Another source of Portuguese immigration to the United States (mostly to the New England states and California) is our neighbor to the north, Canada.
The Portuguese, and again mostly trom the Azores, began immigrating to Canada in 1953 when a group of eighteen men from the island of São Miguel, Azores, left for that country on an experimental basis. They were followed in May of the same year by another group from the mainland. In future years, thousands settled
mainly in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and British
Columbia. At first they were mostly drawn from the unmarried male labor classes. Later, married men were accepted, even though they had to travel alone for a period of adaptation, ranging from a year to a year and a half. They were contracted for the agricultural fields and the railroads.
The majority were poor and had to borrow funds to pay their fares from the Azores to Montreal, P.Q. of to Toronto, Ontario in addition to
having to buy a minimum of one hundred dollars, in Canadian currency, to meet first expenses upon arrival. Money was loaned at interest rates sometimes reaching fifteen per cent and eighteen per cent per annum.
The Canadian government was not allowed by Portuguese authorities to use their Assistance Passage program, which would have taken care of the funds for these fares at no interest In addition, this program called for repayment to the Canadian government in installment amounts
commensurate with each immigrant's earnings in Canada by means of a pay check deduction. The refusal by the Portuguese authorities to allow this assistance is attributed to the fact that they wanted to assure incoming flow of Canadian currency, thus boosting Portugal's economy, where revenues derived from immigrant remittances were always considered one of the main sources of income for the country.
Of the immigrants who left the Azores between 1954 and 1957, eighty per cent went to
work for the Canadian National Railway gangs and were contracted for one year at ninety- eight cents per hour including room in box cars. Most of them fulfilled their contracts to the letter, replacing thousands of wooden ties on the vast railroad lines across towns and forests of Canada, under all kinds of rough conditions including snow-cold weather coupled with a lack of hygiene and comfort. They found themselves not only in a land foreign in language and culture, but also, at first in far
worse working conditions than those they were exposed to in their home villages. They had to learn how to light a coal stove in order to keep their bodies warm inside the old freight box cars, their home for at least a year.
In groups ranging from twenty to sometimes 120, they worked hard, saved some money and later moved to cities of their liking or where the best opportunity was offered to escape from railroad units or "gangas" as they used to call them.
While
sitting on the edge of his railroad bunkbed, or in the isolated corner of a cold Canadian barn, the immigrant from the Azores, unlike his compatriot from the mainland, dreamt of a possible escape to the United States, thus breaking a promise made to the Canadian Embassy Inspectors. Many feared these inspectors, for they would promptly deny visas to prospective
immigrants who either had their names on the quota waiting lists in the U.S. Consulate or would, in the course of the interview,
unwarily reveal some close relationships in America. Those who felt life might be better in the United States, took a chance in crossing the borders and stayed, may have at times, found better opportunities had they stayed in Toronto, Montreal or
Vancouver, where large communities of Portuguese have prospered.
Unlike early immigration to the United States, the Portuguese arriving in Canada were cared for and placed in jobs compatible with their physical strengths in farming and in
construction. There were those who were so eager to leave the islands that they faked their clerical nature professions, obtained false identification cards from labor and trade synidcates. Others
misrepresented even the minimum elementary education requirements (third grade) in order to obtain passports and try their luck in the new foreign land of opportunity in the North American continent -Canada.
Dozens of office clerks, salesmen and even police officers throughout the Azores
would work at home shoveling or hammering in order to create calluses on the palms of their hands to pass as laborers before the Canadian inspectors. Most of these never fooled anyone but themselves; for soon, upon arrival, they were unable to endure the hard work they were contracted for on
Canadian soil, and a few months later they would be back in the Azores at the old desk or sales counter jobs. Others came across to work in the mills of New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts or in
the dairies of the San Joaquin Valley in California.
Most Portuguese from Continental Portugal, Azores, Madeira or Cape Verde, wherever they went would struggle hard, but seldom found themselves confused between the two cultures. They were possessed of a group consciousness and aware of the fact that many times they were barred from participating in activities promoted by the established populace of these lands. Banding together, similar to immigrants from other countries, they
developed their own societies which represented communal attempts to meet material
needs in times of crisis and, above all, to satisfy the desire for companionship, softening the effects of contact with a strange environment. The function of these societies, as the U.P.E.C. did, was to preserve in America, the familiar cultural pattern of the old country, Portugal.
It was not easy for most of these Portuguese immigrants. The hardest, if not the most urgent problem of adjustment
related to their participation in the American way of life, was their lack of knowledge of the English language and of political expediency.
The latter was in part, due to the fact that all but a few had been
denied the right of suffrage in the home country. Previous experience in schooling and civic life had done little to prepare them for the experience of political and social power in this country.
Nevertheless, they would go on working hard, saving money and buying
land. Unlike other ethnic groups, the Portuguese looked upon the land as a sign of security that they forever sought and seldom achieved, especially in the Azores and theMadeira Islands.
This need fo security represented by land ownership, led many Portuguese throughout the years, even today, to prefer seeing their children work the farms and in the factories than attending school or college. This attitude resulted in the lack of numbers the Portuguese register in the professional
fields of medicine, law, engineering and teaching, and in sadness for those who feel proud of their heritage.
These masses of laborers, belittled by nick-names, such as 'green horns,' hyphenated Americans of DP's, as they were known in Canada, who came to work in the New World did, however, contribute to the American scene and its prosperity.
The Jews evidenced themselves in clothing, the Italians in the building trades, the Irish in construction, the Germans as wheat growers
while the Portuguese, with their conservative methods, left their marks in farming, dairying and fishing, especially in California and the New England states.
The history of the first century of the União Portuguesa do Estado da California is a tribute to those who, through their hard work and initiative, overcame their handicaps without fanfair and made life in these United States simpler for the Portuguese immigrants who would arrive later in pursuit of happiness, security and
freedom.
Extracted from "Portuguese Immigrants" Copyright 1968 by Carlos
Almeida Reprinted by Permission from the Author .
Copies are available by contacting the U.P.E.C. 1120 E. 14th St. San Leandro CA 94577-Phone: 510-483-7676 |
