Signs, Symbols and Stones: The Portuguese American Urban Ethnic Landscape #11

In this post, mainly a photo essay, we’ll look at some of the historical background of Portuguese American immigration and settlement in the area.

Kids in the ‘Portuguese Navy Yard’ of New Bedford probably in the 1930’s. The structures were all destroyed in the 1938 hurricane. Photo from the New Bedford Whaling Museum

The Portuguese came to southern New England (and to Hawaii and California) because of whaling connections with New Bedford. They left lives as poor peasant farmers on tiny plots of land to come to urban areas in America. At the time of the greatest waves of immigration, Portugal was one of the poorest countries in Europe and the Portuguese islands of the Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde were even poorer.

Tiny plots of land on the island of Corvo, Azores. Although small plots have been consolidated on the larger islands such as Sao Miguel, tiny Corvo Island still illustrates how small the plots were originally; many are hardly larger than the houses. Image from Goggle Earth

Educational levels of Portuguese immigrants reflected their poverty and rural isolation. Many had only a grade school education and many never had any formal schooling. Their low level of educational attainment has dogged the Portuguese to the present day and is still reflected in their occupations and their levels of income.

As you can imagine from this photo taken on a whaling ship, cutting up dead whales was not a glamorous occupation. Photo from the New Bedford Whaling Museum