Writers of the Portuguese Diaspora in the United States and Canada: An Anthology

Editors Luis Gonçalves and Carlo Matos, Preface by George Monteiro

 

This anthology brings together fiction, poetry, recipes, and memoirs by some of the best Portuguese-Canadian and Portuguese-American writers to narrate the Portuguese Diasporic experience in North America. These works focus on lived experiences, shared spaces and the ethnic identity through which this distinctive culture is lived in the United States of America and Canada, both of which have long been home to significant and vibrant Portuguese communities that arrived roughly in the same waves of migration.

In this book, you will find a range of texts full of passion, wit, and poise, even as they wrestle with a sense of loss about the passing of the torch from generation to generation, the attempts at integration into the mainstream, and the often overlooked third space or otherness often felt by Portuguese-Canadians and Portuguese-Americans. There are also stories about the power gained from the preservation of cultural practices that promote a strong sense of self and strengthen family and community ties, and also the awareness that success can come from understanding one’s legacy.

We would like to emphasize that even though this anthology was compiled from the perspective of the Portuguese Diaspora to North America, the result goes beyond that community and reflects larger complexities of articulations in Canadian and American everyday life and identity that will resonate with people of any ancestry in these countries.

Among the many writers included are Katherine Vaz, George Monteiro, Irene Marques, Anthony Barcellos, August Mark Vaz, Millicent Borges Accardi, Sam Pereira, Darrell Kastin, paulo da costa and Frank X. Gaspar. Each of them offers a unique view on the heterogeneity, intricateness, and vibrancy of experiences of the Portuguese Diasporas in Canada and the United States.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface: A Word on Diasporas and the Anthology
by George Monteiro

Katherine Vaz
Taking a Stitch in a Dead Man’s Arm

Amy Sayre Baptista
The Fisherman’s Daughter Learns to Fly
Return of the Fisherman’s Daughter
The Fisherman’s Daughter Meets a Weird Sister
The Fisherman’s Daughter Gets a Lesson in Meteorology
Inês de Castro Ascends the Throne

George Monteiro
How I Emigrated to America, the Land of My Birth

Irene Marques
The Making of Beautiful Stories
The Blood of Goats
Taking Photographs

Antonio Ladeira
Outra mentira
Perder tempo
Na livraria
Talvez a beira de um lago
Alyse Knorr
The Great Inheritance
Fazenda

Richard Simas
Interrogations: Narrating Luso Diaspora, Fact or Ficção?

Anthony Barcellos
The Voyage to Brazil: May 1865

Diana Ramos Firestone
A Phone Call to the Azores
Immigration Tuesday at the Masonic Center
Working for a Better Future
Will I Ever Be Home?
Fado in a Portuguese Hall in Petaluma, CA
Provar: to Taste
A Confiançar: to Trust

Eduardo Bettencourt Pinto
A mãe da minha vida
The Mother of My Life (Trans.)
Angola
Angola (Trans.)
A poesia
Poetry (Trans.)
Mulher a jardinar
Woman Gardening (Trans.)

Brian Sousa
Just One Night

Ian E. Watts
praça do comércio

Jennifer Jean
Human
Dexter Asylum, Providence, RI 1932
The Wall

Esmeralda Cabral
A Hard Landing

João S Martins
vice–versa
Vice Versa (Trans.)
almanaque dos escritores
The Writers Almanac (Trans.)

Joe Amaral
The Invisible Minority
Pa Pops
Isabel
Hot Tub Time Machine

August Mark Vaz
Cooking with a Portuguese Flavor [w/ Elizabeth Vaz]
Whaling, Gold and Homesteading

Lara Gularte
Bound
Mrs. Madruga Prepares Her Granddaughter for Hard Times
Lost Currents
The White City

paulo da costa
“és a onda sonora”
“a luz do candeeiro de rua”
“nem todos os teus dedos”

Linette Escobar
Immigrant
Legacy
Family History Of
Rua de Cima
A Definition

Diniz Borges
My Azorean–American Journey

Marina Carreira
Shrinking Violet
Luso–American Ephemera in Avó’s Old Armoire
A Girl’s Fado
Ironbound

Millicent Borges Accardi
Breaking with the Old
If I Had not Read the Book, I’d Still Have Believed
Musings in January
Arriving at the Place of the Pain
Start Here

Sarah Chaves
Dobra Lingua

Emanuel Melo
The Cottage Visit

Nancy Vieira Couto
Angie Appropriates a Bar or Two
Grains of Salt
Madragana Wears Her New Name
My Father Glows in the Dark
The Unfinished Girls in Pink

PaulA Neves
Train to Lisbon
The (Almost) Married Couple’s Guide to Tourist Traps
Three Season Year
11th Birthday
Capricornucopia (or The Dream of the Goats)
Kiss My Black Ass: A Meditation

Miguel Moniz
News from New Guinea
News from New Guinea

Jozhe
“Que curiosidade reveladora”
“A certain sniffing curiosity” (Trans.)
“A tua beleza contemplo”
“At your beauty I gaze” (Trans.)

Manuel Carvalho
Montesinhos
Tributo

Catarina Costa Laranjeira
Life Lessons from an Orange Tree

Rose Silva King
Longing for my Homeland

Sam Pereira
In the Name of the Holy Ghost
Sonnet Declaring the Wind Victorious
Salvation of Any Kind
The Suck of Love
Scars and T–birds

Darrell Kastin
The Secret Place

Frank X. Gaspar
Black Notebook, #5, Lisbon
The Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish
September 10th—Black Notebook #2
Black Notebook, Psalm 15, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Bedford