Politicians]]> Portuguese American women]]> Catholic Church--Dioceses]]> Kennedy, John F.]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Basketball teams]]> Football]]> High school athletes]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Community organization]]> Immigrants--Cultural Assimilation--United States]]> Azorean Americans]]>
Biographical Note:
One of four siblings, Barbara Dunsford was born in Lowell and grew up in the city’s Highlands neighborhood. Her father was a public school teacher at the city’s vocational school and her mother was a homemaker until she entered the workforce in the 1960s. Barbara’s mother, Sophie Anne (Goncarz) Dunsford (1918-2006), was born in Lowell and her parents were Polish immigrants. Her father, Harold Bevan Dunsford, Jr. (1918-1973), was also born in Lowell, but of English (Yorkshire) descent. Barbara and her siblings attended St. Casimir’s Polish National Church in the Centreville neighborhood. All four siblings were educated in Lowell’s public schools and received college degrees. Barbara studied psychology, graduating from Lowell State College in 1973. She worked for a short time at a garden center before obtaining a staff position in Lowell’s public schools. Around 1981, she was hired as director of the Portuguese American Resource Center, a program of the Lowell Union of Portuguese Americans (LUPA).
Founded in 1977 and located in Lowell’s Back Central section, which was the city’s major Portuguese neighborhood, LUPA provided social services to the area’s Portuguese residents. A large number of Portuguese immigrants, primarily from the Azores, settled in Lowell beginning in the 1960s and into the early 1980s. The Resource Center offered a number of services and programs to aid this growing immigrant population. As director, Barbara coordinated some of these activities with the International Institute of Lowell, a long-time immigrant aid organization. She also wrote a number of grants, including one that led to an extensive photographic documentation project, carried out by local professional photographer Kevin Harkins, of the Back Central neighborhood and its residents, as well as in the various factories where many Portuguese were employed. After federal funds supporting the Resource Center were expended, Barbara worked as a director of fundraising for the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She remains active today as a consultant to a number of non-profit organizations in Lowell.]]>
Fitzsimons, Gray]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]>
Azorean Americans]]> Brazilian Americans]]> Bullying in schools]]> Bullfights]]> Catholic Church--Dioceses]]> Catholic Church--Societies, etc.]]> Children of immigrants]]> Code switching (Linguistics)]]> Conflict of generations]]> Earthquakes]]> Ethnic neighborhoods]]> Evening and continuation schools]]> Factories]]> Immigrants--Cultural Assimilation--United States]]> Portuguese American women]]> Priests]]> Volcanos]]>
Biographical Note:
Maria Rosa was born on the Azorean Island of Faial in 1945. She was one of four children (two brothers and a sister) and grew up in the village of Flamengos, a short distance from Horta, in a four-room house constructed of stone. Her father operated a small farm. She attended the public school in the village completing her education through grade 4. In 1957, when Maria was 12 years old, the Capelhinos volcano on Faial erupted, an event that altered the lives of many Azoreans. In the United States, Congress passed special legislation liberalizing immigration for all Azoreans.
Aided by a Portuguese family in Lowell, which sponsored Maria and her family, the Rosas departed Faial in 1960, arriving in Boston and then traveling to Lowell, where she, her parents, and her siblings settled in the city’s “Back Central” neighborhood. Maria entered the Lowell public schools, attending the Colburn School in her neighborhood. Despite the difficulties with having to learn English without any formal support by the public schools, Maria completed her studies at the Colburn and then at the Butler Junior High School. At the age of 16 she received a work permit and obtained a job at the Hathaway Shirt Company that operated a clothing manufacturing firm in the old Hamilton Mill. She met her husband, Joseph Mendonça, in Lowell and married him in 1966. Maria subsequently worked at the Raytheon Corporation and had a son and daughter.

