Hilmar students from elementary to high school had a chance to delve into the Portuguese culture with music, dances and food and learn more about the Portuguese immigration experience over the years during Portuguese Immigrant Week, which was marked last week.
“A lot of our students don’t get exposed to the culture as they had in the past,” said Portuguese teacher Michelle Machado. “This gives them a chance to not just see the culture, but to actually experience it.”
In 1969, Ronald Reagan, serving as governor of California at the time, proclaimed March 2-8 as Portuguese Immigrant Week. From 1960 to 1969, Portuguese immigration to the United States grew substantially, with more than 73,000 immigrants coming to the United States legally, which was more than five times what it was the previous decade, according to the Library of Congress.
According to the 1970 census there were 318,458 first- and second-generation Portuguese residing in the United States. Of those, 198,559 had been born in the United States with at least one parent who was a native of Portugal, and the remaining 119,899 had themselves been born in Portugal.
In the last census, there was an estimated 1.4 million people in the United States who claimed Portuguese ancestry.
The students participating in the celebration worked with Mar Bravo Folklore Group to learn some traditional dances, which were then performed for family and friends. They also had traditional Portuguese foods and desserts, Machado said.
“The audience really loved it,” Machado said. “I saw a lot of grandmothers with some tears in their eyes because they were so happy to see their grandkids participating in the culture and happy to see that it won’t just die out. That it has a future.”
Many of the students participating in the two-day program are part of Hilmar Unified School District’s Portuguese Immersion program. Immersion programs teach subjects in dual languages. In this program, science and math are taught in Portuguese and history and literature are taught in English.
