Portuguese Immigrants To Hawaii

Festival offers peek at California's close-knit Portuguese community

Judging by the packed food booths, most people flocked Saturday to San Jose's annual Portuguese festival to chow down on juicy linguica sandwiches and decadent fried pastry.

No doubt, most were wholly unaware that the event is held in Portugal to commemorate the death of a national literary icon.

But after all, Portugal's beloved poet Luís Vaz de Camões died 431 years ago. And Saturday, there was sublime arroz doce, tinged yellow by egg yolks to savor.

"You just can't come here without having the rice pudding," said Joanne Souza, whose grandparents emigrated from the Azores to California in 1906.

Along with fresh sardines, mango pudding and egg-sized balls of yeast dough deep-fried in oil and coated with sugar, the festival at History Park San Jose offered a peek at California's still-close-knit Portuguese community and its storied past -- including its ties to the Hawaiian islands.

Admission to the one-day event was free.

"This is our take on a Greek festival, where Americans can come enjoy our culture," said Rosemary Rodrigues, a San Jose software sales analyst who was born in the Azores.

The majority of California's Portuguese residents trace their origins to the Atlantic archipelagoes of the Azores and Madeira. Famous Portuguese-Americans include singer Nelly Furtado, actor Tom Hanks and former state Sen. John Vasconcellos, who Saturday helped lead the festival's homespun parade.

Vasconcellos, 79, said his grandparents on his father's side arrived in Santa Clara -- via the brutally hot, vermin-infested Hawaiian sugar plantations -- in 1919, towing nine children.

"They didn't like working in the sugar fields," said Vasconcellos, who represented Silicon Valley in the state Assembly for 30 years and state Senate for eight.

Vasconcellos, who was an advocate for the self-esteem movement while in office, said what he likes about being half Portuguese (his mother's parents were from Germany) is "the gentleness of the people and the commitment to exploration."

According to a free exhibit at the Portuguese Historical Museum that some festivalgoers visited Saturday, Portuguese people like Vasconcellos' grandparents began arriving in Hawaii via sailing ships in 1879 to work in the sugar and pineapple plantations.

In exchange for free passage for themselves and their families, they signed contracts agreeing to work 10 hours a day, six days a week for three years. Many moved on to California when their contracts were up to work in canneries and orchards.

Work In Portugal: Does anyone have any info on Portuguese in ...

"The coastal region attracted a history of European immigration, like Swiss-Germans settled New Bern in the late 18th century, and over 10,000 locals of Portuguese descent, mainly fishermen from Portugal, worked along the coast for over three centuries.[citation needed]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina Does anyone know the original source of this info and if it's accurate? If anyone knows anymore about this could you help me out?

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