Arhives and Special Collections is currently negotiating an arrangement to have 20 years worth of broadcast recordings of the local cable access program “The Portuguese Around Us” transferred to a digital format and placed on deposit in the Archives and Special Collections. When catalogued and open to researchers, it will be a valuable record of the Portuguese community from 1966 through the 1970s.

Manuscripts and other items received as gifts to the Portuguese American Archives this past year have included the records of the Portuguese Alliance Benevolent Association, 1924-2004, from Alfredo Alves, and a collection of Portuguese music from the estate of Antionio Alberto Costa, founder of local Portuguese-language radio station WGCY.

We continue to work with Otilia Ferreira to transfer the papers and radio recordings of her father Affonso “Ferreira Mendes” Mendes, one of the original founders of Portuguese radio in the 1930s. The Archives and Special Collections is pleased to receive the benefit of an endowment of $1.5 million, the lead gift of which is from Ms. Ferreira. The Portuguese American Archives was renamed in her father’s honor.