Portuguese Americans very much illustrate this clustering by ethnic
subgroup in large part because most Portuguese came to the US not
from mainland Portugal but from the Portuguese Atlantic Islands of
the Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde. In addition to clustering by
these large groups (Madeirans clustered in New Bedford's North End;
Cape Verdeans and Azoreans from the island of Fayal in its South End;
numerous Azorean groups in Fall River) they further clustered by
island and even by village and church parish.

Below I have include some details below from my unpublished work in
progress about the Portuguese in New England. I hope this is helpful
and if you want more info about sources, etc., let me know. Jim

James W. Fonseca, Ph.D
Interim Executive Dean of Regional Higher Education
Ohio University  fonseca@ohio.edu

---unpublished work in progress about the Portuguese in New England
by James W. Fonseca--
Relatives and villagers recreate their communities and parishes by
block and neighborhood. In Fall River, Gilbert looked at how
residents of island neighborhoods (freguesias) clustered within small
districts (basically a few adjacent streets or a few city blocks)
within Fall River) and found, for example, that 137 of 149 (92%)
residents from one island neighborhood lived with short distance of
each other and in the case of another frequesia, 150 of 180 (83%) of
islanders did so. Further, of 902 immigrants from Sao Miguel only 16%
were not located on the same street or between two intersections of
other households from the same frequesa and of a further subgroup,
31% lived not only in the same street but within the same tenement
house.  This phenomenon is almost more aptly described as
"transplanting villages" than of immigration.

Pap also notes how Portuguese from different islands and different
regions of continental Portugal clustered in different areas in New
England. Provincetown attracted islanders from San Miguel in the
Azores and from fishing towns of the Algarve region of southern
Portugal. A jute mill in Ludlow outside of Springfield, Massachusetts
had attracted about 1,500 immigrants from the Tras-os-Montes region
of northern Portugal. In Valley Falls, north of Providence, Rhode
Island, most of the settlers were from Castendo from Beira Alta in
Portugal. Just a short distance away in Central Falls, Rhode Island,
immigrants were from the island of Madeira. Most Portuguese in
Hartford, Connecticut came from the Mira district north of Lisbon but
those in Danbury, Connecticut came from the Gouveia district in north
central Portugal. The large Portuguese immigrant community in New
Bedford subdivided. The north end attracted Madeirans, Continentals
and Azoreans from St. Michaels while the south end attracted almost
entirely Azoreans but from the islands of Pico and Fayal. Immigration
could be so location-specific that sometimes not only villages but
church parishes moved and recreated themselves. Pap says that the
Espirito Santo parish in Fall River was largely a transplantation of
Bretanha parish from the island of Sao Miguel.

For example, in 1920, the sociologist Taft studied a 15-block
Portuguese neighborhood in Fall River bounded by Hunter, Broadway,
Columbia and Division streets. This was an area of heavy immigration
from the Azores and specifically from the island of Sao Miguel (St.
Michael's). Eighty of the 88 fathers of the 120 families he studied
had been born on St. Michaels's.  Today, more than 85 years later,
this is an area of Fall River that is still a prominent Portuguese
cultural community, particularly for immigrants from St. Michael's.
(need reference). This persistence of neighborhood domination by the
Portuguese is probably related to the density or concentration of the
Portuguese within that neighborhood. Alan Noble notes that even the
small relative size of an ethnic group may be compensated for by
density; population numbers must be large to repel competition from
other ethnic groups - that is they have to effectively dominate the
settlement area. "The continual arrival, year after year, of new
immigrants strengthens the traditional ethnic elements in the
settlement and prevents or delays assimilation."  Perhaps also the
more or less continuous economic depression in old mill towns like
New Bedford and Fall River since the decline of the textile mills has
discouraged in migration of other groups and protected the Portuguese
neighborhoods from succession.

--30--

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