Idea Transcript
Portuguese-‐American Transnational Selves and Identities in California: An Analysis of Identity and Heritage (Re)production Among Azorean Immigrants and their Descendants
Thesis submitted by Gary Resendes to the Anthropology Department in partial fulfillment to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Arts University of California, Santa Cruz Spring 2012 Advisors: Professor Don Brenneis Professor Guillermo Delgado
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THESIS ABSTRACT: I attempt to illustrate the multiple meanings of what it might mean to be “Portuguese-‐American” in the state of California from the perspective of Azorean immigrants and their American-‐born descendants, the former, which came during the last wave of Azorean immigration to the United States beginning around 1958. This is also an effort to exemplify that there can never be a singular understanding of any culture; rather there are several diverse individual variations. I use a person-‐centered ethnographic approach, as well as selection of psychological and anthropological theory to portray a widespread view of what it might entail to be and identify as Portuguese-‐American in California; the basis of which are interviews I have conducted with Azorean immigrants and American-‐born children of such immigrants (what I consider the first-‐ and second-‐ generation Portuguese-‐Americans), my own personal account as a second-‐generation Portuguese-‐American, and distinct interpretations of the terms: culture, self, and identity. I also present a concise historical background of Azorean immigration to California, including the many contributions Azorean immigrants have made to the communities of California, and their overall maintenance and reproduction of their Azorean heritage in order to put into perspective the lives of my interviewees.
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I dedicate this thesis to my Avô and Grandpa, João “Pereirinha” Miguel (1923-‐2005)
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Table of Contents Acknowledgements
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Recent Trends in Theories of Identity Formation
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36 42 44 46 50 51 52 53 56
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Interviews with Portuguese-‐Americans in California
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Introduction
Historical Background -‐ Azorean Immigration to California -‐ Economic Conditions -‐ Fraternalism and Mutual-‐Aid Organizations -‐ Festas and Portuguese Halls -‐ Traditional Music and Dance -‐ Catholicism and Portuguese Churches -‐ Azorean Food and Cuisine -‐ Language and Education -‐ Periodicals, Publications, and Media The Modern Day Portuguese-‐Americans in California Discussion
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References Appendix
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Acknowledgements
I would like to sincerely thank all of my interviewees who have allowed me to enter
into some of their deepest thoughts for the benefit of my research. Without their participation and friendliness I would not have been able to produce this thesis. I would also like to give my upmost appreciation to my advising professors Don Brenneis and Guillermo Delgado who have eagerly guided me along the way in my undergraduate career in anthropology, especially in regards to this thesis. I would also like to give my thanks to my immediate family for supporting my research and great interest in all things Portuguese, here in California, and abroad. Finally, I would like to acknowledge all the Portuguese-‐American communities of California for their arduous labor in perpetuating and reproducing the Portuguese-‐American culture in California with its roots in the Azores islands.
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Introduction The Portuguese are a fascinating people with a rich and enthralling cultural past, full of discovery and maritime exploration. From the end of the 15th century onward the Portuguese had spread their cultural repertoire across the globe to Asia, Africa, and the Americas (Feldman-‐Bianco 2001). Today there are places on all of these continents where the Portuguese language is still spoken and even used as a national language in some cases. One of the treasures of Portuguese history that goes quite undetected in present-‐day is the archipelago known as the Azores islands. The Azores, or “Os Açores” in Portuguese, is a group of nine islands in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, originally uninhabited by humans. The Portuguese began to settle these islands, along with few other European communities, in the 15th century (Costa 2008). These islands are indeed a part of the Portuguese nation, although fairly distant from the continental mainland Portugal. Since the mid-‐1800s many Azoreans have emigrated from their relatively small islands of origin seeking economic success and a much more prosperous quality of life. One nation that they have continually immigrated to from this period forward is the United States of America, mainly to the east and west coasts (Vaz 1965; Williams 1982; Pap 1992; Dias 2009). The state of California was the primary location for Azorean immigration to the west coast, and much of its cultural heritage can still be seen and felt just about all over the state. In fact, the majority of all Portuguese immigrants that ever came to California were from the Azores islands (Pap 1992:35,98). The last wave of Azorean immigration to California took place beginning around 1958 lasting up until the mid-‐1980s. This allowed for a revitalization of the Azorean communities already well established in California, pumping new life into the Portuguese-‐American culture that they have produced.
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The current Portuguese population in California, including those of Portuguese ancestry, only makes up about 1% of the entire population of California, an extremely marginal number of people in comparison to the state’s total (Graves 2004:104). Nonetheless their ethnic communities, spread about the state of California, are prominent high-‐spirited manifestations of the Portuguese, or rather Azorean diaspora. The term diaspora is not only a signifier of transnationality and migratory movement, but of the struggle to define one’s local immigrant community as distinct from larger society in the context of displacement (Clifford 1994). As I will later illustrate, this kind of struggle for the Portuguese-‐Americans in California is generally a constant negotiation between two distinct sets of cultural propositions for how to act, and how to live, the Azorean-‐ Portuguese and the Californian-‐American. What results is a dynamic incorporation of the two into one’s life, and one’s community. It is the creation of a new cultural sphere and new types of persons, which are not easily definable. It is what I refer to as the “Portuguese-‐ American” culture in California and its corresponding Portuguese-‐American individuals. Moreover, I consider anyone of Portuguese ancestry living in California, including such immigrants that came well into their lives, as the people of this newly created, and ever-‐ changing culture. Although humans altogether live on the same planet Earth, innately adhere to its natural laws, and possess the same type of physiological bodies, each individual experiences life quite differently. Is this difference because of one’s “culture”, or their environment? Is it because of their personal experiences, or perhaps a mix of these components? It would make intuitive sense that all of these dynamics play some part in shaping one’s subjective experience of the world, but then how could we assess what it is
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like to be another person, of another existence, and of another cultural community? At first glance it may seem like a simplistic inquiry, readily figured out through research and further discussion, for we are all the same species with the same general bodies and minds, are we not? However, to date no one has truly come to an agreement over the matter, or whether or not it is even viable to posit someone else’s experience of life as inherently different than our own. I seek to use this thesis to address the perplexing issue of differing experiential realities through the case of the Portuguese-‐Americans in California, principally the Azorean immigrants, which came from the 1960s onward, and their American-‐born descendants. My inquiry is to unearth if they, as persons, are gravely dissimilar across the generations, and if they are even that similar when compared to those in their own generational predicament, particularly in light of how they identify themselves on a personal level. As for the Portuguese immigrants in California, every day they are faced with a reality different than the one that they emigrated from. California is not an island, the main language spoken is not Portuguese, and in all, it is not the Azores, it is not Portugal. Their American-‐born descendants, on the other hand, must also come to terms with this fact, as their upbringing in many cases may have differed greatly from that of other children. The purpose of this ethnographic study of Azorean immigrants in California and their American-‐born children, whom I consider the first-‐ and second-‐ generation Portuguese-‐Americans, is to achieve a broad interpersonal and historically-‐based understanding of their life experiences, how they reflectively perceive themselves as persons, and to come closer to comprehending the human nature of identity formation and individual consciousness in general. Furthermore, some might contest my labeling of
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Azorean immigrants as the first-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans. However I argue that every Azorean immigrant in California is subject to live in many ways as non-‐immigrant Americans do, regardless if they know the English language or not, thus it is appropriate to deem them the first generation of “Portuguese-‐Americans”, at least in the most basic sense. In order to begin to unravel what it might entail to be and identify as Portuguese-‐ American in California, one must recognize that the individuals involved are in a transnational predicament. This is implied by the hyphen, which is often placed in between “Portuguese” and “American”, one that should not be taken lightly. This hyphenation is a way to bridge the gap between one culture and another, and label those of Portuguese ancestry in California with a more concise and stable sense of identity. It connects “the visible and the invisible, the tangible and the intangible” of their multicultural lives; it is “the transit between absence and presence…” for Portuguese-‐American communities and it makes their existence a definable reality to others and themselves (Dyk 2005:28). The possible labels of identification such as “Portuguese-‐American”, “Portuguese American”, “Luso-‐American”, and “Luso American”, among several others can all be used to refer to the Azorean immigrants and their American-‐born descendants in California (Vaz 1965; Williams 1982; Pap 1992; Dias 2009). Sometimes there is that hyphen, and sometimes there isn’t. Symbolic constructions, which denote newly created groups of people are never static, just as the identities of such groups are equally as unstable and full of ambiguity. Regardless of how one phrases it, the individuals of transnational communities such as this are often in a sort of “liminal space” (van Dyk 2005:6), or psychological flux, as I would call it. They have two notions of home, after having resided in their country of immigration for
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so long. They have two sets of cultural schemas to go by, two or more languages at their disposal, and nearly double of everything in terms of their way, and understanding of life.
Cultural anthropologists sometimes take the creative nature of human
consciousness for granted in that they subordinate individuals to the idea of culture as if it were a collective thought regime, making it appear simple to discern personalities and certain behaviors as culture or society writ-‐small (Cohen & Rapport 1996). In fact, most scientific and academic research is in such a paradigm, which embraces the move towards objectivity as a fundamental, that is, the effort towards the acceptance of one all-‐ encompassing reality in which all individual are subject to. However some would argue that a framework based on objectivity is radically incomplete regarding certain matters, for there are first-‐person facts that it could never know. This is because the subjectivity of individual experience takes all other wider, or more objective views into its own perspective. In other words, every person has their particular way of understanding the world around them based on their own experiences. For example, someone could objectively explain the process of hearing as sound waves, which travel through the air from their source, interacting with our auditory system. Although, they could equally describe the process of hearing subjectively in terms of what something sounds like to different people in relation to its acoustic elements, what emotions it might evoke, and so forth. In accordance with psychological anthropologist Dan Linger (2010:220), I uphold that the aim of social research should not be “to generalize any individual’s particular self-‐ explorations across a population, but to exhibit a common subjective process yielding diverse substantive outcomes”. It would not be beneficial to our understanding of human beings to demarcate the boundaries of cultural experience based on the average of the
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subjective experiences of individuals within a particular group. Not only are cultures vastly distinctive from each other, but also persons and their subjectivities greatly differ. The move toward the objective is a gross oversimplification of personal experience. We are in need of paradigmatic shift for social research; one based more on the experiential and which returns agency and authority to the individual. From this perspective, we can then piece together what the variable cultural experiences of the Portuguese-‐Americans in California might entail. To try and understand what it means to be and live the life of an Azorean immigrant or an American-‐born Azorean descendant in California, one must go straight to the source: the actual Portuguese-‐American persons who make up this cultural community. This is why I have used a person-‐centered approach in attempting to wrestle with this inquiry. The only real way to come close to understanding another’s subjective reality is to ask them about it. Many people have a hard enough time describing themselves in a cohesive manner, especially since all lives and perspectives change over time, so why should we completely trust social analysts to do it for them? Consequently, I have interviewed a small group of Azorean immigrants and American-‐born descendants of Azorean ancestry living in California to ask them how they envision their subjective realities and self-‐identities. I also provide a brief auto-‐ethnographic account of my own experience as a second-‐ generation Portuguese-‐American and how I understand my own self and identity.
I begin with an examination of the more recent trends in theories of identity
formation and concepts of culture and the self in psychology and anthropology. This will serve as the theoretical base for understanding the cultural nature of human beings in a way that rightfully involves the authority of individual human agency. I then provide a
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historical background of Azorean immigration to the United States of America, specifically California, and the lifestyle of Azorean immigrants and their American-‐born descendants in California up to date. This general overview, although systematic and lacking a qualitative analysis of individual subjectivity is nearly equally as important. It allows an open entry into understanding the lives of Portuguese-‐Americans in California, the hardships they have endured, the success they have worked for, and the structures they have built for themselves in American society. Subsequently, I reveal how each of the Portuguese-‐ Americans that I have interviewed, including myself, perceive their own identities and what it means to them to be Portuguese-‐American in California. Last, I depict the implications of my research in regards to our knowledge of the nature of identity formation and human consciousness, as well as suggest what further research into this issue might want to include.
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Recent Trends in Theories of Identity Formation
From the mid-‐20th century onward there have been a plethora of innovative
theoretical ideas in contestation with each other over how to socially model persons. A major concern of this dialectical argument has been the dispute over to what degree culture influences a person’s development, namely in reference to personality types, reasoning, behavior, and the way persons identify themselves. In this section, subdivided into seven headings, my purpose is to provide a survey of the more contemporary theories, which address identity and human nature, to exemplify that the focus of social research should be centered on individuals and their interactions, rather than purely the structural, depersonalized accounts of humans. Social psychology, which could also be considered cultural when placed in contexts concerning ethnicity, traditions, and the like, witnessed a surge of collectivist theories around the 1970s in response to American individualism (Hogg & Williams 2000). Collectivism focuses on group phenomena and group identity presuming that researchers should see persons as members of social groups rather than as individuals. I must add that it is not always so clear as to which psychologists fall on either side of the debate, the boundaries often blur together. Anthropologists have also traditionally focused on group phenomena, as in their culture and personality studies, which seek to reveal how national discourses and social environments might affect people and the way they perceive themselves. We must also acknowledge that the collectivist regimes of social psychology and cultural anthropology both inherently promote the notion cultural relativism, and to some extent cultural determinism, which I will refer to later.
Nevertheless, during this time period individualism-‐based theoretical conceptions
of identity were also in the making. A major point in this line of thought was that any
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research study focusing on groups was essentially a study of individuals (Hogg & Williams 2000). Sapir, a linguist and anthropologist, was one of the forerunners of returning our focus to the individual, and one whose theories has been the foundation for many recent innovations in both anthropology and psychology. In what has come to be known as the subfield of psychological anthropology, researchers have proposed some new ways to contemplate how persons might shape their own individuality and identities outside of cultural influences. The basis of these theories is that cultural variability does not need to imply that the peoples of distinct cultures be so different than one another, nor that all the persons of a particular culture be so similar to each other (Spiro 1987). Many theories emanating from this subfield of anthropology reject the presumptions of collectivist, and often reductionist views of the self, which usually hold culture as the overarching authority that allows or prohibits certain personalities and identities to exist within its domain. There is also much to be said on the distinction that should be made between a self and an identity, which I will address later on in this section. Only after laying out all of the more relevant theoretical frameworks for this study on the Portuguese-‐American experience in California can we proceed to understanding the subjective realities and identities of Portuguese immigrants and their American-‐born descendants.
Social Identity Theory
Coming out of the collectivist movement in social psychology, in the 1970s and ‘80s
British psychologists Tajfel and Turner (as cited in Hogg & Williams 2000) attempted to understand group behavior in terms of a collective self rather than an individual one. They did so on the assumption that large-‐scale group processes could not be understood properly in terms of interpersonal processes. In what they have coined “social identity
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theory”, they claim that one’s social identity is the knowledge that he or she has that they belong to certain social groups, along with some emotional significance attached to their group membership (as cited in Hogg & Williams 2000:87). They add that this knowledge forms an individual’s sense of their particular place in society. The theory dichotomizes the concept of identity in emphasizing that one’s “social identity” is distinctively different than their “personal identity”, the latter defined as one’s self-‐concept derived from their idiosyncrasies and close personal relationships. According to Tajfel and Turner (as cited in Hogg & Williams 2000:88), one’s social identity is equivalent to a shared group identity, and is only meaningful in relation to others’ group identities. According to them, this is because people naturally strive to create distinctiveness between their own group and another in a way that puts their own group in a positive light, thus raising their self-‐esteem. The desire to raise one’s own self-‐esteem then goes hand in hand with attempting to strengthen their social identity. Therefore Turner claims that all intergroup behavior can be characterized as “a process of competition for positive identity” (as cited in Hogg & Williams 2000:87), or at least what one believes to be a positive identity. Furthermore, he argues that the behaviors associated with achieving a positive identity are based on internalized representations of societal-‐level belief systems and ideologies.
Tajfel and Turner later extended their social identity theory with what they have
termed “self-‐categorization theory” (as cited in Hogg & Williams 2000:88). This theory is said to be applicable when one’s social identity has become so psychologically salient that their self-‐perception is no longer in terms of their individual properties, but in terms of shared group attributes. They found that the individual self in this situation is supposedly replaced by a prototypical collective group self through a process of depersonalization.
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Social psychologists Hogg and Williams (2000) point out some fallacies in Tajfel and
Turner’s social identity theory, namely that the theory depends upon a very specific social context and a much better understanding of the cognitive processes of motivation. Tajfel and Turner gravely overlook the dynamics of internalizing societal beliefs, which they merely assume to be an invariable process indicative of one’s identity. In its entirety, social identity theory seems excessively reductionist and leaves individual agency somewhat out of the equation. It also considers all groups to be of the same value to its persons and fails to account for the variety of types of groups for which we can derive a concept of our individual selves. Some of the many types of groups and possible identities that overlap each other not addressed in this theory are those associated with religion, family, work, social organizations, and ethnicity, among several others. There is also no real place where the notion of transnationality, or hyphenated nationalities and ethnicities fit into this theory of social identity formation, as is the case of the Azorean immigrants in California.
Immigrant Identity
Psychologist John W. Berry (1997) addresses the issue of immigration in relation to
the process of acculturation and the refashioning of one’s identity. Acculturation, as defined by Berry, is the general developments both cultural and psychological, of intercultural contact. He constructs a very intricate framework of how immigrants might adapt to the new cultural societies they are faced with. In all, it is a very descriptively categorized and well-‐formulated theoretical starting point for analyzing the possible community-‐level and psychological outcomes of immigration. It also gives way to understanding the variable manners in which immigrants might possibly identify themselves. His framework takes into account the social context of both the immigrant’s old cultural environment and the
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one they have entered into, as well as individual and group level variables. From my following examination of Berry’s acculturation framework it should be evident how his categorical approach to such a dynamic phenomenon, although very valuable and useful, leaves room for much inaccuracy.
