Portuguese in California, Regional Oral History Office

Antonio J. Cardoso ranch, 1870s, La Grange, Stanislaus County, from History of Stanislaus County, California (San Francisco: Elliott and Moore, 1881)

This project records the stories of Portuguese immigrants and their descendants in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond who represent various aspects of the history of this early immigrant group. Portuguese began arriving in California aboard American whaling ships—upon which many served—well before the Gold Rush. Although settling in urban areas as well, Portuguese have traditionally preferred to follow agricultural pursuits, where they have been especially active in the state’s dairy industry.

Immigration from Portugal (mainly from the Atlantic archipelagoes of the Azores and Madeira, as well as Cape Verde, now an independent nation) peaked in the first years of the past century and then again in a second wave in the 1960s and 1970s. It is the voices of these people and their descendants that have been the target of this oral history series, which began in the fall of 2002.

Video Excerpt Part One Video Excerpt Part Two
Oral History Transcripts
	Carlos Almeida A Lifetime of Service to the Portuguese American Communities of California and Nevada Interviewer: Don Warrin The two sessions of this interview were completed in November and December of 2002. We met each time in the library of the U.P.E.C. in San Leandro. Carlos Almeida spoke at length about his early life as a student in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores, under the Salazar regime and his subsequent emigration, first to Canada and then to California. The interview sessions were recorded on minidisc, then transcribed and lightly edited. They were also recorded on video disc with the assistance of UC Berkeley students Sam Schramski and Jenny Velazco.
	Stella Adoa Baptista Recollections on Life in the Canneries Interviewers: Don Warrin and Deolinda Adao This interview took place in the home of Stella Baptista in February of 2004. Many Portuguese and Portuguese Americans, especially women, worked in the canneries in various parts of California, and so we wanted to get a sense of this experience. Stella followed her mother in this occupation. In this interview she talks about her childhood, growing up with immigrant parents, first in Sausalito and then Oakland. Stella talks about life in the canneries during the War Effort (World War II) and also discusses the effects of unionization on the work experience. She also discusses several aspects of life in a Portuguese immigrant community.
	Helio and Maria das Dores Beirao Music and Poetry: An Odyssey from Terceira, Azores, to the Napa Valley Interviewers: Don Warrin and Deolinda Adao On March 12, 2004, I traveled to the Napa Valley for a series of interview sessions with Mr. and Mrs. Beirao. Deolinda Adao assisted with occasional questions, and UC Berkeley student Tammy Elrod handled the video camera. Maria Beirao elected to be the first interviewee, followed by her husband. A third short session was dedicated to the performance of these two immigrant artists from the island of Terceira, Azores. Helio played a song of his own composition on his unique Terceiran guitar. This was followed by the recital of one of her poems by Maria das Dores.
	Anthony L. "Tony" Coelho Congressional Advocate for Disability Rights, Chair of the Epilepsy Foundation Interviewer: Ann Lage Ann Lage has conducted a most fascinating interview with Tony Coelho, the ex-congressman from the San Joaquin Valley. In it we see two elements that have defined, in many ways, his life: his Portuguese American background and his epilepsy. Few people beyond the participants can conceptualize the life of a youngster on a dairy farm half a century ago: Rising at 2:00 a.m. to milk 150 cows (by machine, of course, but having to finish off each one by hand); rushing off to school; then back for the 4:00 p.m. milking and dinner around 8:30 after the evening milking was over. Unlike his brothers, who were soon sound asleep, Tony would sit under the bedcovers in the room he shared with them and study. Pressure to help the family by remaining on the farm after graduation was balanced by a friendly school superintendent who took a personal interest in young Coelho. It was he who prevailed, as Tony headed off to Loyola College in Los Angeles. The other defining element in Coelho’s early life were the epileptic seizures that began after an accident in the farm’s pickup truck in which he was thrown him from the vehicle. It would not be until his twenty-second year, however, that he had a label for his illness. Haunted by the Portuguese concept that the disease was punishment for a family sin, his parents not only kept the diagnosis from him, but continued to send him to what he has termed “witch doctors” for a cure. It was only while having a physical for entry into the seminary after college that Tony learned the exact nature of his disability, as well as the fact that this disqualified him from the priesthood. Years later, as a young congressman, to the shock of all present, he spoke out about this prohibition in an audience with the Pope; it later apparently had positive results. There is much as well in the early pages of this interview about his more positive ethnic experiences growing up in a Portuguese American community in the Valley. The interview was conducted as part of ROHO’s DRILM (Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement) Project.
