Azorean Americans]]> Immigrants]]> Soccer]]> Community organization]]> Civic leaders]]> Ethnic groups]]> Oral History Interview with Renato Lima, September 17, 2016
Biographical Note:
Born on the island of Faial in 1939; one of four children (three boys and one girl) of Joaquin and Antonieta deLima; Renato Lima was educated in the Faial schools and graduated from high school on Terceira island; began playing soccer as a boy and became one of Faial’s highly skilled players; moved to the island of Terceira after the devastating eruptions (1957-58) of Vulcão dos Capelinhos; after working in a governmental job for the water department on Terceira, and playing soccer for the successful Sport Clube Lusitânia, Mr. Lima immigrated to the United States in 1962, settling with Portuguese friends in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where his brothers and sister would also settle; Mr. Lima obtained a factory job in Malden Mills (in Lawrence); moved briefly to Taunton, Massachusetts, where he was paid to play on a Portuguese soccer team (Taunton Sports Soccer Club), but returned to Lawrence after one year and worked for a rubber and vinyl manufacturer; he married a Portuguese woman whom he had met on Terceira and who immigrated from Terceira to Lawrence to marry him; remained an avid soccer player and fan, and was also active in Lawrence’s Portuguese-American Club.
Scope and Contents:
Interview conducted by local historian Mehmed Ali, this interview covers the aftermath of the volcanic eruptions on the island of Faial and the effect on the largely agrarian population; much of the focus is on the Portuguese community in Lawrence, the various factories where Portuguese émigrés worked, the city’s small Portuguese Catholic parish (Saint Peter and Paul Catholic Church), and the relationship between Lowell’s Portuguese and those in Lawrence.]]> Ali, Mehmed]]> English]]> Capelinhos Volcano (Azores)]]> Faial (Azores)]]> Lawrence (Mass.)]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Terceira Island (Azores)]]> Azorean Americans]]> Immigrants]]> Factories]]> Women in community organization]]> Labor unions]]> Ethnic groups]]> Oral History Interview with Nomesia Iria, April 18, 2018

Biographical Note:

Born on the Azorean island of São Miguel in 1953; Ms. Iria’s mother was a homemaker; her father worked as a chauffeur; similar to many children of this period, Ms. Iria attended public school through the fourth grade; eventually she married and had two children while living on São Miguel; in 1980 she, her husband, and two children immigrated to the United States, settling initially in New Bedford, Massachusetts; at the suggestion of her husband’s brother, who lived in Lowell and worked in a higher-paying electronics job, she and her family moved there; for a short time Ms. Iria commuted to Lawrence, Massachusetts, for a job in a shoe factory; however, upon obtaining a job in the Prince Pasta factory, which was located in South Lowell and had nearly 400 workers, the majority being Portuguese; she began working as a machine operator close to her home in the city’s “Back Central” neighborhood; owned by the Pellegrino family, Prince Pasta had a company union; in 1995 a group of Prince Pasta workers, including Ms. Iria, campaigned to affiliate with United Electrical Workers Machine of Workers of America (UE) and, in an intensely fought union election, the workers voted in favor of the UE;  Iria was then elected chief steward; two years later the Pellegrino’s sold the company to the Ohio-based Borden Corporation; soon thereafter Borden cut a number of employee benefits and instituted a 12-hour work day; despite union concessions Borden suddenly closed the Lowell factory; Ms. Iria joined with other workers, as well as city and elected officials in an attempt to save the plant, but to no avail; she subsequently worked as an organizer for the UE, before returning to a job as a machine operator at a beverage company; she remains involved in community work.

Scope and Contents:

Interview conducted by local historian Mehmed Ali; included is information on Ms. Iria’s family on São Miguel, prior to her immigration to the United States; much of the interview covers her working career in factories, initially in New Bedford and Lawrence, and then Lowell; she discusses in some detail her experiences at the Prince Pasta factory, the nature of the work and the division of jobs by gender and nationality, the change from a family-owned business to a corporate-controlled manufacturing facility, as well as the change from a company union to one affiliated with the United Electrical Workers Machine of America; her role as a union organizer and shop steward is discussed, as well as her attempts, along with coworkers, to keep the plant open following the Borden Corporation’s sudden decision to shut it down; she also discusses the tensions within her family stemming from the demanding roles as mother, wife, homemaker, worker, and union activist.]]> Ali, Mehmed]]> English]]> São Miguel (Azores)]]> Lowell (Mass.)]]> Portuguese American women]]> Ethnic groups]]> Row 2: Violet Pimentel, Annie Rose, Va Morrison, Mena Botelho, Unidentified, George-Ann Gonsalves
Top Row: Unidentified, Frank Olivero, Ricardo, Unidentified]]> Park Studio (Cambridge St.)]]> Cambridge (Mass.)]]>