Although acculturation includes several variables, and is experienced differently by
dissimilar cultural groups, the process itself, Berry (1997) argues, is a constant. He proposes that there are four basic discernable outcomes for immigrants, based on the four “acculturation strategies” that he has found them to use. The four “strategies”, in reference to the processes and end results of acculturation, are “integration”, “assimilation”, “separation/segregation”, and “marginalization” (Berry 1997). He finds that these strategies are primarily based on cultural maintenance, the type of intercultural contact, and the degree to which each interacting cultural group, or groups, participate with each other. The four strategies, essentially the actions and possible outcomes of immigrants, are centered around two major issues, the answers of which should determine an immigrant’s style of adaptation and consequentially their lifestyle according to Berry (1997). The first issue is whether or not it is important to the immigrant to maintain his or her identity and characteristics, and the second is if they have a desire to develop a relationship with the larger society they have immigrated into. If both of these concerns are valuable to the immigrant then they will use the “integration” strategy. This strategy requires a collective acceptance of cultural diversity by the larger society and Berry claims it is the most successful for both immigrants and society. If only the latter issue is of value to the immigrant, then they will use the “assimilation” strategy. This implies that they are okay with discarding their current sense of identity and adopting an entirely new one based on
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the ideologies and discourses of the larger society. If only the first issue was of value to the immigrant, alongside other group and individual variables, including the level of acceptance of cultural diversity by larger society then the “separation/segregation” or “marginalization” strategy would inevitably result. This implies that either the hosts of such immigrants would ostracize them based on widespread prejudice views, or that immigrants would try to separate themselves entirely from larger society by their own volition. Berry (1997) does acknowledge that due to varying degrees of cultural, personal, and structural assimilation, immigrants often feel as if they are in two worlds at once, implying that there are different levels at which the strategies can be applied to, such as in the home versus in public. He also notes that the psychological acculturation of individuals is a personal matter and that individuals are affected by “acculturative stress” differently, more commonly known by psychologist Oberg’s (1960) term “culture shock” (as cited in Berry 1997:13). However Berry strongly asserts that given these considerations, immigrants will still eventually use some formulation of his four basic strategies to an overarching degree.
Although Berry’s acculturation framework for immigration is quite extensive, it
fundamentally lacks individual differences, as it is so broad and abstract. Collectivist social scientists such as Berry, and Tajfel and Turner, treat culture as a “monolithic concept” suggesting that all the persons of a cultural group truly subscribe to the same values and beliefs, and share common patterns with each other (Lazarus 1997). This is a highly problematic assumption in that it overlooks the ability that people and immigrants have to change behaviorally and psychologically during certain phases of their lives, and even from
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day to day. People and their thoughts are not necessarily static; therefore they cannot be subject to fixed categorizations like those that Berry has proposed.
In a study on immigrants’ social identity conducted by Adi Mana, Emda Orr, and
Yossi Mana (2009), the researchers attempted to create an integrated acculturation model of immigrant identity based on both Berry’s acculturation framework and Tajfel and Turner’s social identity theory. They define “immigrant identity” as “the multiple constructs by which immigrants locate themselves in relation to their hosts” (Mana, Orr, & Mana 2009:255). This description allows them hypothetically to position an immigrant’s identity somewhere along the multidimensional continuum between some form of integration and the complete forfeiture of their identity. Though instead of looking for possible strategies of acculturation, they focused on the possible developments of an immigrant’s identity. They administered an “immigrant identity questionnaire” to high school students who had immigrated to Israel from either the former USSR or Ethiopia. Then, based on their results, they created four major categories of immigrant identity: “extended identity”, “identity loss”, “secluded identity”, and “rivalry identity”. The structure of their study almost mimics Berry’s (1997) framework except in that it focuses on emotion and self-‐identity, and that they argue for the possibility of an “extended” sense of identity, rather than an “integrated” one. They concluded that “extended identity” was the most common type of identity formation for these groups of immigrants. This study gives a different perspective of how immigrants might integrate with their larger society in revealing that they may be able to maintain their old sense of identity by redesigning it anew. However, the method of using a survey and statistical analyses does not bring us closer to understanding how, or possibly why immigrants produce and envision their
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“extended” identities as such. I would argue that the category of “extended identity” most likely encompasses many diverse configurations of identity and is much too ambiguous. Nonetheless, this study is valuable as a general view of the effects of immigration on identity, but it greatly lacks individuality, which is a key component of identity formation. Even though this study more closely addresses individual variation, it works toward resolving the matter by finitely categorizing persons and eliminating their personal expression. It offers yet again, similar to Berry, or Tajfel and Turner, a permanent representation of one’s identity that it is overall molded by their social and cultural environment. This denotes that identity can be thought of as a static configuration in which the actual person has seemingly little, or no ability to intervene in the formation of their identity. We should not hold persons to such general assumptions about human nature; rather they should be given the opportunity to depict themselves, and their own identities, outside of categorical boxes. The reductionist foundations of the social psychological theories I have heretofore outlined parallel the traditional anthropological concept of cultural relativity, which has its place, but which can also be taken too far, obscuring the agency and potentiality of actual persons. Thus, as I will now explore, if this style of relativism is overemphasized and taken to its extreme, it can greatly hinder our theory and social science concerning human beings.
Cultural Relativism and Determinism Cultural relativism is the principle that there are no absolutes or universals, but rather that everything is culture-‐specific and subject to one’s cultural context. This suggests that behavior, epistemes (accepted systems of knowledge), personalities, and identities are only relative to one’s culture. Furthermore, the persons of any particular culture can then
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only understand the world through his or her cultural lens, that is, how their cultural environment has socialized them. An example of this concept is how some cultures might identify certain animals as domesticated pets, while others might recognize them as possible foods, and that both of them would have a difficult time understanding the other’s point of view. Although the idea of relativism from a cultural standpoint has its benefits in helping us understand others through their own environmental and possibly psychological contexts, some take it too far as to argue that culture can actually wholly determine persons. Culture, in this sense, becomes more of a constraint than anything else in that people are not seen as innovators; rather they are just followers of cultural standards put in place before their birth. Alhough there are different degrees of the concept of cultural determinism, its basic premise holds that culture and all social interaction within its sphere are the predominant dynamics that model identity and personality formation.
It has been a constant argument in anthropology whether or not the social
development of persons is actively influenced, and to some extent determined by one’s culture, or if it is more of a dynamic process in which culture only plays a part. Ruth Benedict’s (1946) study on the national character of the Japanese and how their culture shapes their personal beliefs and behavior is a general example of the former line of thought. She examines the cultural customs of the Japanese in order to encounter personality features that unify them as homogenous members of a nation and culture. I cannot go into all the intricacies of her work in this overview of the more recent theories of identity formation, but throughout her ethnography she often suggests that persons have some type of national character embedded into them from how they are socialized by their upbringing and interaction in their specific cultural environment. This type of ethnographic
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work presumes that there are certain basic dispositions in individuals to have the same goals as their social institutions, and that there can be some type of prototype individual. In framing the normative Japanese person, Benedict presupposes that persons can internalize national discourses to the degree that they can determine one’s personality, identity, and consequently their behavior. This also mirrors Tajfel and Turner’s assertion that individual behavior is the effect of the internalization of societal-‐level beliefs. She claims that this style of cultural inheritance does not differ much from generation to generation, allowing us to conceive of cultures as somewhat static entities with certain types of persons. This does leave room for some variation in regards to persons and their identities, but she does not specify how exactly this might happen during the transference of culture from one generation to the next. In my opinion the process of cultural transmission and its effect on persons is one of the central starting points in understanding persons as members, or rather contributors of a group. Her personification of Japanese culture and its persons through the use of the totalizing label, “Japan”, in which she also refers to as a “her”, exemplifies her presumption that cultures can be thought of as entities, and therefore its persons as just copies of some basic cultural script.
Another deterministic concept stemming from the social sciences is that of a cultural
model or schema. Philosopher Immanuel Kant was one of the first to propose the idea of a schema in the western world (as cited in Siegler & Alibali 2004:28). He claimed that we possess schemas for our perception of space, time, class, causality, and other such topics, and that these schematized models are innate. Developmental psychologist Piaget (as cited in Siegler & Alibali 2004:29) also believed that our knowledge – the ways we know and understand the world – is schematized. However, after several widespread studies on
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human development and cognition, he came to the conclusion that these categorical schemas were not innate as Kant had claimed, but rather they are learned and acquired during childhood, infancy, and adolescence.
Cognitive anthropologists have also built upon schema theory, especially in
reference to culture. The concept of a schema in this subfield is often referred to as a “cultural model”, which Roy D’Andrade (1987:112) has defined as a cognitive schema that is intersubjectively shared by a social group. Thus everyone unconsciously (and possibly consciously at times) knows and understands the schema, and they know that everyone else knows it as well. Furthermore, they know that others know that they know it too. These cultural models serve as the basis for proper communication between individuals. A schematic cultural model turns interpretations of the world into basic facts, or rather common sense. An example of a cultural model that most Americans might have is the concept of what particular kind of food goes with what time of the day, and that there should be three meals in a day. These interpretive frameworks form a sort of “mental lens” (Holland 1992:68) for how to go about comprehending the world and acting accordingly. We have cultural models for religion, lawfulness, time, morality, and just about everything one can think of. According to this theory, we presumably learn and internalize these models through our interactions with others in a particular cultural environment. We can think of this process of socialization as possibly beginning in the home, but which goes on to become heavily influenced by formal educational settings (i.e., kindergarten, elementary school, etc.). Though, again a major issue not examined here is how exactly persons might cognitively internalize such models through their interactions with others in a particular context.
Psychological anthropologist Melford Spiro (1984) emphasizes that there is a
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distinct difference between learning and enculturation. The latter signifying the processual internalization of some form of national character or shared mental schema. He finds that culture is not deterministic, but instead it is more like a set of propositions, which refer to things like behavior, thoughts, persons, and identities. Learning these propositions is the act of acquiring them into one’s repertoire of how to go about comprehending the world (and themselves). Enculturation, on the other hand, is the internalization of these propositions as personal beliefs, which then govern the actions of individuals and their thought processes. Whether or not one internalizes such cultural suggestions depends on the “cognitive salience” of the proposition for the individual, which rests on several factors (Spiro 1984:328). For a cultural proposition to become internalized as a personal belief is a process that Spiro believes should not be overlooked and taken for granted, as is the case in much collectivist human theory, which highlights the existence of a widespread national character, or group identity among the persons of a cultural community. Accordingly, Spiro (1984:344) claims that he has found the discipline of anthropology to have turned into the study of “men” – groups of people supposedly incomparable to other groups due to their cultural relativity – from its initial stance as the study of “man”.
Culture is Not Omnipotent There is a conscious experiential essence of individuality in every human being, which allows for the creation of novel ideation and action. Thus if we imagine cultures as deterministic of their persons, it becomes very problematic, because persons are not solely the products of enculturation. Not to say that one’s cultural context is not powerful in influencing their beliefs or guiding their actions, but it is surely not deterministic of their
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thoughts and behavior. Also, I admit that a certain degree of cultural relativism is necessary in order to apprehend that the subjective realities of individuals from different cultures differ due to their particular social contexts and environmental surroundings. However, experience-‐based realities are not so similar among the persons within a particular cultural community either. It is essential to note that personal subjectivities vary according to certain social, cultural, historical, linguistic, and also idiosyncratic contexts. Individual selves not only consist of identities, which are subject to change, but they are primary contributors to these alterations, and in many ways, they create their own identities. Culture is not the omnipotent force it is often assumed to be, rather persons are those in control. Spiro (1987) has claimed that, as a part of our biological nature, there are certain “invariant psychological characteristics” which make us human and which cannot be superseded by notions of cultural relativity (Spiro 1987:26). Some of these are: the religious and spiritual notions of a higher power, our innate desire to procreate in order to continue our genetic lineage and species, that there are at least similar qualities to what people of different cultures have recognized as emotions, among many other features that make humans so relatable to one another within and across cultural groups. Spiro (1987) argues that the variability of cultural groups does not signify that they are so different than one another, and conversely, the similarity of cultural groups does not imply that their persons are so similar to one another. Moreover, the persons within a cultural group therefore do not need to exhibit similar personalities or conceive of their identities in the same ways either. Not all Americans are the same, nor are they so different than the
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persons of other cultures, and in regards to this ethnography, not all Portuguese-‐Americans are the same or identify the same way, as my research will later exemplify. Anthropological studies of national character like Benedict’s (1946) work are still very invaluable to anthropology, though additional ethnographic research must be conducted to see how persons deviate from national ideologies, how they might be enculturated to them, and how they play around with them in different social contexts in order to achieve possible personal goals; this is what I would constitute as the study of “man”. Psychological anthropologist Daniel Linger (2001) has identified that there is often a gap between the formal representations of a nation, usually created by those with hegemonic power, and the personal narratives of the nation. I add that this is also true in regards to the inconsistencies between the systematic views of culture and how persons actually depict their own culture when asked. Furthermore, the varying discussions people have in response to such prescribed discourses are due to their collective life experiences and their mindfulness at that moment. They are “adaptive, reflective, creative, transformative, [and] unpredictable” according to Linger (2001:276). Not only do past experiences shape one’s take on certain ideologies and discourses, but it also depends on how they feel at that point in their life, or that day even. It depends on who is asking them, where they are, the social and political contexts at the time, how strongly they feel about the subject, and multiple other factors. This is not to say that an anthropologist cannot infer one’s emotional and narrative response to a topic, but it depends on several dynamics just as these, which need to be taken into account. Persons and their thoughts are not static or cohesively determined by any one thing, not national discourses, and not even their culture.
As culture cannot determine individual personalities and identities, cognitive
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schemas based on culture have their limitations as well. Dorothy Holland (1992) has found that schema theory and cultural models do not account for the multiple interpretations of social situations in which one must find a social or psychological balance. A common case for individuals is that they must achieve some sort of compromise between leading a life of self-‐fulfillment based on personal interests, or that of a familial nature. Although there might be particular cultural answers to this predicament, there are almost always other personal factors involved, which influence the decisions of individual persons. Thus, one can never determine exactly how any person is really going to act in certain situations. These models can however probably account for the many distinct situations that do have specific cultural interpretations for how to act. Though complications stemming from social interactions and decision-‐making arise almost daily and random formulations of social situations, which have no fixed culturally modeled interpretations, are bound to occur. Holland (1992:72) concludes that these psychologically messy situations can cause one to act outside of their pre-‐existing schemas and abandon their normative interpretations of situations; thus showing that one’s culture does not ultimately control their behavior, but rather individuals can negotiate its propositions on their own terms. Moreover, problematic situations of this kind are common for immigrants in their day-‐to-‐day lives. They essentially have two schemas to go by, one of which they are most likely constantly learning and acquiring. Their navigation through life becomes a continuous negotiation of schematized possibilities, in which novel thought and behavior is likely to occur.
Culture does not always have an answer, for social scientists or its persons. Rather
than looking for what culture does explain and where it falters, we should begin with
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understanding persons from their own particular viewpoints. To move towards understanding the social and cultural nature of humanity, it is essential to comprehend the personal and the psychological. As stated earlier, there are certain social and psychological aspects inherent in all human beings (Spiro 1987). Anthropologist Robert I. Levy (1984) recognizes this consistency; yet he adds that some of these characteristics, as they are manifested in different cultures, are “hypercognized” and some are “hypocognized”. Things that are hypercognized are those that a culture has taken more focus to and which its persons eventually come to consider as normative understandings. Thus, that which is hypercognized inevitably has a large number of cultural models for interpreting them. Conversely, those that are hypocognized are those with a lack of models, and for which culture has no explanations, or any real answers for its persons. Thus, they are forced into the covert psychological spaces of individuals, in which persons are made to create their own interpretations based on their personal experiences. In many ways immigration is one of these hypocognized facets of life, which is not necessarily a part of every person’s life. However in our present-‐day globalized world many are forced to immigrate, to receive immigrants into their nations, or are at least faced with the issue. Hence there comes about many different understandings and experiences of immigration depending on how one has come into contact with it.
The True Locus of Culture
Culture is not a “thing” although it is often referred to as so, it is not a mere object or
a static entity. Thus anthropologists and other social scientists must refrain from its reification, or at the least be weary of when they are possibly unconsciously doing so. I admit that it is difficult to abstain from the use of figurative language, which presents
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culture to be thought of as a physical entity, and I am certain that within this thesis I myself have conveyed such figurations. It is crucial that social researchers realize the unspoken ramifications of this type of reification concerning the conception of culture. When social researchers objectify or personify culture it becomes deceitfully tangible as if it were actually some natural physical force or organism. Consequentially, it is often ascribed agency and authoritative power making it seem more powerful than individuals. However, only persons have these types of qualities, and we must never forget that. Any and all conceptions of culture must, at their core, seriously attend to persons and their subjective realities, because only actual persons have the agency to learn, contribute to, reproduce, and propagate their culture across both land and the generations.
