Brown University

Lost in America: Portuguese Denizens in a Land of Nod

Description

Abstract:
This historical survey explores the lives of various marginalized or "unknown" Portuguese individuals living in the United States from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The study utilizes a diverse array of primary source documents, including newspaper obituaries from colonial Philadelphia, census records, city directories from New York and New Orleans, and travel accounts like those of journalist Stephen Bonsal. Through these archival "recoveries," the text examines the experiences of diverse figures—ranging from a gentleman from Madeira and a Roman Catholic painter in the 1700s to a colorful bartender in mid-nineteenth-century New Orleans and a community of seafaring folk in New York. The document concludes with a literary analysis of a 1920s poem titled "The Lovely Portuguese," reflecting on how these disparate historical fragments contribute to the broader narrative of the Portuguese Diaspora.

Citation

Monteiro, George, "Lost in America: Portuguese Denizens in a Land of Nod" (2016). Gávea-Brown: A Bilingual Journal of Portuguese-North American Letters and Studies. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.26300/g6dh-rd56

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