What: Presepios de Lapinha – Exhibit of Portuguese traditional sea-themed nativity scenes  made by local artisans.

Where:  Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library, UMass Dartmouth

When:  Exhibit will open on November 29th, 2012 6:00pm with a cocktail reception  and will continue through December 13, 2012

~ Free and Open to the Public ~

Sponsored by:

Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives
and Casa dos Açores New England

For further information, contact 508-999-8695 or email spacheco@umassd.edu

What: A lecture by  Prof. Frank F. Sousa entitled: “Hybrid Identity and the Portuguese-American Experience in the Novels of Alfred Lewis”
Where: Prince Henry Society Reading Room at the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library
When: May 10th, 2012, 5:00 P.M.

~ Free and open to the public ~ Light refreshments will be served ~

The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives and the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth announce a lecture, “Hybrid Identity and the Portuguese-American Experience in the Novels of Alfred Lewis,” by Prof. Frank F. Sousa, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, on Thursday, May 10 at 5:00 P.M. in the Prince Henry Society Reading Room at the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives (Parking lot 13). The lecture, free and open to the public, will include the launching of Lewis’s novel Home Is an Island. Light refreshments will be served.

Alfred Lewis (1902-1977) is the author of two published novels: Home Is an Island (Random House, 1951; Tagus Press, 2012) and Sixty Acres and a Barn (Tagus Press, 2005 and 1912). This lecture examines how these two works of fiction complement each other—the first treats life in the Old Country (Azores, Portugal) in the first quarter of the twentieth century, through the story of a young man who is about to emigrate to the America of his dreams, while the second is set in America, where the main character, a recent immigrant, pursues the American Dream on a dairy farm in the Central Valley of California during the 1940s. Both works call attention to the balancing act of dual identities and divided loyalties in individuals and communities on the margins between cultures. No other writer captures so well how the poor in the Azores viewed the promise of America and how Portuguese immigrants made a new life for themselves.

Alfred Lewis, born Alfredo Luís in the mid-Atlantic island of Flores, in the archipelago of the Azores, Portugal, was the son of a nineteenth-century whaleman who sailed the seven seas and eventually became a gold prospector in California, before returning to his homeland. Lewis himself immigrated to the Central Valley (Atwater) in 1922. Having learned English only after arriving in America, he nevertheless went on to study law and become a municipal judge in the San Joaquin Valley town of Los Baños.

Prof. Sousa’s lecture will conclude with the launching of a new, hardbound edition of Alfred Lewis’s classic novel, Home Is an Island, originally published by the prestigious Random House Publishers in 1951. The novel received much critical acclaim, including two reviews in the New York Times, and was highly praised by the well-known American novelist Patricia Highsmith, who wrote, “One does not often find a novel that reads like a poem, that tells a simple story in a simple prose, and yet is heroic, a novel of importance.”

Home Is an Island is volume 17 of the Portuguese in the Americas Series published by Tagus Press at UMass Dartmouth, in partnership with the University Press of New England. The Tagus Press cloth edition, sponsored by the Luso-American Foundation, features a foreword by Congressman Devin Nunes and a preface by Frank F. Sousa.

Frank F. Sousa is professor of Portuguese and director of both the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture and Tagus Press at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He is the author of O segredo de Eça, an often-cited work on Portugal’s foremost novelist of the nineteenth century.

Directions: The entrance to the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives is located on the campus side of the Claire T. Carney Library. For access during library construction, as you approach from Lot 13, enter the library basement and take the elevator to the first floor, exit the building, and proceed to the right, to the Archives entrance.

For further information, contact 508-999-8686 or email jfarrar@umassd.edu.

What: Presentation by Michael Hall, deputy chief genealogical officer of FamilySearch on the Azorean Immigration to the United States Through the Documents of One Family
Where: Prince Henry Society Reading Room at the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (Park in Lot 13)
When: Thursday, April 12 at 6:00 P.M.

~ Free and open to the public ~ Light refreshments will be served ~

On Campus Directions: For access during library construction as you approach from Lot 13, enter the library basement and take the elevator to the first floor, exit the building, and proceed to the right to the Archives entrance. 

Azorean Immigration to the United States Through the Documents of One Family

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives announces a presentation by Michael Hall, deputy chief genealogical officer of FamilySearch The event—free and open to the public—will take place on Thursday, April 12 at 6:00 P.M. in the Prince Henry Society Reading Room at the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives (Parking lot 13). Light refreshments will be served.

Titled “Immigration of Azoreans to the United States through the Documents of one Family,” the presentation will follow the journey of the Brilhante Family from the village of Relva, in São Miguel, Azores to Fall River, Massachusetts. The story will be told through the documents and eyes of Antonio Brilhante.  The history of Azorean immigration to the U.S. will unfold through the use of various governmental, ecclesiastical, and private documents that were created both in the Azores and the United States. This presentation will demonstrate how to use documents to recreate the history of a particular family or an ethnic group, but also the importance of preserving all documents for the use of the family historian and other researchers.  Selected family photos and newspaper articles will be interspersed throughout the presentation to give a feel of the life and experience of the Brilhante Family while illustrating common patterns of Azorean immigration to the U.S.

Michael J. Hall is the Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer of FamilySearch, the largest genealogical organization in the world, headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, where he works with libraries and genealogical societies worldwide. He has a degree in Anthropology from Brigham Young University and his areas research include the Azores, from which his maternal ancestors immigrated to the United States, and the upper mid-west region of the United States. He is a member of the Genealogy and Local History Committee of the American Library Association, and will be its 2013 incoming chair. He also serves in a similar capacity on the International Federation of Libraries and Associations (IFLA). He has written various genealogical guides for the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City.

The entrance to the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives is located on the campus side of the Claire T. Carney Library. For access during library construction as you approach from Lot 13, enter the library basement and take the elevator to the first floor, exit the building, and proceed to the right to the Archives entrance.

For further information, contact 508-999-8695 or email spacheco@umassd.edu.

What: A talk by historian Duarte Barcelos Mendonça entitled “Father Alfredo Vieira de Freitas’ View of America in 1939.”
Where:  Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, UMass Dartmouth Libary
When: Thursday, April 21, 6:00 – 7:30 P.M.

~ free and open to the public – A cocktail reception will follow. ~

In 1939, just before the beginning of World War II, Father Vieira, a young
Madeiran priest, professor, journalist and poet, visited the United States
for the first time. During his two-month stay in America, Father Vieira
traveled extensively throughout the East Coast, visiting several cities and
places. Apart from the Whaling City, he visited Cape Cod, Providence,
Newport, New York City and the Niagara Falls, to name but a few of his
destinations. Upon his return to Madeira, he published a series of 71
chronicles about his trip in a local newspaper. This talk, accompanied by a
PowerPoint presentation, focuses on the main aspects of his chronicles,
which were published as an annotated anthology by Duarte Mendonça, in 2009.

Presented by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Ferreira-Mendes
Portuguese-American Archives, the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture
and the Museum of Madeiran Heritage.

The entrance to the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives is located on the campus side of the Claire T. Carney Library. For access during library construction as you approach from Lot 13, enter the library basement and proceed to the first floor, exit the building, and proceed to the right to the Archives entrance.

For further information, contact Sonia Pacheco at 508-999-8684 or spacheco@umassd.edu.