Linguist and Anthropologist Edward Sapir (1949) creatively expressed his concern
for the withdrawal of persons from culture theory optimum in declaring that their authoritative power and agency be rightfully returned to them. He recognized the habitual reification of culture in anthropology, what he (1949:515) referred to as “so-‐called culture”, and defined as a “systematic list of all the socially inherited patterns of behavior which may be illustrated in the actual behavior of all or most of the individuals in a group”. I add that often symbols, organizational structures, and other social constructs make up a part of this systematized list. This common catalogue-‐style portrayal of culture is a construction created by the cultural anthropologist, as well as his informants. Methodologically, this limits the possibilities of how to conceive of a culture in that the academically produced list is simply the consensus of anthropologists and those who agree to help them, presumably with honest intentions. This significantly misses the most vital aspect of any culture, that is, its persons and their inherently social nature. In Sapir’s (1949:515) words, much of culture
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theory wrongfully omits the “true locus of culture”, what he defines as the interactions of individuals and their individual worlds of meanings that each of them abstract for themselves consciously, and possibly unconsciously from these interactions. Moreover, he (1949:581) claims that if we do not value the “nuclei of consciousness”, that is, persons, from which all science, art, history, and so-‐called culture has come from, then, “we commit personal suicide”. Without persons, their minds, and their interactions, human cultures would not exist. Linger (2009) agrees that human theory has attributed too much authority and prestige to “culture” rather than to its persons. He argues that the view of culture as a systematic set of public symbols cannot exist without minds, and that symbols by themselves do not contain singular meanings. In fact, he claims that symbols are only “tokens of communication”, void of any meaning at all; rather actual persons imbue them with meaning. Thus, instead of studying people as if they are intrinsically relative to their so-‐called culture, anthropologists, and all social researchers, should begin by analyzing the variability of subjective individual experience, and from there distinguish any recurrences they discover along the way that might be seen as typical, deviant, or entirely original of their cultural community. Sapir (1949) found that not all informants depicted their culture in the same way, and that some had controversial views according to what might be derived as normative from most persons of that culture. However these dissonant interpretations of culture must be taken as factual, for culture is not an objective reality, rather it is the combination of several varied personal realities. Just because we cannot formulate a systematically “correct” version of culture, does not mean that culture does not exist. Linger (2001:11) argues that these “diverse (even contradictory) understandings are the very stuff of culture”. The concept of culture is of a purely metaphysical nature, unable
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to be conceived of as a physical entity and we must recognize that at all times. If we do not attend to the individual subjective realities of persons and test out our social and culture theory against them, then the reality of any cultural group becomes just a mere consensus of opinion.
The systematic top-‐down approach to culture based more on theory than
experiential realities are exceptionally misled, though they are invaluable for further person-‐centered research. Linger (2001:12) claims these “extrapersonal” approaches to studying culture as I have exemplified in both social psychology and anthropology are indispensible to their disciplines. However he (2001:12) clarifies that they are incomplete and potentially misleading without the “intrapersonal dimensions of culture” found in the minds of individuals. We must not mistake the map for the actual territory, that is, the social and culture theory for the actual persons and social interactions. This undermines the personally subjective diversity within cultures, which makes behavior and thought highly unpredictable, and which deviates from the norms of our highly acclaimed theoretical views of a reified culture. In sum, the more advanced our social theory becomes, the more enclosed and dispensable persons become (Linger 2001:305).
Anthropologist Jean Briggs (1998) and cultural psychologist Barbara Rogoff (2003)
have also found these previous notions of culture as too powerful of an indicator of its persons in our human theory. In their contemporary work they exemplify the need for a bottom-‐up approach to social science, which begins with people. Briggs (1998) observed a 3-‐year-‐old Inuit girl in a recent ethnographic study of hers, just one person and her social interactions. This is highly unusual for an anthropological work, although without concentrating on the subjectivity of an individual, especially during their child stages of
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development, how are we to understand how culture is passed down? Anthropology has often concerned itself with adult perceptions of culture, ignoring the view of the youth and even children, who indeed have a large impact on their cultural community. Briggs concluded that cultures and persons do not have totalities, and that culture is more like a “bag of ingredients” (1998:14). Persons use these ingredients, what Spiro (1984) would call propositions, to actively recreate their culture, while at the same time their cultural environment affects their own development. By this view, persons should be thought of as having some sort of cultural repertoire in which they can use or discard according to the situation. There is no singular view of culture, nor is there a way to acquire a total and fixed set of understandings as people and their world are constantly changing.
Rogoff’s (2003) examination of the cultural nature of human development in
different communities across the globe led her to a similar conclusion as Briggs. She found that people and their cultural communities mutually constitute each other, and that the individual participation in these communities is culture itself. People contribute to the creation of cultural processes and those processes in turn contribute to the creation of persons. Moreover, Rogoff argues that we have taken the metaphorical abstraction of culture as an external influence that molds individuals much too far. In her opinion, culture should be thought of as the interplay between persons and the cultural customs that have persisted in their particular cultural community. This change in perspective allows us to see more clearly that culture is in a constant flux due to the way it is grappled with and created anew by persons. Thus, social scientists should reposition their gaze to the variability of subjective experience, and how persons correspondingly reshape their own cultural environments, and their own identities.
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A heuristically helpful conception of culture proposed by Theodore Schwartz (1978)
is his distributive model of culture that takes into account the diversity and commonality of persons within cultural communities. In this radical model he defines persons as having distinct “idioverses”, which can be understood as an all-‐encompassing term for their personhood. It is an individual’s total set of implicit constructs in a cultural system, which they themselves have derived from their personal experiences; it is their personal portion of their culture. Schwartz (1978:425) adds that these constructs are “simultaneously cognitive, evaluative, and affective mappings of the structure of events and classes of events, both past and possible, real and hypothetical”. In short, they are the personal schemas, which individuals have formulated for themselves. In the distribution of a culture each idioverse is assigned a locus according the structures of commonality and difference among them ranging from the idiosyncratic to the universal. This way we can map out the subjective realities of persons to see what things might be normative, where certain aspects differ and how, and to construct a graphic representation of culture. This model is systematic, yet concerns itself with persons and their individuality. However a major downfall to designing distributions in this way is that people change over time and in different contexts, and it would be very time consuming to adequately collect the accounts of all the idioverses within a cultural group. In other words, it would be very difficult to multi-‐dimensionally graph individual idioverses, since persons could potentially belong to several cultures or distinct groups at different times, which would overlap with others in certain ways, but not all, hence the concept of the idioverse. Nevertheless, the framework that Schwartz has devised is one that should be pursued further, and which has much
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promise in that he understands where culture is truly found, in the minds and interactions of individuals.
Self and Identity
As I have discussed the nature of individuals and the formation of their identities, I
must distinguish the difference between a self and an identity as to not confuse one with the other, or have them thought of as interchangeable. According to Sökefeld (1999), the “self” is that reflexive sense in every human being enabling him or her to consciously distinguish himself or herself from everything else. It is a universal aspect of human nature that he argues should be recognized by all social sciences, since there has often been a debate over whether or not all cultures have a distinct sense of self. From his (1999) research on a non-‐individualistic society, Sökefeld found one of his informants to have acted outside of his common cultural schema when social conflicts arose. Thus, he concluded that no matter the kind of society or culture, persons have the capacity to generate novel behavior and thought by means of their conscious selves. Linger (2001:309) describes the self, or the “I”, as one which makes “dizzying moves” making it impossible to discern one’s identity or future behavior. He (2001:308) adds that the self is constituted by a “constellation of ego-‐perspectives”. In other words, the self is composed of an array of identities, which can all perceive external stimuli in their own particular way. For example, the same person could understand an event or occurrence in several ways according the different identities they might possess. They could see it from their possible viewpoint as a father, as a worker, as a male, as a husband, or even as an immigrant. Due to the generative quality of a self to act outside of their
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cultural schema, Linger (2001:311) argues that selves can intervene in their own identity construction, thus illustrating the plasticity of identity.
Moreover, Sökefeld (1999:419) claims that, “there can be no identities without
selves”, and that all experiences and identities are subordinate to the self. However identities are not compartmentalized or separate from each other, instead they are interrelated, as they are all encompassed by the same conscious self. This is what Sökefeld (1999) calls the “intersectionality of identities” exhibited by individual selves. Through their interrelation, identities do not remain the same; rather their meaning is constantly being changed due to how they refer to each other. In conclusion, selves and identities are intrinsically interconnected and one cannot exist without the other, though they are not at all the same thing.
Conclusion
As demonstrated by this review of the more recent theoretical trends in how to
frame identity formation, it seems exceptionally necessary that we continually apply and rework our models of culture and persons in order to test their validity and come closer to comprehending human nature. In consideration of the flexibility of identity by means of self-‐conscious persons, we must pay more attention as social researchers to the power and agency which individuals possess in developing not only themselves, but also their cultural environments. This examination of social theory has ranged from the more deterministic studies like that of Benedict (1946) to the contemporary individualistic and psychologically driven theories of human nature. It should make very apparent that many of our armchair notions of culture and persons are quite underdeveloped in regards to the subjective experiences of actual persons.
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As there are already many systematic narrative views of cultures and peoples, we
must now turn to individuals and their subjective accounts of their own culture. The persons of a culture are similar on countless levels, but it is their dissimilarities and variability that we must also investigate to better our understanding of human beings. Furthermore, in an increasingly globalized world with cultures overlapping with each other at an accelerating rate it is imperative that we take a bottom-‐up approach to examining culture and human nature, since persons and lifestyles are becoming more and more culturally complex. Thus, to understand the development and natural qualities of persons and culture we must observe how they mutually create each other, and how persons create and negotiate their own identities in various contexts.
In the next section, before I examine the different accounts of the Portuguese-‐
American experience in California I have gained through my interviews with the first-‐ and second-‐generation, I will portray the socio-‐historical context in which they came to California, and how they have successfully integrated into society since then. To better comprehend the experience of Portuguese-‐Americans in California, it is necessary to know why they came to California and how their cultural repertoire that they brought with them has transformed over time. As I have mentioned earlier, this systematic and historical approach to depicting a cultural community is indispensible, though still incomplete without the subjective viewpoints of individual minds.
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Historical Background
Following the previous chapter in which I reflected upon the proper theoretical
considerations concerning this ethnographic study, hopefully I have made it convincing enough that the true focus of any inquiry into the lives of Portuguese-‐Americans in California should be centered on individuals and their varying thoughts and experiences. In this section I present a multidimensional historical background of Azorean immigration to the United States, primarily California, and of the lifestyles and conditions these immigrants have faced up to present-‐day. The portrayal of Portuguese-‐Americans that follows is a more systematized account and will not descriptively go into the actual individual lives of these immigrants. Alone, this is not sufficient to depict the multiple meanings of what it may be like to be a modern day Portuguese-‐American. Nonetheless it is indispensible in attempting to conjure up a holistic view of the current Portuguese-‐ Americans in California, and the cultural and social adaptations they have undergone, since roughly the 1990s up to present times.
Azorean Immigration to California
I title this section “Azorean Immigration to California” as opposed to using the
national term “Portuguese” because, out of the Portuguese that immigrated to the United States, the majority of them were from the Azores islands (Pap 1992:35,98). However the very first Portuguese, and first westerner, to ever set foot on California was João Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542, also known as Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, which many Portuguese-‐ Americans like to recognize since it is not commonly known that he was Portuguese (Dias 2009:11). Azorean immigration to the United States and California can be thought of as having occurred in two major migrations interrupted by a period of dormancy due to
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legislature, which basically closed off immigration (Pap 1992:79). The first migration of Azoreans began in 1849 with the start of the California Gold Rush, and started out slow in terms of the number of them that were coming to California (Dias 2009:19; Pap 1992:66; Williams 1982:7). It greatly took off around the 1900s and lasted until about 1921 when Portuguese immigration to the United States started to diminish (Pap 1992:35, 80). It was not until 1958 that Azoreans would again start immigrating to California and the United States (Dias 2009:21; Pap 1992:95). Azorean immigration became very consistent at this time until the 1980s when it began to decline again, and since then there have not been any mass migrations from the Azores or mainland Portugal to these territories.
Before one can understand the nature of Azorean immigration to California and the
lifestyles of these immigrants, it is necessary to know a little about where they came from and how they lived before emigrating from their island villages. Susana Costa (2008) has recently provided a very dense, yet concise historical account of the Azores islands and its inhabitants, which I will be referring to. The Azores are an archipelago of nine islands located in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, which collectively occupy 2,329.67km2, though individually the islands are relatively small. They are divided into the eastern, central, and western groups of islands. The eastern group is made up of the islands of Santa Maria and São Miguel. The central group is comprised of the islands of Terceira, Graciosa, São Jorge, Faial, and Pico, and the western group includes the islands of Flores and Corvo. The Azores islands have a moderately humid climate and have been plagued by periods of seismic activity since their origin. Cartographers mapped the Azores islands, subsequently settled by Portugal and other European countries, under the Portuguese crown in the 15th century. By the 20th century there was little economic opportunity or upward social
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mobility on the islands, and overpopulation became very problematic (Williams 1982:64). This was partly because of the very limited amount of usable land on the islands due to elevation restrictions. Many commercial crops came and went, but none ever gave the Azores long-‐lasting wealth. This struggle started during the 1800s with pineapples, tea, tobacco, and oranges (Williams 1982:61). Nowadays the most important industrial products are those made from milk. Raising cattle, pigs, poultry, fishing, and at one time whaling were also very important to the economy of the Azores. In addition, familial ties have been essential to the organization and function of the islands, based on the typical western European monogamous couple and nuclear family structure. As for religion, the Catholic faith was the key unifying common belief throughout the Azores, though the church’s popularity has notably fluctuated since the 20th century. Ever since Portuguese settlers began to arrive on the islands they have struggled to obtain political autonomy from Portugal, which was only achieved in 1976 after the reign of the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar (1928-‐1974). As for the islands’ relationship with the United States, their political connection was established during World War II when the U.S. was given access to use the Azorean airbases. Even today there are U.S. troops stationed on the airbase of the island of Terceira. This is a very brief overview of the Azores, but it will help in understanding how and why some Azoreans immigrated to California and have decided to settle there for over the last century. From the 1850s up until the 1880s, which we may consider the beginning of the first wave of Portuguese, or rather Azorean immigration, many came on the New England whaling fleets and jumped ship once they arrived at the California coast (Dias 2009:19; Williams 1982:7). This was a very viable way to reach California for Azoreans, since during
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this time one-‐third of the New England whaling ships were Portuguese with mainly Azoreans on board (Dias 2009:19). The quest for gold quickly faded for these immigrants and they went on to work cultivating fields, fishing, and raising cattle for milk production (Dias 2009:19). Many Azoreans also establishes whaling companies along the coast of California in several towns such as Half Moon Bay, Monterey, and San Diego at this time (Vaz 1965: 43). The majority of the Azorean immigrant population became concentrated around the San Francisco Bay Area (Williams 1982:41). In addition to the promise of the Gold Rush, many Azoreans decided to emigrate because of a potato rot and a new vineyard disease that greatly affected the agricultural productivity of the islands (Williams 1982:7). The following years saw an upsurge in the number of Portuguese coming to California and the United States. Between 1911-‐1920 there were 89,732 Portuguese immigrants that came to the U.S. (Pap 1982:35). This is a significant increase compared to the 14,082 that came during the years 1871-‐1880. Out of all of these Portuguese immigrants, nearly 70% were from the Azores islands. Some of them also came from Hawaii where they had immigrated to earlier, but chose to relocate because of their dissatisfaction with the work conditions on the sugar cane fields (Dias 2009:21). Many immigrants began to settle in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, the latter also known as the Central Valley of California (Pap 1992:68; Williams 1982:41). Those that went to the Central Valley predominantly made their living as dairy farmers. San Diego also experienced a revival of Portuguese in 1893, who later came to dominate the Tuna fishing industry by the 1930s (Pap 1992:68). Near the end of this first migration, there were 81,232 Portuguese in California as reported by the 1920 census, which made up 4.4% of the foreign-‐born population in California (Pap 1992:66).
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Between 1922-‐1958 there was a period of dormancy in which hardly any
Portuguese came to the United States (Pap 1992:79). Portuguese immigration reduced drastically from 2,520 people in 1921 to 503 people in 1924, to then only 440 people in 1929 (Pap 1992:80). In 1917 the United States had instated a Literacy Act that required all immigrants to be able to read and write (Pap 1992:79). Unfortunately for the Azoreans, many of them during this era were illiterate. Then in 1921 the United States issued the Immigration Act, which limited the quota number of immigrants permitted to come into the country (Pap 1992:79). The act was revised in 1924 lessening the quota further, which nearly cut off all immigration to the United States. During this period the concentrations of Portuguese immigrants were spread throughout California (Pap 1992:91). The San Francisco Bay Area still had a great number of Portuguese, as well as the nearby Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties. Oakland and San Jose were the principal urban centers where one could find Portuguese communities, and numerous Portuguese immigrants still remained in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.
After the first wave of immigration and nearly 40 years of no newcomers came the
second wave of Portuguese immigrants to the United States around 1958-‐1985, and again these immigrants were mainly Azoreans (Dias 2009:21; Pap 1992:95,98). They came primarily due to an unbalanced distribution of land, little opportunity for work or personal economic growth, and because of natural calamities that struck the Azores (Costa 2008:328). What made mass immigration to the U.S. possible for Azoreans and mainland Portuguese at this time was essentially the liberating of the quota system, and the growing political strength of Portuguese on the East Coast of the United States (Pap 1992:95).
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In 1957 there was a submarine volcanic eruption off the western end of the island of Faial, which rose up creating a new addition to the island (Pap 1992:94). It is referred to as the “Capelinhos” volcano (Williams 1982:103). Many earthquakes continued afterwards throughout the rest of 1957-‐1958. In response, the United States enacted the 1958 Azorean Refugee Act sponsored by senators John F. Kennedy (Massachusetts) and John Pastore (Rhode Island), which allowed 1,500 special immigrant visas outside the regular quota to be given (Dias 2009:22; Pap 1992:95). A 1960 amendment to the act raised the number of visas to 2,000 (to be used in 1962). Later in 1965 the Immigration and Nationality Act (effective 1968) was passed and eliminated the United States immigration quota system altogether (Pap 1992:95). This was extremely fortunate for Azoreans from the island of São Jorge because a serious earthquake hit them the year prior to the passing of this act. Although it was politically set up for many Azoreans to immigrate to the United States at this time, some still came clandestinely (Williams 1982:109). From 1965-‐1974 about 120,000 Portuguese immigrants came to the U.S., which is approximately 1,000 per month (Pap 1992:97). This is an enormous increase compared to the 14,500 Portuguese immigrants that came from 1950-‐1959. However this time around the sex ratio of immigrants was relatively even, since families were allowed to immigrate together, or join their male counterparts in the U.S. (Pap 1992:105).
