Bela Freedman-Bianco Multiple Layers Of Time And Space Analysis

Among the first wave of Portuguese immigrants to America there remained a sort of stubborn pride in their cultural origins and traditions. In part because the communities around New Bedford and Fall River, and even out west in California, were considered “colonies” back home. Rather than resent the emigration of its people, the country—which needed emigration to relieve a growing overpopulation, especially on the islands of the Azores—took pride in what they saw as extending the Portuguese nation to Brazil, Macão, and the United States, as well as African countries such as Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde.

All this pride was tied to Portuguese history as a seafaring people, the Age of Discovery created a kind of mythical ideology of the
“Under the guise of patriotism,” writes Williams, “many former immigrants abandoned their native tongue, anglicized their name, and de-emphasized ‘un-American’ cultural traditions.”

Leading up to World War II, pressure increased to be “100 percent American,” and many Portuguese turned away from their culture, if not completely rejected it. Williams quotes one researcher, who noted in 1949, “many Portuguese immigrants and their children have leaned toward discarding the Portuguese language, not only in order to conceal their background as a means of overcoming social prejudices, but also in order to fulfill what they consider a patriotic
“Oliveira” became “Olives,” “Madeira” is listed as “Media,” and my great-grandmother’s cousin, João Cabral is rendered, “Joe Cabaret.” (I mean, was the census-taker bigoted, biased, or just lazy?) This same 1915 Census also has Ana’s father, then living at 66 Trenton Street, listed as “Frank C. Rogers,” Rogers being the anglicized version of Rodrigues that would be carried forward by Ana herself, who later sometimes went by the name Anna C.