Escola Portuguesa de Cambridge & Somerville [1982-1985]

Dublin Core

Title

Date

1982-1985

Description

This collection includes documents related to the Escola Portuguesa de Cambridge & Somerville (Portuguese School of Cambridge & Somerville). This collection was created from a folder of papers donated by Armando Milheirão, who had worked for the school and is an active member of the Cambridge Portuguese community. These papers span from 1982-1985 and contain letters, photographs, event programs, board meeting minutes, class lists, student records, and other matters related to the students and history of the Escola Portuguesa de Cambridge & Somerville.

Historical Overview:
Information taken from the Escola Portuguesa de Cambridge & Somerville website. More information can be found on their page here.

The Escola Portuguesa de Cambridge & Somerville, known originally as the Escola Portuguesa de Somerville, began as an idea after Dr. José Vitorino, the Secretary of State of Portugal, visited Somerville in 1982 and encouraged the community to create a school to teach Portuguese language and culture with the promise of financial aid for this mission.

The Executive Director of SPAL (Somerville Portuguese American League) at the time, Michael Bishop, held a public meeting with the local community, and community member Mrs. Angelina Costa took on the role of Chairman of the Parents Committee and as an extra-curricular teacher. Other teachers at the time included Mr. Armando Ferreira Milheirão and D. Maria Inês Gonçalves, who would later be replaced by D. Isabel Melo. Somerville classes officially started on October 12th, 1982 with 50 students, held temporarily on the premises of SPAL before moving to Lincoln Park Community School.

Simultaneously in 1982, Cambridge began to assemble a Portuguese School. Fr. José Ferreira, Mr. Amadeu Cruz da Quelha, and Dr. José Figueiredo, the then Board Director of COPA, created a public meeting at the Cambridge St. Anthony Church on July 17th, 1982. A formal school committee was eventually comprised of those three founders along with Mr. Antonio dos Anjos, and the Official Portuguese School in Cambridge began its operations on December 6th, 1982 at Cambridge's Harrington School. At the start, the school had 33 students. Mr. Amadeu Quelha served as the Chairman of the Parents and the two teachers included Mr. Antonio Fontes and Mrs. D. Nazare Teixeira. The school would eventually move to the newly completed premises of the St. Anthony's Church to accomodate for the lack of space in Harrington School.

Space would continue to be a problem for both the schools in Somerville and Cambridge, and due to their proximity and their shared goals to create a stronger school system, the two schools merged in the May of 1985, becoming officialized by the Portuguese government under the name "Escola Oficial Portuguesa de Cambridge e Somerville, Inc." The school proudly hosted over 80 students, along with faculty members Mr. Sérgio Soares, D. Olga Silva, D. Angelina Costa, and Ligia Fontes, headed by the President of the school, Mr. Amadeu Quelha, until 1997.

Today, the Escola Portuguesa de Cambridge e Somerville celebrates over 40 years of providing classes to individuals of all ages who are interested in studying the Portuguese language and culture. As of 2020, the Escola Portuguesa also offers virtual classes, and continues to grow their student enrollment every year

Creator

Ávila, Rui Goulart de

Costa, Maria Angelina

Fernandes, Humberto A.

Howe, Marie E.

Jehlen, Patricia D.

Melo, Isabel

Melo, Maria Isabel

Milheirão, Armando Ferreira

Raider, Lisa

Silva, João

Subject

Education

Education, Bilingual

Education--Finance

Portuguese teachers

Politicians

Folk dancing, Portuguese

Priests

Community schools

Portuguese American women

Christmas

Azorean Americans

Community organization

Music--Portuguese influences

Voter Registration

Voting

Radio programs

Publishers and publishing

Artists

Portugal--Emigration and immigration

Immigrants

Coverage

Cambridge (Mass.)

Somerville (Mass.)

Boston (Mass.)

Baden (Switzerland)

Source

Donated by Armando Milheirão from the Escola Portuguesa de Cambridge & Somerville archives.

Publisher

UMass Lowell, Center for Lowell History

Contributor

Andrade, Maria

Araujo, Piedade S.

Borges, Virgilio

Brito, Manuel F.

Caluta, Maria

Cequeira, Ana

Clarimundo, Maria C.

Coelho, Maria Freitas

Costa, Maurine S.

Dias, Arminda

Ferreira, Laurinda

Ferreira, S.

Francis, Zelia C.

Marques, Manuel

Melo, Maria Isabel

Tavares, Lino

Pereira, Armindo

Quelha, Amadeu

Serrano, Adelino

Silva, Olga

Soares, Serpa M.

Soares, Valdeman

Sousa, Alice de

Sousa, Antonio

Sousa, Maria Lucia de

Valada, Arminda

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted: This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).