Another reason why so many Azoreans decided to come to California as they had
done in the past was that over half of them had some personal tie to the U.S. (Pap 1992:96). The islands are relatively small, so it was very probable that nearly every person knew of someone who had immigrated to the United States, or at least that the possibility existed. At this time Portugal was under a dictatorship regime, which pushed the desire to
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immigrate even further, especially since many Azoreans felt that the archipelago was being treated as a second-‐grade province in comparison to the mainland (Pap 1992:96). However emigration from the islands declined around 1985, possibly due to the overthrow of the dictatorship in 1974 and their entry into the European Union in 1986 (Dias 2009:22).
This second wave of immigration starting around the 1960s revitalized the Azorean
ethnicity in California since new immigrants went to the same places that their ancestors had been immigrating to as of the late 19th century (Williams 1982:96). Although one should note that California did not attract as many Portuguese immigrants as the East Coast of the U.S. during these years (Williams 1982:128). This was in part due to the fact that California mainly had agricultural and rural-‐based opportunities for immigrants. That said, most of California’s new Azorean immigrants actually settled in urban areas, not rural ones.
Economic Conditions
A great number Azorean immigrants once made their living whaling, but throughout
the 20th century the Portuguese-‐American economy in California came to be centered on dairy farming, agriculture, the technology industry, and for some time tuna fishing (Dias 2009). Portuguese dairy farming has been one of the most important occupations up to date, which has fueled the economic ascent of many Portuguese-‐Americans in California (Dias 2009:28). It actually began with the first wave of Portuguese immigrants (1850s to about 1921) to California in Marin County and the San Joaquin Valley. However the tradition persisted and throughout the 20th century Portuguese dairy farms, or “leitarias”, made up a significant portion of California’s total number of dairies (Dias 2009:23; Pap 1992). By the 1970s one-‐half of the dairy farms in the San Joaquin Valley were owned and
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operated by Portuguese immigrant families, which altogether was one-‐third of the state’s total dairies (Pap 1992:152). Most of the Portuguese dairymen from this point on were from the island of Terceira, which is the center of the dairy industry in the Azores (Graves 2004:112; Pap 1992:200). However the Portuguese were also vegetable and fruit farmers. In fact, John B. Avila, an Azorean immigrant from the island of São Jorge introduced the sweet potato to California as a commercial crop in 1883 (Vaz 1965:60). Nowadays many dairy farmers also include crop operations into their businesses (Graves 2004:115). Though it was always common for them to have a vegetable garden and some barnyard animals for personal subsistence.
Many Portuguese made their wealth in the tuna fishing industry, namely those from
the Point Loma region of San Diego, which was actually established by Portuguese immigrants at the turn of the 20th century (Dias 2009:33). The industry reached its high point in the early 1970s but later declined in the second half of the 1980s due to environmental campaigns against the high number of dolphins that got caught in the tuna nets, and the territorial water limits instated by Latin America (Dias 2009:39-‐40). However by the early 1980s about 70% of those involved in the industry were Portuguese, which included both fishing and canning (Dias 2009:39). By the late 1990s only one tuna fishing boat remained registered in San Diego, and it was owned and commanded by a Portuguese immigrant (Dias 2009:42).
By the late 20th century many Portuguese immigrants in California, especially those
in the Santa Clara Valley (also known as the Silicon Valley due to the boom of the technology industry), ascended the “high-‐tech corporate ladder” to higher paying jobs (Dias 2009:58). This new wealth contributed to the Portuguese commercial district in San
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Jose known as “Little Portugal” where Azorean restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, merchandise shops, and travel and real estate agencies could be found (Dias 2009:57). Inasmuch as these immigrants were complete strangers to California and the United States, they capably found their economic niches and made their share of the wealth.
Fraternalism and Mutual-‐Aid Organizations Eduardo Mayone Dias (2009), who I have cited countless times in this thesis, states that the Portuguese fraternal societies in California doubtlessly “represent one of the most vigorous and dynamic mechanisms for unity, socialization, and mutual assistance…” (71). They began as a way to help those in need in the Portuguese communities in California by soliciting donations from their members, but they eventually turned into full fledged insurance companies, social clubs, and cultural centers (Dias 2009:71). For example, these fraternal groups would often accumulate funds to help the families of their recently deceased members. Collectively, these mutual-‐aid organizations made a kind of internal social security system for the Portuguese-‐American communities in California. They have a vast network of lodges, chapters, and councils throughout the state, as a part of their organizational hierarchies of state and local boards. These fraternal organizations have a Masonic nature to them in that their boards are comprised of individual positions such as Marshall, Inside Guard, and Outside Guard, each with their respective ceremonial functions (Pap 1992). They have monthly meetings and annual events, and have been instrumental in maintaining contact between the Portuguese communities spread about the state (Williams 1982:80). They instill a sense of pride in their members, reaffirm the ties between friends and family, and allow American-‐born Portuguese descendants to associate with others like
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themselves. However they were highly gender biased until after the mid 20th century in that membership was restricted to Portuguese males. The first Portuguese fraternal organization in California was the “Associação Portuguesa Protectiva e Beneficiente” (The Protective and Benevolent Portuguese Association, also known as the A.P.P.B.), founded in 1868 (Pap 1992:167). However it later became the Luso-‐American Fraternal Federation in 1957, complemented by its United National Life Insurance Society, later renamed the Luso-‐American Life Insurance Society in 1993 (Dias 2009:75). This fraternal organization also established the “Luso-‐American Education Foundation” in 1963 to promote the continuity and education of the Portuguese culture in California (Vaz 1965:87). There were also the U.P.E.C., I.D.E.S., S.E.S., and U.P.C. Portuguese-‐American fraternal societies. The U.P.E.C., União Portuguesa do Estado da Califórnia (Portuguese Union of the State of California), was founded in 1880 and did not allow full female membership until 1974 (Dias 2009:72). The I.D.E.S., Irmandade do Divino Espírito Santo (Brotherhood of the Holy Ghost), was founded in 1898 to promote the cult of the divine Holy Ghost of Catholicism (Dias 2009:73; Pap 1992). Around 1900 they made it compulsory to attend mass before their meetings. The S.E.S., Sociedade do Espírito Santo (Society of the Holy Ghost) was established in 1895, also to promote the Holy Ghost (Vaz 1965:137). The U.P.C., União Portuguesa Continental (Portuguese Continental Union) was the only fraternal society that was not founded by Azorean immigrants, but instead by mainland Portuguese immigrants in 1917. However they later merged with the A.P.P.B. to form the Luso-‐American Fraternal Federation and Life Insurance Society (Dias 2009:75; Vaz 1965:134). In spite of the male dominance of these societies, there were two all-‐female fraternal organizations, S.P.R.S.I. and U.P.P.E.C.. The former, known as the Sociedade
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Portuguesa Rainha Santa Isabel (Saint Queen Isabella Portuguese Society), was founded in 1898 (Dias 2009:74). The U.P.P.E.C., União Portuguesa Protectora do Estado da Califórnia (Protective Portuguese Union of the State of California), was later founded in 1901 (Dias 2009:74). I will later reveal what was to become of all these societies by the 21st century. I also feel the need to mention here the Cabrillo Civic Clubs and P.O.S.S.O (Portuguese Organization for Social Services and Opportunities). The Cabrillo Civic Clubs are a chain of Portuguese-‐American clubs started in the 1930s that recognized Juan Cabrillo’s (João Cabrilho) role as the first European to make it to California (Vaz 1965:161). P.O.S.S.O., on the other hand, is an organization, which greatly supports Portuguese-‐American senior citizens (Dias 2009:79).
Festas and Portuguese Halls
The festas (Portuguese for festival or party) are the focal point for social gathering
among the Azoreans in California. The different Portuguese-‐American communities in California travel to each other’s cities to participate in their formal festa celebrations. These festas occur almost every weekend all throughout the summer and remain visible in California as they ceased to exist in some areas of New England and Hawaii (Williams 1982:90). The most important festa is “A Festa do Espírito Santo” (The Festival of the Holy Ghost) (Dias 2009:63). It is celebrated from May-‐August in more than 90 locations in California. It celebrates the Holy Ghost of the divine trinity in the Catholic religion, and is also in remembrance of the generosity of Queen Isabella of Portugal (married to King Dom Dinis of Portugal) (Pap 1992:190). Although each Portuguese community in California celebrates this festa with their own style, they all serve free meals to those who attend as tradition. The dish prepared for the community is called “Sopas do Espírito Santo” (Soup of
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the Holy Ghost), or “Sopas” for short (Dias 2009:65). It is made of chunks of beef, boiled cabbage, and crusty bread soaked in a meat broth seasoned with fresh mint, sometimes complemented with kale or potatoes. There are several elaborative features to this festa. They always include a procession, or “parada” of “Mordomos” (Grand Marshalls), festa queens (adolescent girls dressed up as queens in honor of Queen Isabella), and philharmonic marching bands (Dias 2009:64). They often have auctions, known as “arrematações” (auctions), where one can buy “massa sovada” (Portuguese sweet bread), liquor, and other goods. Some evenings of auctions have made as much as $100,000 (Dias 2009:68). One could go on and on about the intricacies of this particular festa and its several manifestations all over California. It is constantly changing and growing, always involving the next generation of Portuguese-‐Americans, and takes a strong collaborative community effort to pull off. Aside from maintaining cultural traditions, these festas were (and still are) a way to introduce the Portuguese ethnicity to California and for Portuguese-‐ Americans to identify themselves in the context of American society. The Portuguese flags are always side-‐by-‐side to the American flag at these festas to represent the integration, but not abdication of the Azorean culture in California (Goulart 2003:11).
The second most important festa in California is “A Festa da Nossa Senhora dos
Milagres” (The Festival of Our Lady of Miracles) (Dias 2009:68). This festa is held in the town of Gustine in the San Joaquin Valley and began in 1936. It is also known as the “Festa da Serreta” in reference to where it was originally celebrated on the island of Terceira (Pap 1992:200). It is not uncommon for Azorean immigrants from the East Coast of the United States and even Canada to attend. In 1977, an estimated 28,000 people attended (Williams 1982:90). The festa extends for an entire week and almost always includes a “Bodo de
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Leite” (milk feast) and “Cantorias ao Desafio” (singing duels) (Dias 2009: 65; Pap 1992:200). The former is the free distribution of milk and Portuguese sweet bread rolls to those attending the festa, while the latter is a singing duel in the Portuguese language in which two or more vocalists battle through improvised verses for about an hour at a time. These two characteristics of the festa can also be seen to occur in the Holy Ghost festas mentioned earlier. There is also usually a Terceiran-‐style bullfight known as a “torada à corda” (Pap 1992:200). This type of bullfight involves the constraining of a bull by a rope being held by several men, but which is sometimes let go in order to allow the bull to charge at those who wish to get close enough to act like a bullfighter for the moment and evade the bull’s strike.
There are other types of formal Portuguese-‐American festas such as these, mainly
throughout the Central Valley, and almost always religiously centered (Dias 2009:68). A more community-‐based festa of a lesser scale than the festas previously mentioned is a “matança”, which is the killing and preparing of a pig for a large feast. Another popular festa is “A Festa Brava” (The Brave Festival), which is a bloodless bullfight (Dias 2009:68). These bullfights originated in the 1920s in California, and by the 1930s there were already bullfighting rings in San Pablo, Tracy, Tulare, and Los Banos. All the rings were named “Praça de Toiros de São João” (Saint John’s Public Square of Bulls) in homage of the bullring on the island of Terceira with the same name (Dias 2009:69). A Velcro patch covers the bull so that it is not harmed when spears are thrown at it – a loophole in California law. There are also the “Forçados” (in reference to the Portuguese word for pitchfork, yet literally translated as “The Forced”), commonly referred to as the “Suicide Squad” (Ranch Cardoso). These squads are typically made up of eight unarmed men that line-‐up and call the bull to
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charge them head on so that they can take it down and subdue it for the audience’s enjoyment. This may presumably be symbolic of the interaction between nature and humanity; or rather humankind’s perceived subjugation of natural life. Another popular festa is the “Festa da Bola” (Festival of the Ball) held in Artesia in Southern California, which is an annual soccer tournament that has been held since 1974 (Artesia D.E.S.). Last, there is “Dia de Portugal” (Portugal Day), Portugal’s national holiday that celebrates the great Portuguese writer and poet, Luís Vaz de Camões (Dia de Portugal California Committee). The first Dia de Portugal festival was held in 1966, sponsored by the Luso-‐ American Education Foundation. Nowadays it is organized by the Portuguese Heritage Society of California and held at Kelly Park in San Jose.
A vital part to nearly all of the festas aforementioned is the involvement of the local
Portuguese hall. Many of these halls were founded for the purpose of worshiping and celebrating the Holy Ghost as seen by their acronymic titles such as I.D.E.S (Irmandade do Espírito Santo – Brotherhood of the Holy Ghost) or S.E.S (Sociedade do Espírito Santo – Society of the Holy Spirit), and it is not uncommon for a town to have more than one hall (KLBS Radio; KSQQ Radio). These halls can be found in several places all over California such as Santa Clara, San Jose, Sacramento, Tulare, Thorton, Los Banos, Escalon, Manteca, Newark, San Leandro, Stockton, Modesto, Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Sausalito, Artesia, San Diego, and the list goes on (IDESST Sausalito Portuguese Hall; KLBS Radio; KSQQ Radio; The Santa Cruz Portuguese Hall; United Portuguese S.E.S. Hall). Many of these halls were built sometime in the first half of the 20th century, and some even as early as the late 1800s, though all of them are still heavily used today for festas, fundraisers, and other celebrations (Artesia D.E.S.; IDESST Sausalito Portuguese Hall; OurLosBanos.com; The Santa Cruz
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Portuguese Hall; United Portuguese S.E.S. Hall; Vaz 1965:137). These halls, along with the festa celebrations are the major physical features of the legacy of Azorean heritage in California.
Traditional Music and Dance
Two very important aspects of Portuguese-‐American life that cannot typically be
found in the literature on this hyphenated ethnicity are the philharmonic marching bands and folklore dance troupes. The philharmonic bands, referred to as the “filarmónicas” are involved in several of the festas and are usually associated with a local Portuguese hall (bandas filarmonicas). Many of the bands today were founded only as early as the 1970s, though they did once exist around the early 1900s, but those slowly faded away over the years (Portuguese Band of San José). Some of the filarmónicas are the Artesia DES band, the Portuguese Band of San Jose, the Sociedade Filarmónica Nova Aliança (The New Alliance Philharmonic Society – also in San Jose), the Filarmónica Recreio do Emigrante Português (The Recreation of the Portuguese Emigrant Philharmonic) in Newark, and there are many others throughout California (bandas filarmonicas). On the topic of music, there is also the “Casa Dos Açores de Hilmar” (The House of the Azores of Hilmar), in the town of Hilmar in the Central Valley (Casa Dos Acores, Inc.). It is an organization founded in 1977 to preserve the Azorean culture through music and dance (i.e., traditional Portuguese guitar and folklore dance rehearsals).
Portuguese folklore dancing has become very common in California and can be
found throughout the entire state. These dance troupes are referred to as “ranchos foclóricos” or “grupos foclóricos”, both essentially meaning folklore groups (VivaPortugal). Some examples of these groups are the “Retalhos Antigos” (Old Remnants) troupe in
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Artesia, “Portugal em Acção” (Portugal in Action) in San Leandro, and the newly formed group in Newark, “Vira Virou” (literally the Turned Turn – however the “vira” is a particular Portuguese dance style) (Bizapedia). Another place one can find Portuguese folklore dancing in California is at the Luso-‐American Annual Convention where there is a folklore dance competition between the various youth council groups (Luso-‐American Life Insurance Society). This Youth Theatrical Performance has been occurring since 1955, and there are currently over 400 youth members that perform each year. I must also mention the popular “Chamarita” dance, which is often danced at festas and other Portuguese-‐ American celebrations (Pap 1992:200). It is a group dance that requires an equal number of male and female participants in which everyone holds hands in a circle and follows the traditional calls of one male in the group who directs the dance. It is very common, and typically everyone knows how to follow the calls. Although many times there are some newcomers to the dance and mess-‐ups in following the calls, which make for an interestingly fun time.
Catholicism and Portuguese Churches
The shared faith in the Roman Catholic Church is commonly recognized as a basic
component of the cultural heritage of Azorean immigrants in California (Williams 1982:86). As early as 1880 there were Portuguese priests giving mass in the Portuguese language in the state (Pap 1992:179). St. Joseph’s Portuguese Church was built in Oakland in 1892 under the guidance of a Portuguese priest, though it was handed over to an Italian order of priests later on (Pap 1992:179). About half a dozen more Portuguese churches were built from this point on by the collective contribution of the Azorean communities in California (Pap 1992:180). However by 1965 urban development had wiped out all the Portuguese
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churches except for two, respectively in San Jose and Sacramento (Pap 1992:180). The Portuguese church in Sacramento is known as the “St. Elizabeth Catholic Church” and is still around today (Saint Elizabeth Catholic Church). The quite elaborative Portuguese Church in San Jose is referred to as the Five Wounds Church and was established in 1914, although its original Portuguese name is “A Igreja Nacional Portuguesa da Cinco Chagas” (The Five Wounds National Portuguese Church) (Dias 2009:58; Five Wounds Portuguese National Church). Many Portuguese halls have been built in the area surrounding this church. Only one more Portuguese church has since been built, and these three Portuguese churches are the last ones around up to date. This church was built in Turlock (Central Valley) in 1973 and is known as “Our Lady of the Assumption”, or as it is referred to in Portuguese as “Nossa Senhora da Assunção” (KLBS Radio; KSQQ Radio; Our Lady of the Assumption).