Born in 1942 in Ponta Garça on the island of São Miguel, Joseph Mendonça moved to the United States at the age of 15, settling in Lowell with his family. His father had been born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1905 and therefore had U.S. citizenship, despite returning to São Miguel when he was quite young. Joseph attended a public school in Ponta Garça before entering high school in Ponta Delgada. Upon moving to Lowell, he was placed in the Butler Junior High School, but when he turned 16 he received a work permit and entered the employ of Grace Shoe Company, one a several shoe manufacturers in the city. For a number of years, Joseph worked in the shoe industry, while marrying Maria and beginning a family. He eventually attained a high school degree and began work at BASF Industries. Joseph and Maria were active parishioners at St. Anthony’s Church in Lowell as well as in the Holy Ghost Society. Joseph served as president of the Holy Ghost Society in the 1970s. They lived for a number of years in Lowell’s Back Central neighborhood before purchasing a house in South Lowell.]]>
Fitzsimons, Gray]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Faial (Azores)]]> São Miguel (Azores)]]>
Mills and mill-work]]> Children of immigrants]]> Civil engineering]]> Urban renewal]]> Park facilities--Planning]]> Ali, Mehmed]]> English]]> Hudson (Mass.)]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Immigrant families]]> Immigrants]]> Azorean Americans]]> Mills and mill-work]]> Catholic Church--Dioceses]]> Catholic Church--Societies, etc.]]> Priests]]> Cultural assimilation]]> Code switching (Linguistics)]]> Soccer]]> Instrumentation and orchestration (Band)]]> Ethnic neighborhoods]]> Fitzsimons, Gray]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Lawrence (Mass.)]]> Ethnic neighborhoods]]> Children of immigrants]]> Suicide]]> Cleaning compounds]]> Tenement houses]]> Immigrant families]]> World War, 1939-1945]]> Rug and carpet industry]]> Entrepreneurship]]> Irish Americans]]> Politics and government]]> City council members]]> Campaign management]]> Urban renewal]]>
His mother, Helen (Spinney) Durkin, was part of the Spinney family, a large Portuguese family in Lowell. The family's surname was originally Espinola, but the patriarch, Dominus, changed it to Spinney when he immigrated to the United States. In this interview, John tells the family folklore of how Dominus was kicked out of Portugal, eventually opening a bookstore in Lowell.]]>
Ali, Mehmed]]> Image of Spinney Family circa 1915]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]>
Ethnic neighborhoods]]>
All the photos taken in Back Central have been digitized and are accessible on the Internet Archive.

Click each link below to view the photograph from that location:


247 Appleton Street
253 Appleton Street
264 Appleton Street
291 Appleton Street
893 Central Street
61-63 Church Street
164 Church Street
Colburn School (1)
Colburn School (2)
First United Baptist Church
Joiners Court (1)
Joiners Court (2)
Joiners Court (3)
Joiners Court (4)
Joiners Court (5)
Lawrence Street Engine House
80 Linden Street (1)
80 Linden Street (2)
Lyon Street
Middlesex County Court House
33-35 Newhall Street
Old Opera House
Portuguese American War Memorial (1)
Portuguese American War Memorial (2)
St. Anthony's Parish Hall (1)
St. Anthony's Parish Hall (2)
St. Anthony's Parish Hall (3)
St. Vartanantz Armenian Church (1)
St. Vartanantz Armenian Church (2)
209 Summer Street
20 Tyler Street
58-60 Tyler Street
7 Wamesit Street]]>
Foley, Elizabeth]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]>
Tax returns]]> Azorean Americans]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Tax returns]]> Azorean Americans]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Tax returns]]> Azorean Americans]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Mills and mill-work]]> Portuguese American women]]> Instrumentation and orchestration (Band)]]> Musicians]]> Music teachers]]> Veterans]]> Bars (Drinking establishments)]]> Desegregation]]> Military bands]]> Catholic Church--Dioceses]]> Azorean Americans]]> Priests]]> Fitzsimons, Gray]]> 1999 Oral History Interview with John Leite
2016 Oral History Interview with John Leite]]>
English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]>
English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Portuguese American women]]> Musical theater]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Bullfights]]> English]]> Portuguese]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Bullfights]]> Portuguese]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Constitutions]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Seventh-Day Adventists]]> English]]> Portuguese]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Community organization]]> English]]> House painters]]> Financial institutions]]> Real estate agents]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Veterans]]> United States. Army.]]> World War, 1939-1945]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Community organization]]>
Speakers include Barbara Ackermann, Ronald Pina, Caetano Valadao Serpa, Ruben de Freitas Cabral, Valdo Correia, Onesimo Teotonio Almeida, Sebastiao Vasconcelos, Aaron Mittleman, Leonel Garganta, Manuel Aguiar, William Pastreich, Zelia Resendes, Joao Raposo, Arnaldo Cruz, Ernest Mzzone, Hildeberto Pereira, Jeremiah Botelho, Nelson Vieira, Luis Aguiar, Joanne Ross, and Joaquim Ferro.]]>
English]]> Portuguese]]> Cambridge (Mass.)]]>
Television stations]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Ambassadors]]> Priests]]> Catholic Church--Dioceses]]> Military religious orders]]> Consuls]]> English]]> Boston (Mass.)]]> House painters]]> Real estate agents]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Priests]]> Catholic Church--Dioceses]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Politicians]]> Community activists]]> Portuguese American women]]> English]]> Portuguese]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Politicians]]> Portuguese American women]]> Politics and government]]> Community activists]]> English]]> Portuguese]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Catholic Church--Societies, etc.]]> Fasts and Feasts]]> English]]> Portuguese]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Television stations]]> Lowell Cable Television]]> English]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]>