	Eduardo Mayone Dias UCLA Scholar Interviewer: Don Warrin After brief stints teaching at Cambridge University and in Mexico City, in 1962 Prof. Eduardo Mayone Dias came to California to teach at the Monterey Defense Language Institute. From there he moved to UCLA where he enjoyed a long and distinguished career as Professor of Portuguese. He has been recognized for many years as one of the most significant figures among the Portuguese communities of California. Our interview spanned two days in September of 2008 and covered, however briefly, the major events of his life, from childhood on. As he remarked on the second day, only a week or two earlier he had been interviewed in his home by RTP (Portuguese Radio and Television); but, as with similar interviews, its range was rather circumscribed. This interview, on the other hand, had been quite unique; and it was particularly moving for him to look back on his formative years.
Photo by Dianne Hagaman	Rose Peters Emery A Nonagenarian Looks Back on Ranch Life in San Ramon, California Interviewer: Don Warrin In December, 2002, I traveled with Deolinda Adao to San Francisco to interview Rose Peters Emery. At that time Mrs. Emery was 98 years old and both mentally and physically active. She was about to publish a very interesting volume of memoirs, still walked the City’s hills, and was enrolled in a writing class. Deolinda handled the video camera during the session. Rose’s daughter Helen Giambruni was also present, and her voice can be heard from time to time assisting her mother with an answer. I had had the opportunity to read the manuscript of her forthcoming book, and so was able to pursue some topics raised in her text.The interview is short but reveals quite a bit about rural immigrant life at the beginning of the last century. For further details I highly suggest reading her book: Footprints in the Soil: A Portugues-Californian Remembers (San Jose, Calif.: Portuguese Heritage Publications, 2003).
	Stella Faria Interviewer: Judith Dunning Date of Interview: 3/6/2003 Stella Faria was born and raised in Pinole, California. Her family was from Portugal, via Brazil. She remembers Richmond during World War II, especially the changing worlds of work, school, and family. She talks about her consternation at the internment of the Japanese in the area, including classmates and people she had grown with all of her life. She remembers her work in the Kaiser Shipyards, in the administrative office of Yard Three and recalls the Port Chicago explosion. She also remembers the environmental toxicity of the wartime industries and discusses the impacts of Richmond industry on the health of her family members. This interview is part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Homefront Oral History Project.
	Joe Gomes Date of Interview: 6/2/06 Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot Joe Gomes's parents came to the United States from Portugal in the early 1900s, arriving first in New York, making their way to San Jose, California, and then settling in San Pablo, where Mr.Gomes resides currently. Mr. Gomes was 90 years old at the time of this interview, and a leader in his community. He is past director of the San Pablo Holy Ghost Association, past state president of the Luso-American Fraternal Federation, and currently sits on the City Council of San Pablo. In this interview, Mr. Gomes chronicles his family background, his years growing up in San Pablo, the Portuguese community in San Pablo, the shift to and then away from wartime work during his years at American Standard, working in the shipyards, changing gender roles during wartime work, raising a family, and his work on the City of San Pablo City Council. The interview offers insight into immigrant identity and experience, a changing San Pablo, and the Bay Area home front during WWII. This interview is part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Homefront Oral History Project.
	W. R. "Reg" Gomes UCOP Vice President ANR, Emeritus Interviewers: Don Warrin and Vic Geraci This interview is composed of two parts. The first was conducted by Don Warrin between November, 2007 and January, 2008. Its intent was to detail Dr. Gomes’s formative years, with particular reference to his Portuguese-American background. All four of his grandparents had immigrated separately from the Azores. And his father followed an occupation closely identified with these Portuguese islanders, working as a dairyman in the San Joaquin Valley. Encouraged to continue his education, Dr. Gomes’s path led eventually to a vice-presidency at the University of California; but dairying continued to be a fundamental element of his career. Besides discussing his Portuguese-American roots, Dr. Gomes spoke in some detail about various aspects of the dairy industry. The second, extensive, segment of the interview was conducted by Vic Geraci, a description of which can be seen at the oral history project ANR: Taking the University to the People.