Azorean Food and Cuisine
As mentioned earlier, many Azorean foods are integrated with the festas. However
Azorean cuisine and foods can also be found in some other areas of California, although it is primarily shared between friends and family in the home. Import stores in the Portuguese commercial sector of California are known to sell “bacalhau” (salted cod fish), “linguiça” (pork sausage), “morcela” (blood sausage), “polvo” (octopus), “sardinhas” (sardines), and “chicharros” (horse mackerel) (Dias 2009:61). There are also Portuguese bakeries that often carry “pão português” (Portuguese bread – crusty bread rolls) and Portuguese sweet bread. Some other common Portuguese-‐American foodstuffs are sweet potatoes, “tremoço” (Lupine Seed), “filhós” (Portuguese-‐style fried donuts covered in sugar), fava beans, and homemade wine (Dias 2009:61; Pap 1992:213). It is typical for Azoreans in California to
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grow some of these foods such as sweet potatoes, fava beans, yams, grapes, and kale in their yards instead of buying them elsewhere (Dias 2009:61).
As for Portuguese restaurants, there are not many, and they are not highly
publicized either. There are currently four in California: LaSalette in Sonoma, Sousa’s Restaurant and the Bacalhau Grill in San Jose, and Grubstake in San Francisco (Citysearch; Bacalhau Grill & Trade Rite Market; Grubstake ; LaSalette Restaurant). It is much more common to find Portuguese eateries on the East Coast of the United States since there are larger Portuguese commercial boulevards and neighborhoods there (Dias 2009:60).
Language and Education
Education does not seem to have been one of the more important aspects of life for
the Portuguese immigrants in California, most likely because many of the earlier ones were illiterate (Pap 1992:79). This includes the teaching of the Portuguese language to the second-‐generation sons and daughters of Azorean immigrants. It is generally agreed upon that many second-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans do not speak the Portuguese language, though it was certainly not lost among all of them since many of them at least spoke at home with their parents (Williams 1982:93). A research study conducted by Frederick Williams (1980) also found the lack of Portuguese language skills in the second-‐ generation to be true to the extent that some of them did not consider the language an essential part of their ethnic identity. The third-‐generation, on the other hand, usually becomes unilingual in English, as it is common for their second-‐generation parents to lose connection with the Portuguese-‐American festas and fraternal organizations, and to marry non-‐Portuguese partners (Williams 1982:93). If it wasn’t for the continual stream of Portuguese immigrants to California throughout the 20th century, the Portuguese language
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may have disappeared altogether (Williams 1980:725). Dias (2009) recognizes that there once were English-‐Portuguese bilingual programs in California, but that they have basically become extinct. This activism in keeping the language alive was primarily in the 1970s because federal funding was starting to be provided for bilingual programs in schools (Williams 1980). There was even the first state conference on Portuguese bilingual education in San Diego in 1977 sponsored by the state education department. However nowadays schools or programs that teach the Portuguese language are generally scarce.
The permeation of English into the Portuguese language has been a common
occurrence since the early years of Azorean immigration to California. The anglicization of Portuguese names was a very prevalent practice in which names such as José and João became Joe or Joseph, and John (Bohme 1956:235). However the most fascinating interplay between the Portuguese and English languages is what Dias (2009:81) has labeled “Portinglês”. It is the style of Portuguese in California that has been conditioned by American English. Above all, it is the creation of a new vocabulary that refers to daily life and work (Dias 2009:84). More than just a heavy immigrant accent and the usage of English terms here and there while speaking Portuguese, the Portuguese communities of California have created an entirely new vernacular. These immigrants have made new verbs based on English words such as “afordar” and “raivar”, respectively signifying “to afford something” and “to drive” (Pap 1992:204). Sometimes they use Portuguese words, which sound similar to English words, falsely in a new context. For example, the use of the Portuguese word “grosserias” (rudeness) is sometimes used to signify groceries, or “frisa” (theatre balcony) to refer to a freezer. Azorean immigrants have also created entirely new words that approximate the sound of the English word. Some examples of this occurrence
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are the use of novel terms such as “oquechim” for an auction, “estia” for a steer, “taias” for tires, and “estoa” for a store (Dias 2009:84; Pap 1992:204). New terms are also sometimes created through the word-‐for-‐word literal Portuguese translations of their English counterparts as in the creations, “escola alta”, in place of high school, and “cartão verde” for green card. Azorean immigrants have not just created new words by mixing their native language with English, but entire expressions as well. They often use the Portuguese verb “fazer”, which means to do, for expressing things they have never come across before immigrating (Dias 2009:84). A classic example is the expression “fazer o lay-‐off” (literally meaning to do the lay-‐off) to communicate that a company laid-‐off its employees. Some others are “fazer o back-‐up” (literally, to do the back-‐up) for referring to backing-‐up while driving a car, and “fazer o save” (literally, to do the save), which refers to saving electronic files on a computer. One might also hear Portuguese immigrants use English expressions while speaking Portuguese, making their conversation sound like a mix of the two languages. Some common automatic verbalizations used are “sure”, “gee”, “you’re kidding”, and “that’s it” (Dias 2009:85). Some Portuguese immigrants also tend to use the connecting terms “I mean”, “so”, “like”, and “you know”. Dias also discusses a manifestation of Portinglês that he finds hard to reconcile with as a Portuguese speaker, that is, the newly coined terms for things not unfamiliar to Azoreans immigrants, and for which there are already words for in Portuguese. He refers to such terms as “blanqueta” for blanket, “garbiche” for garbage, “ficou nice” (literally “it became nice”) to signify that something turned out well, “bia” for beer, and “tão” for town. I believe that this may just be the desire of some immigrants to use English words in place of Portuguese ones to feel more assimilated and above their impoverished past lives in the Azores, however they
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pronounce them wrong due to their unfamiliarity with the English language. The phenomenon of Portinglês is often underestimated and even sometimes mocked. However I agree with Dias in that it has become an “indispensable instrument of communication” (2009:86) among the Portuguese immigrants of California.
Periodicals, Publications, and Media
Throughout the 20th century the Portuguese immigrants in California have also
taken measures to make sure that their communities were well informed of the events and politics in the area. They have printed several different Portuguese-‐American newspapers during this time, hosted their own Portuguese language radio programs, and published many literary works by Portuguese-‐American authors. Between 1900-‐1936 there were 15 Portuguese-‐American newspapers in print in California, but by the 1950s only the “Jornal Português” (Portuguese Newspaper) remained, which lasted up until 1997, longer than any of the other periodicals (Dias 2009:89). The next Portuguese-‐American periodical that appeared was “A Voz de Portugal” (The Voice of Portugal), which only lasted from 1960-‐ 1975. The next periodical emerged on the scene in 1979, it was titled “The Portuguese Tribune”, also known as “Tribuna Portuguesa”, and it is the only remaining one in California (Dias 2009:90; The Portuguese Tribune). There were also a few others that began printing in the 1980s and ‘90s, but they only lasted for a short period of time.
Recently in 2009, some Azorean immigrants in California have gotten together and
created the Portuguese Heritage Publications of California. Collectively they have translated and published several books by Portuguese-‐American authors, and they have coordinated other such projects (Portuguese Heritage Publications of California, Inc.). Their
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list of publications includes genres such as fiction, poetry, memoires, historical, research collections, and other types of texts.
As for radio broadcasting, there have been nearly 70 Portuguese language radio
programs in California over the years (Dias 2009:94). The first program began in the city of Stockton in 1920. These radio programs served as a coordinating source for the many Portuguese-‐American activities throughout California. Nowadays, instead of separate radio programs, there are three main Portuguese-‐American radio stations that broadcast in the Portuguese language (Dias 2009:96). They are KSQQ in San Jose, KLBS in Los Banos, and KIGS in Hanford (KIGS Portuguese Radio; KLBS Radio; KSQQ Radio). The Azorean immigrants in California have also experimented somewhat with television programming. The first program started in 1965, but did not last too long (Dias 2009:97). There were others that appeared in 1985 and 1987, but they did not go anywhere either. Probably the most noteworthy Portuguese television enterprise was Radio Television Artesia (RTA), which began in 1990 and is still around today (Radio Television Artesia).
In the mid-‐1990s the Internet revolutionized mass media in turn drastically
affecting the dissemination of information and interconnectivity of the Portuguese communities of California (Dias 2009:98). Azorean immigrants now have access to the government directories of Portugal and the Azores. They can browse Portuguese news and television websites and become immersed in the evolution of a nation and culture that they left behind. The uses of social networking sites and video-‐chat applications have made it possible for Azorean immigrants in California to contact and actually see their families and friends in the Azores. The present level of communication and access to information between Azorean immigrants and the land that they once inhabited is incredible. Without
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the recent immense advances in technology and Internet functionality, I do not believe that the Portuguese-‐American communities would be as strong and grounded as they are, especially in reference to the participation of the American-‐born descendants of Azorean immigrants. There are also a great amount of webcams set up in the Azores for anyone to observe what is happening on the islands, including during the grand summer festivals (Azores Webcams). In addition, the Internet has revived Portuguese-‐American periodical-‐ style news through the emergence of online journals, thus it does not seem likely that many more printed Portuguese-‐American newspapers will appear.
Although I have provided a dynamic historical account of the organization and
behavior of Portuguese immigrants in California, spanning most of the 20th century and sometimes extending into present-‐day, it does not show exactly who they are as individuals. There is more to be said on where Portuguese-‐Immigrants currently stand in the state of California, and how their lives have generally developed from the rich Azorean cultural repertoire that still permeates throughout the state. A broad view of the modern day Portuguese-‐Americans in California is still needed before I attend to further matters dealing with their individuality and the reproduction of their ancestral Azorean heritage in a new context and era that is constantly changing.
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The Modern Day Portuguese-‐Americans in California
Leo Pap has recognized that due to the second wave of Azorean immigration to the
United States (from about 1958 to the mid-‐1980s), the Portuguese-‐Americans in California did not just merely become the people of “an old remembered Portugal” (1992:100). The 2000 U.S. census shows that those of Portuguese ancestry in California only make up about 1% of the state’s population, which comes out to exactly 331,074 people (Graves 2004:104). Most of them reside in the South San Francisco Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California (Dias 2009:22,57; Graves 2004:104). The areas with the most Portuguese-‐Americans are San Jose (totaling at 15,285, more than any other city), San Diego, Fremont, Modesto, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Leandro, Hayward, Fresno, and Turlock (Graves 2004:105). Most of those who immigrated during the last wave of immigration, beginning roughly around the early 1960s, had at least an elementary school level of education (Williams 1982:116). This may be one of the reasons why education is generally of more importance to them than to those that immigrated in the early 1900s, as made evident by the several grants and scholarships that the fraternal organizations now offer (Luso-‐American Life Insurance Society; Portuguese Fraternal Society of America). A typical observation of the Portuguese-‐American communities is that they are quite preoccupied with economic security, especially in light of the strength and duration of their mutual-‐aid societies (Williams 1982: 117). They also have a strong sense of Portuguese nationalism, which is not something normally noted of those that came during the first wave of immigration that was between the 1850s and around 1921 (Williams 1982:116). This is most likely due to the Portuguese government’s attempt to generate a nation-‐wide
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patriotic character to support the colonial wars in Africa during the last half of the 20th century.
One distinctive feature of the Portuguese-‐American communities in California that I
have not yet mentioned is the great amount of emancipation experienced by Azorean immigrant women who came as of the 1960s onward. Traditionally, Azorean women were rarely seen outside the home, except for at church, and their male counterparts often dominated their lives (Pap 1992:127; Lick 1998). This lifestyle was sometimes re-‐ implemented by Azorean husbands in California, though mainly in the rural areas. The urban regions, on the other hand, often brought great liberation to the lives of Azorean immigrant women. Many of them entered the work force and received an education that would have been nearly impossible to acquire back in the Azores around the time they came to California.
Many Portuguese immigrants in California have been able to enter the middle and
upper-‐middle classes of the American economy due to their endeavors in dairy farming, agriculture, and the urban work force. In 2002, out of the 2,087 dairies in California, 47% were Portuguese-‐owned, that totals to about 980 dairies (Graves 2004:106). Also, most of these dairies are located in the San Joaquin Valley. That same year the Portuguese dairy farmers in California collectively made just under $8 billion dollars (Graves 2004:130-‐131). In the urban areas of the state, where most of the Portuguese-‐American population can be found, immigrants and their descendants are often employed at high-‐tech companies (Dias 2009:58). They also typically work as contractors, in the construction business, as real estate and travel agents, and do service jobs. Dias (2009:62) notes that the Portuguese have fully integrated into the American economy, often without abandoning their Portuguese
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identity. Beyond the halls, the festivals, the organizations, and all of the incredible accomplishments made by Portuguese-‐Americans in California, it is not uncommon to find bumper stickers and other decals with Portuguese symbols openly displaying their ethnic pride.
The Portuguese-‐American fraternal organizations mentioned earlier are in some
ways still around, but they have undergone extreme modifications due to their need to merge together in order to survive in the fluctuating American economy. Only two major fraternal societies still exist, both of them also life-‐insurance companies as well. They are the Luso-‐American Fraternal Federation, accompanied by its Luso-‐American Life Insurance Society, and the Portuguese Fraternal Society of America (PFSA) (Dias 2009:79). The all-‐ women S.P.R.S.I organization merged under Luso-‐American in 2007, and PFSA is the consolidation of the I.D.E.S., S.E.S., U.P.P.E.C., and U.P.E.C. organizations, which occurred in 2009.
The Portuguese halls, festas, philharmonic bands, folklore groups, and three
remaining churches are still around as they have been invigorated by the abundance of new incoming Azorean immigrants during the second half of the 20th century. However, one ongoing characteristic of the Portuguese hall organizations, which I did not mention earlier, is that they are fundamentally interconnected with the other organs of the Portuguese-‐American communities in California. For example, many of the Luso-‐American youth council fundraisers and events are held at these very same halls (Luso-‐American Life Insurance Society). “Little Portugal” in San Jose is also still quite active and full of places where one can buy Portuguese imported goods and authentic cuisine. The Bacalhau Grill greets all of Little Portugal’s potential visitors with its large “Welcome to Little Portugal”
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sign, which also has the Portuguese national flag as its background. The second-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans, the American-‐born sons and daughters of Azorean immigrants, are a fundamental part of the maintenance and reformation of the Azorean culture that has been transposed to California. Without them, the remnants of the traditions and customs of the Azorean cultural repertoire found in California would soon cease to exist. One example of how they perpetuate such aspects of the Portuguese-‐American culture is through music. As many of the second-‐generation play in the Portuguese philharmonic marching bands, some of them have also started their own bands, which play popular Portuguese dance music and perform at countless festas and other Portuguese-‐American events in California.
As I stated earlier, its seems that the Azoreans who immigrated from the 1960s
onward are more concerned with education, and with making sure their children are adequately prepared to prosper in the future American economy. One example of their modern mindfulness of the importance of education is the vigor of the Luso-‐American Education Foundation (Luso-‐American Life Insurance Society). The foundation hosts annual conferences to discuss and continue the recognition of Portuguese-‐Americans in California in light of novel research and publications. They also greatly promote high school students to continue on to attain a college degree of some sort. They have also been hosting an annual summer camp since 2001 that teaches students in 7th-‐11th grades about the Portuguese and Azorean culture, and informs them on how to prepare and get into college. In order to preserve the Portuguese culture in California, including the achievements of past Portuguese-‐Americans, the PFSA fraternal organization proudly operates the J.A. Freitas library, which was founded in 1964. It contains nearly 12,000 works dealing with Portuguese throughout the world, and also several Portuguese-‐American periodicals dating
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as far back as the 1880s (Portuguese Fraternal Society of America). For the same purpose of upholding the Portuguese culture, the Portuguese Historical Museum in San Jose was established in 1997 (Portuguese Heritage Society of California). The museum provides alternating exhibits that are open to the community at all times throughout the year. Many universities and colleges in California also offer Portuguese language classes allowing the Portuguese-‐American youth to learn the language or better their skills in speaking, reading, and writing (the later of which their parents might not be so great at due to their elementary level Portuguese education). Many of the same universities also offer Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees in Portuguese. However I must clarify that a great degree of Brazilian Portuguese is included in these programs and language classes, which is a very different linguistic variant than the Portuguese language spoken in Europe. Some of the meeting halls of Portuguese organizations also hold private Portuguese language classes, and a few public schools offer it as a second language, but that is about it. In 2009, only 829 students took Portuguese courses in grades 6-‐12 in 11 different California public schools (Dias 2009:59).
The Portuguese-‐American population in California is most definitely an ethnic
minority considering the total demographic make-‐up of the state. Nonetheless they have maintained and adapted their culture from the Azores and from past Azorean immigrants into something that still flourishes today. Even the government of Portugal has paid homage to these diasporic communities in California. Just last year in 2011 the President of the Republic of Portugal came to the city of San Jose to address his citizenry living abroad in California (some Portuguese-‐Americans hold Portuguese citizenship, often in addition to their American citizenship).
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The cease of Portuguese immigration will surely affect the cultural change that these
Portuguese-‐American communities will undergo in the next generation. However many Portuguese-‐Americans often go back to the Azores for vacation during the summer, thus bringing back new ideas and keeping a strong correspondence between the customs in the Azores and those in California that have both transformed over the years (Lick 1998). Many of them even own homes in the Azores that they have built with the wealth they have made in California. The continuous mutual change amongst these two lands and across the generations will shape the future of the Portuguese-‐American communities in California. In sum, as the Azorean people have been settling in California since the mid-‐19th century, the cultural repertoire they brought with them has evolved into the Portuguese-‐American culture visible today. The intention of the historical overview offered in the last two chapters was to reveal just how remarkably vigorous the Portuguese-‐Americans in California are in maintaining such a solid connection with their ancestral homeland. Yet, in another light, it has not often been portrayed how they do so on an individual level. That is why in the following chapter I will disclose the inner thoughts of a few Portuguese-‐Americans in California to see just how they psychologically judge themselves as “Portuguese-‐ Americans” and discern their self-‐identities. It would be a harsh overgeneralization to presume that all Portuguese-‐Americans identify themselves the same way, positioned as they are in a multicultural existence. I use the term multicultural because not only are they constantly negotiating the propositions of their Portuguese and American, or rather Azorean and Californian, cultures but also because they live in California, which is an environment full of different ethnic communities, each with their own particular way of
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life. By the information that I have laid out, typical Portuguese-‐Americans might be those of Azorean ancestry that attend the festas, participate in a folklore or philharmonic group, have ties to the dairy industry, hold positions in a fraternal council or lodge, and which also identify themselves as Portuguese-‐Americans. However, as Jerry Williams has found of the Portuguese immigrants in California, “…there is no such thing as a typical immigrant” (1982:47); and moreover, there is no such thing as a typical Portuguese-‐American.
