The State of Portuguese-American Health Disparities
By Carlos A. O. Pavão MPA, PhD
Historically, the United States (US) has been a magnet for Portuguese immigrants; there are several states with a significant population of Portuguese immigrants or Americans who claim Portuguese ancestry. Portuguese Americans are a diverse population consisting of people of Portuguese descent or immigrants from continental Europe, the Azores, and Madeira. The New England states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, along with New Jersey and New York, have a large concentration of Portuguese Americans; these people are mainly Azorean and Madeiran Portuguese and came to the United States to work in the textile mills.
By Millicent Borges Accardi
Raised in Los Banos, California, Portuguese-American writer Sam Pereira has published six books, most recently,
True North and Untrue You (Nine Mile 2020), a poetry collection which David St John (author of
The Last Troubadour: New and Selected Poems) states is “uniquely American. . . as if Lenny Bruce had written songs with Tom Waits.” Diniz Borges, director of the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute at California State University, Fresno adds that Pereira’s latest book “engages, surprises and liberates.”
Besides the six collections of poetry, Pereira’s work has also appeared in several anthologies of contemporary American poetry, among them:
Posted on 19 January 2021.
Portuguese American actor Tom Hanks will host a 90-minute “Celebrating America” primetime television special on January 20, for the inauguration of Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice-President of the United States. The ceremony will be held on the West Front of the US Capitol.
Tom Hanks is just one of the few Portuguese Americans invited for the inaugural ceremony. Other Portuguese Americans present include the five re-elected politicians who served previous administrations. They are Jim Costa; Devin Nunes, David Valadão, Lori Loureiro Trahan, and Patrick Toomey.
Except for Lori Loureiro Trahan, who is a Democrat congresswoman of Massachusetts, and congressman Jim Costa a Democrat of California, the other legislators of Portuguese descent are all Republicans who served under the Trump Administration not without consequence.