	Lionel and Bernadine Goularte Reflections on the Azorean Portuguese Communities of Southern Alameda County, California Interviewer: Don Warrin In order to record these sessions, I met with the Goulartes at their home in Fremont in October and November of 2002. It was decided that Bernadine would be the first interviewed, followed by Lionel, and that subsequently there would be a joint interview with the two of them. Following their individual stories of growing up in rural southern Alameda County , the couple discussed their substantial joint efforts assisting Portuguese immigrants and ultimately thos from many different cultures. The interview was recorded on minidisc, then transcribed and lightly edited.
	Alberto S. Lemos Publisher of the Jornal Português* (Portuguese Journal), 1957-1994* Interviewer: Don Warrin The interview took place at the home of Mr. Lemos on January 21, 2008. We talked about his growing up in Portugal, his education, and his employment before emigrating to this country. Much of the interview was spent discussing his experience with the newspaper, his contacts with community leaders and consular officials, and his relations with the Portuguese-American community.
	Fr. David Orique Reflections of a Portuguese American Priest Interviewer: Kathleen Zvanovec-Higbee Father David Orique is a priest in the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church. In June of 2003, Kathy Zvanovec-Higbee traveled to Eugene, Oregon, for this interview with him. Fr. Orique begins by talking about his early childhood and its Portuguese influence. His continuing interest in his cultural background becomes clear as he speaks of a recent summer class in the Azores, the land of his immigrant grandfather. The interview soon turns philosophical, as he discusses religion, the Church, Bartolomé de las Casas, and so forth—never neglecting, however, to forge a link back to the Portuguese.
	Manuel Reis Portuguese Community Leader Interviewer: Don Warrin This series of interviews was conducted over a two-week period in November and December of 2002. We met each time in the apartment of Manuel Reis near Lake Merritt in Oakland. Unfortunately, Mr. Reis had slowed down considerably and was soon to pass away the following February at the age of 101. “If you had only talked to me last year,” he lamented at the time, “many things would have been clearer in my mind.” Nevertheless, in spite of their hesitancies and moments of confusion, these three sessions help to round out a portrait of a man who was intimately connected with various of the Portuguese American community organizations since shortly after his arrival from Lisbon in 1925. Most revealing of the personality of Manuel Reis, perhaps, was his singular and longheld desire to unite the people of Portuguese descent of northern California in one overarching organization, a dream repeatedly expressed here, but that ultimately would be frustrated.
	Celeste Silvas Interviewer: Judith Dunning Date of Interview: 3/31/2003 Celeste is the sister of Stella Faria, also born and raised in Pinole. She talks about wartime in Richmond, her work in an administrative office in the shipyards, and then her work after the war for Richmond Unified School District. Like Stella, she has been an active member of the Portuguese community in Richmond/Pinole and reflects here on being the daughter of immigrants. This interview is part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Homefront Oral History Project.
Related Oral History Transcripts
	Elsie Casina Adams Elsie Casina Adams, Granddaughter of Pt. Hope, Alaska, Settler, Joseph Ferreira On August 3, 2005, I met with Elsie Adams at her home in Anchorage, Alaska. Also present was her niece, Carolyn Harris. Mrs. Adams is the granddaughter of Joseph Ferreira, who immigrated from the Cape Verde Islands to Massachusetts at an early age and later became a whaler. His father was apparently from the Azores, and his mother was Cape Verdean. Ferreira came to the North Slope of Alaska at the end of the nineteenth century, settling down as a shore whaler and marrying an Inupiat woman. Mrs. Adams’s contacts with her grandfather were limited, but she related what she remembered of him. Much of the interview concerns her growing up in the native environment of Arctic Alaska.
Major Vítor Alves, at the command post of the Movimento das Forças Armadas, on the morning of April 26, 1974, announcing to the world the Program of the Movement	Col. Vítor Alves Col. Vítor Manuel Rodrigues Alves, Member of the Movimento das Forças Armadas, and one of the leaders of the Portuguese Revolution of April 25, 1974 Interviewer: Don Warrin and Deolinda Adao In April, 2004, retired Col. Vítor Alves was invited to attend the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution of April 25, 1974. The occasion was the annual meeting of the Luso-American Education Foundation, held that year on the UC Berkeley campus. On Monday, April 26, Deolinda Adao and I sat down with Col. Alves to discuss briefly his major role in the Revolution and its aftermath. He also talked a bit about his formative years and the influence they had on his career.
Links UC Berkeley Portuguese Studies Program, Institute of European Studies Lusaweb, a Portuguese Ancestry Community ROHO Student Projects on Portuguese and Brazilian Communities in California