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Interviews with Portuguese-‐Americans in California
I have taken a person-‐centered approach to my investigation into the Portuguese-‐
American experience and the multiple diverse meanings of what it might entail to be Portuguese-‐American in California. Anthropologist Robert I. Levy (as cited in Hollan 2005), who was originally trained in psychiatry before venturing into the discipline of anthropology, crafted this method of ethnography, which involves the use of open-‐ended interviewing. The benefits of this style of dialogue and observation, in permitting my interviewees to be able to go off on tangents and reflect on their initial responses, allows me, the researcher, to more effectively grasp how and why they subjectively experience and perceive life the way they do. I wanted my Portuguese-‐American respondents to be able to gradually develop their answers to my inquiry about their identity and life experiences, rather than just check off some census-‐style box indicating what their overall identity may be.1 The label “Portuguese-‐American” itself cannot sum up the diverse experiences of the persons it refers to, nor do such people all conceptualize its potential meaning the same way. Furthermore, in coming closer to comprehending the development of identity in the minds of persons leads us to a better understanding of their culture. The study of any group essentially breaks down to a study of individuals and how they live and interact together. This is why I am handing the ethnographic power of portraying the Portuguese-‐American experience in California strictly to those who currently embody it: modern day Portuguese-‐Americans.
1 For my exact list of questions that I used for my interviews, look in the appendix. However, as I state in the thesis, I allowed my respondents to take the conversation wherever they pleased until I decided to change the topic to that of the next question.
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In my mistrust of overly abstract and reified analytical constructs of persons and culture, I find it necessary to provide a person-‐centered ethnographic study of the Portuguese-‐American culture in California. By “Portuguese-‐American culture”, I am referring to the manifestations and reproductions of the Azorean heritage in California, which has been brought over at very distinctive stages of its development, due to the different waves of Portuguese immigration during the 1850s-‐1980s. The propagation of Portuguese values and customs in California since the 1960s (the beginning of the second wave of Portuguese immigration to the United States) has only been made possible by the efforts of the more recent Azorean immigrants, and their American-‐Born descendants. As the Portuguese-‐American culture simply could not exist without these individuals, I attempt to delve into their reflective thoughts and feelings on their identities and their Californian Portuguese-‐American lives. Moreover, if I were solely to observe and record the practices and behaviors of this cultural community, it would not be nearly the same as to grasp, psychologically, why and how such persons live the way they do. I have interviewed four Azorean immigrants in California, whom I would consider to be first-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans, since they were truly the first persons to have intertwined together both Portuguese and American elements of life. I have also interviewed three second-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans in California (sons and daughters of Portuguese immigrants). In addition to these interviews, which were nearly two hours in length each, I had a short, but informative dialogue with an Azorean man who immigrated to California but then later returned to his native Azorean island of Faial. I conducted all of these interviews between September-‐December of 2011, though my conversation with the returnee Azorean immigrant from Faial took place during August of
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2011 when I was in the Azores. What I have gathered and consolidated from these open-‐ ended interviews is what I would consider the unique “idioverses” of these individuals, a concept of Schwartz’s (1978) I described earlier. My portrayal of these Portuguese-‐ Americans soon to follow is an effort to encompass their self-‐reflections, possible identities, thoughts, and experiences up to date. Although in constant fluctuation, these nine Portuguese-‐American idioverses are only a few of the possible plots on the hypothetical diagram of the Portuguese-‐American culture in California. Although they do exhibit commonalities in regards to their conceptions of their own identity, they are completely individual. The following accounts are effectively the paraphrased thoughts and reflections of my Portuguese-‐American respondents vis-‐à-‐vis my open-‐ended inquiry of how they conceive of their own identity, and the Portuguese-‐American culture in California in general. I also provide a brief section at the end on my own experience as a second-‐ generation Portuguese-‐American in California and how I understand my own identity and self, to contribute to our knowledge of the multidimensional experience of modern day Portuguese-‐Americans in California.
First-‐Generation Portuguese-‐Americans: Tony Silveira
Tony Silveira is a 59-‐year-‐old Azorean immigrant who lives in San Jose, California.
He was born and raised in the Azores on the island of Pico. However he left Pico when he was about 12-‐years-‐old to go study at the seminary on the nearby island of São Miguel. He stayed there for two years and then had to go the seminary on the island of Terceira to finish his education. At about 18-‐years-‐old he left the Azores and went to the Portuguese colony of Angola in Africa to work and study philology of the Romance languages. Yet he
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soon returned to the path of the priest and studied theology for three years, but before he was to be ordained a priest he relocated to California in 1975, at about 23-‐years-‐old, where his parents had recently emigrated to from the island of Pico. He came to California not only to reunite with his parents, but also because the political climate in Angola was growing dangerous at the time, due to the colony’s struggle to gain independence from Portugal. In California, he found his wife who unfortunately is now deceased, but whose death has redirected him again to the path of becoming a priest. He has also taught the Portuguese language to youth and adults in San Jose for about 21 years through a private school he created, though nowadays he only has at the most 30 or so students. Silveira has the ability to speak many languages, including English.
When I asked him what he would consider himself ethnically, he responded that it
depends on the context he finds himself in. He explained, “So, uh, I’m Azorean, I’m Portuguese, but I’m also a U.S. citizen, and uh above all I find myself being a child of the universe”. He continued to describe how after leaving his family and birthplace at such a young age, traveling throughout much of Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and having studied on all three continents, he identifies himself as a mix of everything, as a “child of the universe”. He said that because of his life experiences, he feels that he is socially and culturally richer, and that he could truly adapt anywhere. He added that his roots were definitely Portuguese, but that it would not be fair for him to say that he was only Portuguese. Although he did later admit that he does feel more Portuguese than anything else. Whether at work, at church, or at the university where he currently studies theology, deep inside he still thinks and is very Portuguese in his mind. However after I asked him if he would also consider himself a “Portuguese-‐American”, he replied that he absolutely
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could, because to him most of his Portuguese roots have come to grow in America. He solemnly stated that there is no such thing as “I’m here, but I’m Portuguese”, in regards to the Azorean immigrants in California who would not consider themselves Portuguese-‐ Americans, but instead just Portuguese. To him, by being surrounded and forced to interact with and contribute to another culture, one inevitably become influenced by it.
Silveira’s criterion for being Portuguese-‐American is that someone would have to be
born in Portugal but eventually have immigrated to the United States, or have been born in America of Portuguese descent. He explained that a person does not become Portuguese-‐ American solely by obtaining American citizenship, although he has done so, but instead by living and working in America. He made it clear that the label “Portuguese” is just a name, and that one’s identity, including his own, depends on the context, on whom he is with, and the moment he is currently living in. On the topic of his grandkids, he stated that they are also “Portuguese”, but that they are “less Portuguese” than him, since they have not, at least as of yet, experienced what he has experienced. It was not because of the fact that they are not full Portuguese by blood, but instead because of their personal life experiences.
Silveira also explained that when in Portugal or the Azores he tries to feel, think, and
act more Portuguese, but due to the American influence in his life, he often feels more “American” there, at least at the beginning of his stay. He added that after a few weeks there, when he starts to feel fifty-‐percent Portuguese and fifty-‐percent American he knows that its time to for him to come back home to California. However he also stated that when he is at Portuguese events in California, such as the Holy Ghost festivals, he feels more Portuguese than American, because his mind is one-‐hundred-‐percent in Portugal and he forgets that he is in America. Interestingly, after this response he apologized that this was
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not the way I “probably expected” him to answer, but that he had to speak from his heart. Silveira admitted that it is hard to reflect on the issue of thinking and feeling either more Portuguese or American, because although he believes that he thinks to himself in Portuguese most of the time, he said that he often thinks in English as well, and that it feels as if it is half-‐and-‐half sometimes. It may be that, in some way, the language he thinks in actually depends on the context he finds himself in, which becomes especially apparent to him when he is at a Portuguese festival in California or all the way in the Azores islands.
José Luís da Silva José Luís da Silva is a 59-‐year-‐old Azorean immigrant who lives in Milpitas, California. He immigrated to California from the island of São Miguel in 1969 at age 16 with his family for financial reasons. His first reaction to America was quite negative, since he came from a middle-‐class family and did not really want to leave the Azores. Most of his connections to Portuguese things in California were academic and literary, since he was a Portuguese major Cal State Hayward, and did not live in a Portuguese community. He also already knew French, and a decent amount of English before he had immigrated to California, so adjusting to the language was not so difficult for him. He was a Portuguese language teacher at San Jose Academy high school for many years, but is now retired. When I first asked da Silva how he identifies himself on an ethnic, or possibly categorical level, he directly retorted, “that’s a loaded question”, foreshadowing his belief that identity is not so simple. Though he did go on to say that he would consider himself Portuguese before anything else. However he added that he considers himself both “very Portuguese”, and also “more than Portuguese”, because of his “academic background” and interest in genealogy and history. Accordingly, he claimed that he feels very European in a
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sense, as he is a descendant of the ancient Portuguese empire, yet that he is also American. He resolved that he is “both sides”, Portuguese and American, but that the side that his “roots” are on is Portuguese. In regards to his American identity, he told me that he became “much more American” when he married a non-‐Portuguese woman, and especially on the day his first son was born in California, but that also this did not make him “less Portuguese”. He gave me a metaphor for his identity, which I found very suiting for his predicament as an immigrant. He said that he sees himself as a “transplant” from the Azores, and that because of this his “roots” were not so deep in America as others’ might be. To him, he is American in terms of paying taxes, working, citizenship, and being a loyal citizen, but “his heart is very Portuguese”, no matter where he is or whom he’s with. da Silva agreed with me that in some sense he could also consider himself “Portuguese-‐American”, because not only does he have the credentials to teach high school English, but also he speaks English daily and inevitably lives “American” in many ways. However he would attribute that label more to his children, rather than himself. On that note, he stated that he believes his children probably feel primarily “American, and then Portuguese, and then Portuguese-‐American”. I believe by this he meant that he thinks his kids probably see themselves as first Americans, but that they also can identify with the historical roots and language of Portugal, and then last, they see themselves as a part of the Portuguese-‐American culture, which has sprouted in California. He added that because his wife was not Portuguese, he never tried to force his kids into “being” Portuguese and only speaking Portuguese at home. Therefore, summing up his thoughts on his children’s identity, he declared, “they are Americans, [but] at the same time with a very strong
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Portuguese component”. In conclusion of our dialogue on “Portuguese-‐American” identity, he declared that he never liked labels and feels they do not justify people. Finally, in response to my question of whether or not one can be “Portuguese” to the fullest extent in California, or conversely “American”, or “Californian” in the same manner in Portugal, he said something, which makes great sense retrospectively, though I initially did not except him to respond this way. He asserted that, in his opinion, it is much easier to be more Portuguese here than it is in Portugal, for the same reason why he feels that he, and every Portuguese immigrant is much more “Portuguese” than most Portuguese people in Portugal. The reason being that he and other Portuguese immigrants have a certain pride and love for their home country that is unlike those who never emigrated away. He added that being a Portuguese immigrant in America has allowed him to realize his Portuguese-‐ ness, and believes that this is the case for all other Portuguese immigrants, which is why he claims that “Portuguese” is the major identity for himself and such immigrants. Thus, it seems as if he identifies himself, not necessarily by his upbringing, or socialization in Portugal, but by the magnitude of his ethnic pride and difference when compared to the people and constructs of American society in California.
Manuel Bettencourt
Manuel Bettencourt is a 68-‐year-‐old Azorean immigrant from the island of Graciosa.
He came to California in 1967 at about 24-‐years-‐old, and now lives in the city of San Jose. His parents and siblings, on the other hand, immigrated before him, since he had to finish his service in the Portuguese military. His impressive dedication to obtaining an education led him to acquire a general education associate’s degree from San Jose City College, then a bachelor’s degree in biology from San Jose State University, and all the way down to a
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private university in Guadalajara, Mexico to obtain his DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) degree. He also generally worked full-‐time jobs during this period to pay for his academic expenses. Nowadays he is very involved with the Portuguese Historical Museum and Five Wounds Portuguese Church, both in San Jose, and he has been a member of the Luso-‐ American Education Foundation for about 27 years.
When I asked what he would consider himself in regards to the following possible
identities: “Portuguese, Azorean, Portuguese-‐American, Californian, American, or something else”, he responded “Well I, I, I think, probably, all of them”. He explained that it depends on where he is, but that “above all” he considers himself Portuguese, because he was born in Portugal, grew up in Portugal, and lived in the Azores till his early twenties. He told me that if an American in California asked him where he was from, he would tell them Portugal; if he was in a different state and an American there asked him where he was from, he would tell them California, but then also relay that he was originally from Portugal, because he claimed, “most people notice my accent”. However if he was in mainland Portugal and asked the same question, he would answer the Azores; and similarly, if in the Azores, he would tell someone the island of Graciosa. Thus, he illustrated to me that his identity truly depends on the context he finds himself in, though he is still “Portuguese” above all other identities. Wherever he might be he still, “constantly” feels Portuguese, simply because that is just who he is. He added that he almost always, without much regard to context, thinks to himself and hears his own thoughts in Portuguese, because he thinks in his native tongue. So, whether in California or in Portugal, he claimed that he believes he can be fully Portuguese all the time, because that is how he predominantly feels, and the way he feels is what truly matters.
On the topic of “Portuguese-‐American” identity, Bettencourt told me that what
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makes him Portuguese-‐American is that he mentally feels that he lives in two worlds, two cultures, at the same time, and that he has two nationalities, as a dual citizen. He clarified that “After living in California for forty-‐eight plus years, there’s an unavoidable, unavoidable acculturation”, adding that this is due to the language, music, foods, and other cultural differences. He later told me that when he first arrived in California he did not want to become Americanized in any way, but rather remain truly Portuguese forever. However since he wanted to enter the university system and apply for loans at American banks he had to become an American citizen, yet citizenship is only one of the ways he became acculturated in his eyes. He told me that a good way to think of Portuguese-‐ Americans in California is like that of a specific adapted version of Portuguese people; because they are no longer like those currently living in the Azores or mainland Portugal, since times have changed, and they are also quite different than the Portuguese people of other diasporic communities. They are something else, a kind of variation. When we began to talk about the identity of his children, he clarified that he does not think of himself as a first-‐generation Portuguese-‐American, but rather he would give his children such a label. He declared that he is more like a Portuguese person with some degree of acculturation. Although he said that if he immigrated at a younger age than in his early-‐twenties he might consider himself a first-‐generation Portuguese-‐American, since he would probably feel more American then. Also, he held that his children are “less Portuguese” than he is, because they have mainly non-‐Portuguese friends, listen to mostly American music, and respond to him in English when he speaks to them in Portuguese. He added that they have been involved in the Portuguese-‐American culture in California since
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they were kids and have had a different upbringing than most other American kids, though he still thinks of them mainly as Americans. He explained that to them, “they think they are Portuguese”, and that they are proud of it, even though they were born in America, and in his eyes are Americans. It seemed like he thought this predicament was pretty funny since he laughed about these conceptual differences between himself and his children.
Bettencourt usually goes back to the Azores every year now, but he made it clear
that he would never go back to live there for good. He told me that after having lived in Portugal, Mexico, and America at different points of his life he has realized that America, though not perfect, is one of the best, and he has become comfortably settled in the country. When he goes back to his native island of Graciosa for vacation, he stays at his father’s old house, which he has remodeled. He jokingly said that owning a home overseas in the Azores makes him even more Portuguese than before. Near the end of the interview, on the topic of being able to vacation annually at the place where he was born and raised, he mentioned an extremely interesting phenomenon, which seemed somewhat hard for him to truly convey. He stated that, “Over here (in California) I’m not American, and over there (Azores) I’m not Portuguese either, because I feel I don’t belong there”. He explained that he feels out of place in his homeland mainly because he no longer recognizes most of the people there anymore. He also now looks at the Portuguese way of life much differently, having lived in California for over forty years. In contrast to his statement, he said that he feels more American, or Portuguese-‐American, when he is in Portugal, and conversely he feels completely Portuguese when he is in America. He concluded that he thinks that this disorientated type of state is probably how all immigrants feel.
John de Melo
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John de Melo, or João Carlos de Melo as he is officially known in Portugal, is a 70-‐
year-‐old Azorean immigrant who lives in San Ramon, California. He was born on the island of São Miguel and immigrated to California at age 25 in 1966 by way of his wife who is also from the island São Miguel. She had immigrated to California without him and lived there for a few years before going back to marry him granting him the ability to become a citizen of the United States. Around the same time, he was also serving his obligatory term in the Portuguese military. When he first arrived in California he lived in San Francisco, and as evident, his first name was changed from João to John for his American citizenship documents (although he is still “João” on his Portuguese citizenship documents). He is now retired and a proud grandfather of seven grandchildren. He also owns a home on the island of São Miguel, which he vacations at about once a year nowadays.
When I asked de Melo what he would consider himself in regards to his ethnic
identity, he responded, “I and everything I do and say, and also as a result of my career and raising three sons integrated in America, I am American in pure terms…everything I’ve done and, during the most important part of my life was associated with American thinking and American living, American beliefs and values and everything like that”. He attributes this to having integrated into American life so quickly when he arrived in California and having a long-‐lasting career in the financial world for about 34 years. In reference to his Portuguese identity, he said that for over 30 years it was in the background, “totally isolated”, and that only by virtue of now owning a home in São Miguel and being retired for the past ten years or so, he has been able to reconnect with and recapture some of the features of his Portuguese past and the current Portuguese culture. He also added that he essentially went this entire time without speaking the Portuguese language. After renewing
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his Portuguese citizenship, buying a house, and having indulged in his Portuguese side in recent years, he is able to have a “parallel life”, with “parallel thinking”, in that he lives both there and here. Though he reaffirmed his initial statement about his identity by clarifying that “by all means, [if] one culture would prevail over the other, it’s the American culture”.
