outsider’s perspective in The Innocents Abroad¹ while Brandão, a Portuguese novelist, delivers a more intimate account in As Ilhas Desconhecidas (The Unknown Islands).²