The occupation of his mind, soul, and some of the ways he acts and thinks by “things
Portuguese” began with his involvement in establishing the periodical, “The Portuguese-‐ American Chronicle” in 1997, which is no longer in print. His surge of participation in Portuguese things began to escalate even more when he started to go to Portugal more often and visit his friends there and make new ones as well, and when he purchased his house in São Miguel. Only after his immersion back into the Portuguese culture would he claim that Portugal is now a part of him, in terms of how he identifies himself. As for his house in the Azores, he said that although it makes it much easier to visit his native island and live there as if he is a local, owning the house is much more a sense of pride and something for his kids and grandkids to be able to use and someday inherit. He told me that when he goes to Portugal, all he has to do is “change codes”, and that he goes there as the same person, as the same body, but “its new shirt, its new shoes”. He was referring to understanding the current state of affairs there, speaking the language and interacting with the community around him, and adapting in every little way he has to in order to live in the Azores. He explained that this adaptation he undergoes when switching national contexts is automatic for him. I questioned him if the way in which he identifies himself changes in these different national contexts, if that feature of his self also adapts. He could not give me a concrete answer in that he claimed it is very difficult to describe exactly how he feels and acts in either country, in terms of a Portuguese or American identity, or
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even a Portuguese-‐American identity. He added that his great comfort level in identifying with either of these three labels, and the benefits he gains by being able to entertain all of them makes it hard to explain the way they might affect his behavior while he’s traveling abroad.
During my interview with de Melo I proposed a possible analysis of some of his
responses to my inquiry of his Portuguese-‐American qualities, which seemed to make an impact on his way of thinking. I suggested that maybe owning a house in São Miguel and having friends in Portugal that he visits on occasion and keeps contact with makes him more “Portuguese” and allows his “Portuguese-‐American” identity to flourish much more fruitfully than if he had no such ties. He agreed that this was a good point and then began self-‐reflecting on how his friends and friendships with those in Portugal possibly affect how he personally identifies himself. This particular incident of self-‐reflection during the interview felt quite profound to me. It seemed that de Melo had bit of a revelation in declaring that “its natural, I am driven, by, by inner forces that I wasn’t aware of. These friends that are there (in Portugal), they play a role, without me knowing, they play a role, yes, they play a role”. Together we came to somewhat resolve this phenomenon through the use of a metaphor we devised: that his “window” of being able to be Portuguese, which is there due to his upbringing and experiences in Portugal, is available to him more of as a “big gate”, because of his connections to those in Portugal. Thus, his friends in Portugal allow him the opportunity to engage himself in the Portuguese culture that they know through their own experiences of having stayed behind in Portugal when he immigrated to California.
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In regards to his children and grandchildren, de Melo told me that he does consider
them Portuguese-‐Americans, but not to the same extent that he is. This is because they were not raised in a fundamentally Portuguese environment; rather it was purely American, just with some Portuguese spoken once in a while. He added that due to this lack of exposure to Portuguese things, they were not influenced in a way that would allow them to feel as if they are of both cultures. Though, on the other hand, he claimed that they are extremely proud of their Portuguese roots and they consider themselves Portuguese-‐ Americans. He concluded that there are just “different flavors” of the manifestation of being Portuguese-‐American. In his opinion, his particular “flavor” of Portuguese-‐American is deeply ingrained into his sense of self and is automatic, unlike the way that his children and grandchildren feel that they are Portuguese-‐Americans.
Frank Vargas (Returnee Immigrant from Faial, Azores)
Frank Vargas is a returnee Azorean immigrant who once lived in California. He is a
native of the island of Faial where he returned to live after having taken trips back and forth to California where he made the majority of his wealth. I encountered him at his family-‐owned restaurant on the island of Faial while I was there during the summer of 2011.2 He seemed to me around his mid-‐70s in age, a fairly old-‐looking man, but surprisingly energetic and full of life. Vargas immigrated to California in 1968 where he met his American wife Mary. They had two daughters and lived in the city of Santa Clara. They all moved back to the island of Faial, but soon returned to California once his daughters were of age to receive a public American education. After his daughters grew up, 2 All the information that I present about Frank Vargas I obtained from a dialogue I had with him in Portuguese in front of his restaurant on the island of Faial in the Azores. He was prideful and willing when I asked to use his words in this thesis.
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one stayed in California and the rest of the family decided to move back to Faial. Vargas’s wife Mary was a major factor in this decision to move back. According to Vargas, she loved the island dearly and wished to live there. He told me that he frequently went back and forth between Faial and California and still does when permitted, since he has two brothers and a sister that live in California.
Vargas and his wife Mary started a restaurant by the cliffside in Faial, which he still
runs today, though unfortunately his wife has passed away. The restaurant is called “Restaurante Varadouro de Frank and Mary Vargas”. On their menu they have a few items that make reference to California. One of the dishes he served was “Churrasco de Frango à moda da Califórnia”, which translates to BBQ Chicken California Style. It was this peculiarity of the menu and the fact that the restaurant sign said “Frank”, the anglicized version of his Portuguese name Francisco that led me to seek him out to converse with.
I asked Vargas about his feelings of identity and he told me that he most certainly is
and still feels American and Californian, even though he has moved back to his homeland of Faial. He said that he was born in Faial, so he is Portuguese, but that he will always be American because of his experiences in life. He added toward the end of our conversation that he also carries both passports, that he is a citizen of both Portugal and the United States. It seemed as if he said this only to reaffirm his status as an American, just to make sure that I truly understood that he could be, and is in his mind, both American and Portuguese at the same time. He declared that he loves California and would not let anyone on the island criticize or speak badly about it. He went on to list off that it is where he met his wife, made his wealth, and has allowed him to have what he has today (including his restaurant, children, and grandchildren) and live the way he does. On a final note, he told
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me that when he first moved back to the Faial to settle indefinitely he felt very Americanized and less of a Faial native than before having emigrated, but that after a few years he reintegrated into the island lifestyle and became just as “Faialense” (an inhabitant of Faial) as anyone else there.
Second Generation Portuguese-‐Americans: Jeannie Hylkema
Jeannie Hylkema is the 33-‐year-‐old daughter of Portuguese immigrant parents who
lives in the San Jose area of California. Her mother is originally from the Azorean island of Pico and her father was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. However her father’s parents had immigrated to Rio de Janeiro from the Madeira Islands, which are also a part of the Portuguese nation. She is married to a non-‐Portuguese man who has Dutch and Native American ancestral ties, and together they have two pre-‐adolescent sons. She danced Portuguese folklore when she was younger in the Santa Clara Luso-‐American Fraternal Federation Youth Council and after she was too old to dance (youth are only allowed to dance until age 18), she went on to eventually become the Youth Director of the council for many years.
When I asked her what she would consider herself in terms of a personal and ethnic
identity she responded that she had always given people the same answer since when she was in school, that she was both “Brazilian and Portuguese”. She thought that being American was “kind of a given” when asked those things in California. However she explained that if having to think about it presently, she would consider herself “mainly Portuguese and American”, because she found out as a teenager that her father’s parents were originally from the Madeira Islands of Portugal. That said, she admitted that she still
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tends to tell others that she is Portuguese and Brazilian, because of her upbringing with a father who is outwardly proud to be from Brazil, and who shows it through such things as music and food. She explained later that what she believes makes her Portuguese-‐American is the ancestral history of her family, and the fact that she knows it quite well, that she knows where her cultural roots lie. She added that it really helps having heard her parents’ stories of immigration and the hardships they endured, and having gone back to the Azores to see where her mother grew up. Furthermore, still celebrating the Portuguese traditions in California and going to Portuguese events makes her feel more Portuguese-‐American. By this, she was referring to the Holy Ghost festas and Luso-‐American Fraternal Federation local council fundraisers. However she added that she attended many more festas, dinners, and Portuguese dances with her parents when she was younger, and that she does not go as often nowadays. Later in the interview she stated that to her, the label “Portuguese” signifies all the possible identities tied to being from the Azores, Madeira, or Brazil, which she feels connected to. She feels as if the label “Portuguese” is a summation of her ancestral roots, and she uses it accordingly. Toward the end of the interview she reflected on herself as being “Portuguese” and noted that sadly she would feel less Portuguese if she had never gone to the Azores, because she would then have less appreciation for her heritage. Thus that exposure had a great impact on her feelings of identity.
I asked Hylkema if her Portuguese-‐American identity wholly encompassed her self
well enough, or if it is was possibly only a part of who she is in her entirety. Interestingly enough this question gave way for much conversation with all of my second-‐generation respondents, since when I asked this to the Azorean immigrants I interviewed it mainly created confusion. She said that of course all of her Portuguese-‐American experiences in
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life has molded her in some way and has made her who she is today, but that there are also many other experiences that have equally contributed to her self. She explained that she has many “hats of life in a sense”, in that she can be herself at home, “the assistant” at work, a mother to her children, and so on. However to her, there is not a Portuguese “hat” per se, rather she believes that she has been shaped by her experiences with the Portuguese culture, and that this has an affect on all her possible identities, or “hats”.
I also brought up her ability to speak the Portuguese language since she did not
mention it when speaking about her identity. Hylkema told me that she can speak Portuguese, but she cannot read or write very well because she was never taught in a formal setting. Instead her parents taught it to her when they raised her, and in fact they did not let her speak English at home, even though they knew very well how to speak English. She added that as the years went by and her younger brother, and even younger sister were born that rule was not enforced as much, or at all really. She also noted that when she was growing up there were many Portuguese words that she thought were actual Portuguese words, but they turned out to be a part of the pidgin language, Portinglês.
Lastly, on the topic of her children’s identity, Hylkema told me that her children are
definitely Portuguese, though she recognizes that they are also Native American and Dutch because of their father. She has made a point to teach them this, and they know their ancestry fairly well. They also participate in the same Luso-‐American folklore dance group that Hylkema was a part of. Hylkema seemed conflicted to declare whether or not they were just as Portuguese as she was or less. She believes she has failed them a bit in that respect because they do not speak the language like she does. However she finds that their
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level of Portuguese pride is just as high as hers was when she was their age, so at least in that sense they are just as Portuguese to her.
Michael Jensen
Michael Jensen is a 32-‐year-‐old descendent of both Portuguese and Danish ancestry.
He was born and raised, and still resides in the San Jose area in California. His mother is originally from the Azorean island of Pico and his father is of Danish parentage. Jensen has a very interesting relationship with his Portuguese ancestry, one that is very connected, yet also removed in a way in that he does not participate heavily in the Portuguese-‐American organizations or festivals in California. He grew up near 33rd street in the “Little Portugal” region of San Jose and was predominantly raised by his non-‐English speaking Azorean grandparents during the day. He has traveled to the Azores many times throughout his life with his parents and grandparents for months at a time, and he also lived on the island of Pico for about nine months when he was around 23-‐years-‐old with his non-‐Portuguese girlfriend, who later became his wife. It might not be so easy to spot him in public as someone of Azorean ancestry due to his blonde hair and blue eyes, but he can speak the language well and knows all about the Azorean way of life. Still, he considers his Portuguese language skills a combination of “Azorean Portuguese” and “33rd street slang”, which he finds inadequate enough for him to teach his kids properly. By this, he was referring the very localized variant of Portuguese from his grandparents’ village in Pico and the Portinglês pidgin language used in San Jose. He has even carried over the practice of making homemade wine into his life, an art form he learned from Azorean immigrants like his grandfather, and from others while he was living in the Azores.
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When I asked Jensen how he saw himself in terms of his ethnicity and identity he
discussed with me the logical progression of how he was not really “Portuguese”, especially because he was not full Portuguese by blood due to his Danish ancestry, and how he was something else entirely. I could tell at this point he was really reflecting on how he envisioned himself as a person and in his own words he decided that, “I wouldn’t call myself Portuguese because I’m Azorean, and I wouldn’t necessarily call myself American, because I’m more Californian…I don’t have any sort of relation with any of the other 49 states, so, I’m Californian. I’m Azorean-‐Californian ya know. That’s how I personally see myself, but reality will tell ya that you’re born in America and you have Portuguese background”. Soon after this, he described to me the impoverished life his mother lived before she immigrated to California and how his grandparents, who took care of him when he was younger, truly taught him the language and culture they brought with them. He told me that he and his mother “were almost like brother and sister”, since he was the only child of hers who really spoke Portuguese with her, because his grandparents died before they could influence his younger brothers enough for them to know the language. It seemed to me that these cultural and linguistic elements in his life, along with having a non-‐ Portuguese father, were what truly made Jensen feel as if he was “Azorean-‐Californian”.
I later asked him exactly what are the criteria, in his mind, that make him “Azorean-‐
Californian”. He reflected again on the irreversible cultural impact that his grandparents had on his life when he was younger. However after some more thought and conversation, he gave me one of the most fruitful responses I could imagine. He explained to me that the reason why he considers himself an “Azorean-‐Californian”, and why all persons identify themselves in a particular way, is because of the interconnection of three experiential
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factors in one’s life: their upbringing, what they are exposed to, and the degree to which they embrace certain aspects of their life. He concluded, “Those three are, are perfect, are perfect answers…I mean that, that is literally the definition right there, to uh, to uh, to your question…Upbringing, exposure, and embracement. Those are it”. He told me that without his grandparents having helped raise him and the exposure he had to the Azorean cultural repertoire in California that he would not be the person he is today. However, he explained that the last important step in how he identifies himself was the way he embraced the exposure he had to Azorean customs and ways of life, which did not occur until after his grandparents passed away. He told me that he kept his Azorean background hidden and reclusive throughout high school, but once he reached his twenties he wondered what on Earth he was doing, and realized the valuable experiences he was throwing away, and that was also about the time he decided to go live in Pico for nearly a year. Near the finish of our dialogue on embracing one’s identity, he ended by illuminating that, “once you do embrace it you don’t even realize you’re embracing it after a while, you don’t even focus on that, its not even like something you have to focus on or think about; its just exactly who you are, naturally”.
The final topic that I brought up in the interview was the identity of his two children
who were both toddlers at the time. I asked him if his kids were Portuguese in his mind, and his initial response was, “That question hurts. Because to be completely honest, no.”. He added that he doesn’t even see his own two brothers as Portuguese, even though they are half by blood just like him, because they were not exposed to the language and culture as much as he was when they were younger. His children are technically one-‐quarter Portuguese by blood, but he explained that if they at least learned to speak Portuguese then
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he would completely change his view of them, and start to see them more like little “Azorean-‐Californians” like himself.
Adriane Machado
Adriane Machado is a 22-‐year-‐old undergraduate student majoring in Portuguese at
the University of California, Santa Barbara. She told me that she chose to be a Portuguese major as a way to stick with her roots, though she soon realized that it was much more than that. Rather, it has allowed her to educate herself about other peoples’ histories, such as those from past Portuguese colonies like Brazil and Angola. She has been living in Santa Barbara for about five years, but she was born and raised in the city of Los Banos in the Central Valley of California. Both of her parents are from the Azorean island of Terceira, though from different towns. She grew up very involved in the Portuguese-‐American community in Los Banos. She also danced Portuguese folklore in a Luso-‐American Fraternal Federation youth council for a major portion of her life, and she can also read, write, and speak the Portuguese language fluently.
When I asked her how she would ethnically, or possibly categorically identify
herself she immediately responded, “I definitely identify as Portuguese than American”. She added that she uses the label “Portuguese” as more of a general term, and would not clarify right away that she is of Azorean ancestry. Moreover, she said that even if she was out of the country, though she might feel more American in that context, she would tell others, “I’m Portuguese, but I’m from California”. She explained that, “I feel in a way that it would be kind of – pause – like lying (to tell others that she is just “Portuguese”), kind of, because its kind of like you’re not actually from Portugal, so technically you’re American, but your ethnicity is Portuguese”. She also added that she would equally feel as if she was lying to
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others if she did not include that she was in fact Portuguese, since that is how she conceptualizes herself. Though later she did admit that when she has visited the Azores, she felt “like an outsider over there”, and felt much more American than Portuguese in a lot of ways. Though in regards to her identity as being “Portuguese, but from California”, she claimed that she embodies this type of Portuguese-‐American identity because when she goes back home to Los Banos, she mainly speaks Portuguese and does “Portuguese things”. However she explained that although things in the Azores nowadays are not like when her parents lived there, she still has that “traditional culture” that her parents taught her, and that’s what truly makes her feel “Portuguese-‐American”. She clarified that the traditional culture she spoke of was essentially the language, the customs like the food and the festivals, and the Catholic masses in Portuguese. She also elucidated that knowing the language allows her to feel more Portuguese in that she is able to better comprehend and access the world of the festivals and the different events where Portuguese is mainly spoken.
I asked Machado if her Portuguese identity was who she was as a person, in her
entirety, or only just a part of herself. She responded, “I feel like it’s a part of me, because it also kind of depends on where I am. ‘Cause back home, being Portuguese is a huge part of me because of all the events that go on. But like here (Santa Barbara), it’s still a part of me, but it’s also like not just who I am. I’m a student, I’m 22, living on my own, working, going to school, so just all this. So I’m not just Portuguese and it defines me, but I wouldn’t be me without saying that I was Portuguese”. She added that being Portuguese is a part of her identity as a whole, a part that would follow her till her death. However she also said something very interesting in regards to her Portuguese identity. She explained that she
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can “jump” in and out of her Portuguese identity, in and out of being Portuguese in a sense, depending on the context of her surroundings. For example, she can reserve her Portuguese-‐ness at work, but indulge herself in it when back home or at a festa. As a final comment, she added that its pleasant to be able to go back home and immerse herself in the Portuguese-‐American culture and then get away from it by returning to Santa Barbara, that “its kind of nice to get away from it and go back into it”.
Finally, I questioned Machado if she believed that she could be Portuguese to the
fullest extent possible in California, since she identified herself as a Portuguese more than an American. Unsure of what she was going to say, I was taken back by the excellent argument she made in her response. She explained to me that she thought it would almost be easier to be traditionally Portuguese in California than it would be in the Azores currently, because things have changed so much in the Azores since her parents immigrated to California, and everything is much more modern there now. However in California, the cultural repertoire of the Azorean immigrants being perpetuated and renovated is more or less that of a 1960s Azores.
Gary João Resendes (Auto-‐Ethnographic Account)
I am Gary João Resendes, the researcher and author of this ethnographic work. I
identify myself as a 21-‐year-‐old second-‐generation Portuguese-‐American, since both my parents are originally from the Azores islands. I am offering my own viewpoint on the issue of Portuguese-‐American identity because I feel I would be deceiving you as the reader, if I did not reveal my own personal and ancestral connection to what I have labeled the Portuguese-‐American culture in California. My mother is from the island of Pico and my father is from the island of Santa Maria, though they met and married here in California.
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Both of them immigrated to the Santa Clara Valley in California at age 13, my father in 1966 and my mother in 1971. I have participated in and attended numerous Portuguese-‐ American events and festivals in California. I danced Portuguese folklore in a Luso-‐ American Fraternal Federation youth council since my early childhood until I was 18-‐ years-‐old. I also speak, read, and write Portuguese fluently, and have made a point to continually strengthen my language skills.
I believe that one of the larger reasons for why I identify myself as a Portuguese-‐
American is that my mother’s parents, whom I feel are my second set of parents, raised me alongside my parents all throughout my childhood and adolescent life. They do not speak English and have taught me much about their past, and how and why they immigrated to California, which has made me feel very connected with their Azorean past, present-‐day Portugal, and all other Portuguese influenced societies. I have had the chance to visit mainland Portugal and the Azores a few times throughout my life, and have also taken Portuguese language classes for most of my life. I believe that being able to speak the language at home, in academic settings, and in other countries has made me feel more Portuguese in a sense, and it has helped me to conceptualize how I envision myself as a Portuguese-‐American. However, although I was brought up very Azorean Portuguese in many ways, I was equally brought up by the American public school system, which accounts for the “American” side of my “Portuguese-‐American” identity. Despite how I was reared, it is my personal embracement of the Portuguese-‐American culture, and my undying interest in any and all traces of Portuguese and Azorean culture throughout the world that makes me feel truly feel like a Portuguese-‐American. I was given the
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opportunity and the ingredients to be Portuguese-‐American, but it was my choice to embody what that signifies to me.
My identity, in my opinion, is essentially how I conceive of all of my experiences in a
narrative form, and my self is always there questioning it and reflecting on it, and even reflecting on the fact that I can reflect on it. Though that which I am reflecting on and reworking and reproducing, is my Portuguese-‐American identity. I do not believe that any one label can describe a person, because people are constantly moving and changing across space and time, and continually reflecting on themselves. There is never a finished product of identity in my mind; that is just the nature of persons and identities, and culture as well. At different times of my life, and in various environments, I feel correspondingly different about my self and my identity. In this way, the development of identity and the reflexivity of the self never end. However I do always have the feeling that a very strong Portuguese, or rather Azorean element constantly exists within me. Whether I choose to embrace it and somehow recreate the elements of a history, language, and way of life I was taught and incorporate them into my current life is solely up to me. Thus, truly being Portuguese-‐ American to me, if one has the opportunity to do so, that is, if they have Portuguese genes and the proper exposure to the culture, is really a choice if anything. It involves both one’s past experiences as well as their possible future trajectory.
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Discussion
This ethnographic examination of Portuguese-‐American selves and identities in
California has not only demonstrated that there are multiple meanings of what it signifies to be Portuguese-‐American, but that individual persons actually feel differently about their own Portuguese-‐American identity depending on the context they find themselves in. An initial purpose of this thesis has been to exemplify that due to the diverse subjective viewpoints of persons there can never exist just one singular understanding of any culture. Additionally, as my respondents have revealed, there can likewise never be a definite understanding of the identity of any individual, as they continuously change across both space and time. I have portrayed a broad overview of the history of Portuguese immigration to California and how Azorean immigrants have reproduced the particular heritage they brought with them. Yet in the same vein, I have examined how those able to call themselves Portuguese-‐Americans feel about their identity in light of the distinct cultural imprint they and their predecessors have made on the state of California. Although the manifestations of Portuguese-‐American culture seem equally traceable to one particular static notion of Azorean heritage, such a thing does not really exist. Rather they are constantly being reconstructed and resignified by older immigrants who come to gain new insights, as well as by their American-‐born descendants who add their own flavor to the mixture. I could have easily created distinct categories for the different historical variations of Portuguese-‐American identity my respondents, and myself may exhibit, but I do not find this style of interpretation of selves and identity very beneficial to our knowledge of persons, let alone the Portuguese-‐American experience in California. Berry (1997) and
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Mana, Orr, and Mana (2009) used this kind of framework for their research on immigrant identity, and although they discovered some interesting patterns of identity development, they fundamentally lack a personal element to their research. They have neglected the ethnographic dimensions of individuals, which would allow us to better comprehend the hyphenated Portuguese-‐American ethnicity with respect to the thoughts of its persons, and the achievements of its communities. It would also have served Tajfel and Turner’s (as cited in Hogg & Williams 2000) research better if they too would have addressed the precise role of individuals concerning collective group identity. As I mentioned earlier, such authors tend to dichotomize the idea of self-‐identity into that which is either collectively shared or idiosyncratically personal. Such generalizations are quite easy to construct, but to wholly grasp the form and functionality of the intrinsic nature of persons and identity, and of the role of reflective individual selves in forming one’s subjective reality is nearly impossible. Although our current inability to fully understand the complexities of human nature is exactly what should drive our academic strive to attain such knowledge. Thus, it is crucial that social researchers abstain from constructing fixed classifications of the nature of identity formation, and individual self-‐consciousness that we hitherto do not fully comprehend. Contrastingly, I admit that such categorical organizations can be useful, but only if they are used heuristically as possible hypotheses, subject to alterations and potential invalidation. As I have argued that it is essential to examine the diversity of selves and how persons identify themselves at different times and in various contexts, it is likewise useful to systematically distinguish particular themes and similarities that may exist. However one must not take these parallels too far as to endorse them as universal truths that apply to all human beings. It is fundamental that we allow persons to speak for
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themselves, be able to change their minds, and reveal the nature of self-‐consciousness and identity formation on their own subjective terms as I have allowed of my respondents. Researchers must not overanalyze and deconstruct persons without taking into account their own thoughts, as it dehumanizes their exploratory sense of self.
The first-‐ and second-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans I interviewed near the end
of 2011 all conveyed many analogous thoughts and feelings on how they identify and perceive themselves, both in their respective generations, and across the generational gap between Azorean immigrants and their American-‐born descendants. Out of the interviews I conducted with the first-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans in California, also including my conversation with Frank Vargas, the returnee immigrant, I found five major resemblances across their individual thoughts on Portuguese-‐American identity. First, Silveira and da Silva both stated that they were not only Portuguese, but also more than Portuguese in that they have much more to them than a typical Portuguese would, due to their experiences of immigration and advanced education. They both believe that they could honestly adapt to any place in the world because of their experiences and the range of languages that they know how to speak. However, interestingly enough da Silva would rather reserve the title “Portuguese-‐American” for his children’s generation, while Silveira replied with ease that he would definitely consider himself as such. Yet, Bettencourt agrees with da Silva’s view on the matter, and would also label his children as Portuguese-‐Americans before he would himself. This is because he perceives himself as Portuguese above all other possible identities. Second, Bettencourt, Silveira, and da Silva all explicitly stated in their own way that they identify differently according to the context they find themselves in. Bettencourt said that depending on whom he was speaking with, he would give a different response in
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regards to how he would identify himself at that moment. Although he sees himself as Portuguese more than anything else, he could also be Azorean, American, Californian, from Graciosa, or Portuguese-‐American, depending on the context. So even though he claims that he constantly senses himself as Portuguese, his identity, as it unfolds to others at particular moments in time, seems quite plastic due to contextual factors. Silveira stated that after all is said and done, he identifies himself as a mix of everything, though he would have no problem declaring himself as an Azorean, Portuguese-‐American, or Portuguese, as he has a personal connection to all of these labels and what they entail. He claims that he feels more American sometimes when outside of the United States, and more Portuguese when in the middle of a Portuguese-‐American festival in California, so his feelings of identity seem to depend on where he is at and how he is engaged. As for da Silva, he said that he is both American and Portuguese, but that after marrying a non-‐Portuguese woman and having American-‐born children he has come to feel more American, though importantly this does not make him feel less Portuguese. By more American, I believe da Silva is implying that he has come to better understand the propositions of American culture pertaining to his particular community in California, especially in reference to his role as a father, a husband, and overall, a contributing member of society. Though, one must take into account that these three Azorean immigrants all have a great degree of higher education, are around their early to late 60s in age, and have spent a great portion of their lives in California, which altogether has an affect on how they each perceive themselves and their identities. Third, Bettencourt, Silveira, and da Silva all pointed out a specific phenomenon that can only be experienced by Portuguese-‐Americans. They each individually found it easier to feel Portuguese in California than when they are in Portugal, and conversely that it is easier
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to feel American in Portugal than when they are in California. This feeling most likely stems from the stark differences made noticeable between their own thoughts and behavior and of those around them when they are positioned in separate cultural environments, both of which they have some relation to. Second-‐generation Portuguese-‐American Machado and da Silva gave two individual explanations for this phenomenon. Machado said that she feels as if it is easier to be “traditional” Portuguese in California rather than in Portugal, because the cultural repertoire of the Azores found in California nowadays more or less comes from the mid 20th century. Thus when immigrants go back to Portugal for vacation, it is no longer the Portugal they remember, since globalization and technological advancements have had their own affect there as well. Though inversely, their friends and family, and many of the cultural customs they remember from their past in the Azores can still be found somewhat intact in California. From another perspective, da Silva finds it is easier to be more Portuguese in California than in Portugal, because those who emigrated from Portugal like himself have a certain longing and proud adoration for their homeland. Therefore it is easier for immigrants to not only perpetuate the customs and food dishes, and such that they brought over with them from the Azores, but also to feel an immense amount of pride in regards to such things, as it is representative of their cultural past. Fourth, de Melo spiritedly identified himself as a pure American. I found this very fascinating, since he immigrated to California in his mid-‐twenties around the same age as Bettencourt, who quite vigorously declared that although he has been acculturated to some degree by American society, he is mainly Portuguese in terms of how he identifies himself. This goes to show that one can never assume that another’s upbringing and alleged socialization in one cultural environment will determine how they identify themselves in
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another. de Melo also stated that when he is abroad he cannot directly tell how and when the identities he has come to embody after his re-‐immersion into his Portuguese past exhibit themselves through his behavior and his ways of thinking. Rather he claims that his rationale and behavior are all mixed up, and not easily categorized, and that he himself is a hybrid of the Portuguese and American cultures. This is similar to one of Silveira’s thoughts on his own identity in that after having lived so long and experienced so much he feels like he is a mix of the various cultures he has learned from throughout his life. Fifth, Vargas, the returnee Azorean immigrant originally from Faial, felt that he was undeniably still American, and Californian, even though he moved back to the Azores and has lived there for some time now. His self-‐identification as an American and Californian may relate to one side of the immigrant phenomenon I previously mentioned, in that it seems easier for Portuguese immigrants in America to feel more American when outside of the country, because all their pride, ways of thinking, and behaviors associated with American culture and society are made exceptionally apparent in such a dissimilar environment.
From my interviews with three second-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans in
California, and also my own account as the son of Azorean immigrant parents, there was a common feature of the process of identity development exhibited by all of us, which I accredit Jensen for making visible to me. This single characteristic was embracement. It is essentially the decisive acceptance, love, and incorporation of one’s cultural rearing and past cultural exposure into their current life. The level of one’s embracement of the Azorean cultural repertoire in California, which has grown over the years, seems to govern much of how second-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans ethnically identify themselves. As opposed to the Azorean immigrants who came to California during their twenties or their
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teenage years, whom have experienced the Azorean culture of their time first-‐hand, their second-‐generation descendants only have remnants and adapted versions of this cultural repertoire to learn from. I am referring to such things as the Portuguese language, as well as its Portinglês variant in California, the folklore dancing, the food, the festivals, family values, the Catholic religion, and a strong sense of community. Thus what appears to be a more important aspect of their Portuguese-‐American identity is the manner in which they embrace it, since they grew up not only in possibly a Portuguese-‐American community in California, but also in a kind of Californian environment complemented by the American school system. I would like to make it clear that I do not think that Azorean immigrants in California have no need to continually reincorporate their cultural pasts into their present lives in order for themselves to identify and feel more Portuguese, or Portuguese-‐ American. However this particular characteristic of identity formation seems to be a stronger factor for second-‐generation Portuguese-‐Americans in California. Still, the way in which one embraces a culture that they can access on a personal level does not finitely determine exactly how they will identify themselves, hence the diverse responses I received from all of the Portuguese-‐Americans that I interviewed.
On a final note, Jensen stated that once someone has fully embraced their cultural
upbringing and exposure as a Portuguese-‐American it just comes natural to them to feel Portuguese and American at the same time. What he calls full embracement is what Spiro (1984) has identified as enculturation, that is, the internalization of cultural propositions into one’s mind and life. Thus it seems that the process of enculturation intricately requires the agency of persons. For individuals to be considered enculturated or acculturated to any degree, they need to have embraced their significant cultural experiences and persistently
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reincorporate what they have gained from them into their own lives for it to begin to feel natural, to feel as if it is just who they are. Nevertheless, one’s level of embracement cannot necessarily determine who they are or how they might perceive their own identity, especially for those with access to more than one cultural repertoire like that of the Portuguese-‐Americans. In this case, I have come to find that one’s identity can actually be quite negotiable. Identity formation seems to be a continual process, which not only requires the reinstatement of how persons identify themselves, but also which must adhere to the customs of one’s social environment. Therefore the connotations we have with the terms enculturation or acculturation with a kind of irreversible and permanent process may be greatly misguiding. Rather than using such expressions which reify “culture”, wrongfully making it seem as if it has the agency to act upon the minds of individuals, we must instead start with understanding the individual mind and observe how it grapples with its cultural setting and past experiences. In retrospect of my study, there were a few aspects that I could have approached differently to benefit my analysis of identity formation, which I will discuss for the benefit of those who conduct similar research in the future. First, it would have been beneficial for me to interview more female Portuguese-‐Americans to better understand how gender plays a role in the configuration of identity. Second, I would in the future seek out possible respondents by age so that I could have a vast array of persons ranging from early adolescents to the elderly. Third, I would have more respondents and interview them a handful of times throughout the year to see how their answers to my general inquiry might differ. As these suggestions for future research imply conducting both a longitudinal and
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cross-‐sectional style study, it would take a great deal of time to complete, which would be its major downfall. Finally, what is true for all of the Azorean immigrants in California and the second-‐ generation Portuguese-‐Americans I have interviewed is that they all equally grapple with the issue of feeling as if they have a transculturated identity. Regardless of their diverse self-‐perceptions and dissimilar, yet sometimes analogous thoughts in response to my inquiry on Portuguese-‐American identity, they all exemplified a similar method of negotiation between their possible ethnic identities. In different contexts and at various times in their lives, even on a daily basis, they conceptualize their identity differently. This has lead me to realize that the nature of identity is constantly in flux, and that truly all natural things, persons, thoughts, cultures, and so forth are continuously fluctuating. Cultures are always changing since they are made of individuals who are also likewise changing throughout their own lives and across the generations. Nothing is ever static or all-‐encompassing, thus we must not believe that persons and identities are solely relative to cultural environments, their upbringing, or even their own past experiences. All of these factors play a role in shaping one’s personality and identity, but so does the conscious agency of persons to embrace certain experiential aspects of their own lives. The continuous self-‐reflective nature of human consciousness allows persons to profoundly change as promptly as from one thought to the next, both in the ways they identify themselves and in how they will reproduce their own particular cultural and personal repertoire of traits for their futures, and for that of the next generation to come.
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ANTHROPOLOGY SENIOR THESIS INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1) Above all, what would you consider yourself, Portuguese, Azorean, Californian, American, or something else? Why? 2) Does your answer to question (1), or how you feel about your answer change according to where you are or who you're with? 3) What criteria makes you "Portuguese-‐American", or whatever you feel your identity is? 4) Is your identity who you are, or possibly just a part of yourself? Explain. 5) Are you more "Azorean" or more "Portuguese" if asked by someone? Why? 6) Can you be "Portuguese" to its fullest extent in California as you would in the Azores or continental Portugal? Why or why not? 7) Can you be "Californian" or "American" in the same sense as question (6) in the Azores or continental Portugal? 8) Do you ever feel more American in Portugal instead of Portuguese-‐American, and more Portuguese in America than what it means to be an “American”? 9) Are your kids (or if you had kids) Portuguese in your mind? How "Portuguese" are they to you? Are they more, the same, or less than yourself and why? How exactly do you personally measure that? 10) Can you speak/write/read Portuguese? Do you prefer to speak/write/read in Portuguese or English? (Which language are you most comfortable with?) 11) Speak upon any of the following themes as you regard as having to do with, or which strongly asserts your own personal “Portuguese-‐American" identity: Portuguese Fraternalism, Port-‐inglês, Religious affiliation, Portuguese Halls, Portuguese Social and/or Athletic Club affiliation, Folklore Dancing, Festas, Bloodless Bullfighting, Dairy Farms, Portuguese Education Foundations, Portuguese-‐American newspapers or periodicals, Portuguese-‐American Radio, RTP or other Portuguese television, Portuguese-‐American cafés, restaurants, or liquor stores/import stores.
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