Rogerio Paul Custódio Interview
Item
Title
Rogerio Paul Custódio Interview
Interviewee, Interviewer
Custódio, Rogerio Paul
Delgado, Kayla
Relation
Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute
Date
11/18/2019
Identifier
SCUAD_pbbi_00021
extracted text
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Speaker 1: What is your full birth name?
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Speaker 2: Rogerio Paul
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Speaker 1: Would you mind spelling that out?
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Speaker 2: Yes, it's R-O-G-E-R-I-O
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Speaker 1: Paul?
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Speaker 2: yeah, Paul. Custodio, which is CUSTODIO
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Speaker 1: Were you named after anyone? Is there any story behind your
name?
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Speaker 2: No, it's just my father. His name was Roger.
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Speaker 1: So it's kind of after your father?
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: When were you born?
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Speaker 2: 1972
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Speaker 1: Where were you born?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was born in Mozambique Africa.
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Speaker 1: Oh really?
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Speaker 2: Yes.
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Speaker 1: Um, what are the memories do you have a child in Portuguese
American community or in Portugal?
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Speaker 2: While I came to this country, I was three years old. But what
I remember as a kid is the Portuguese festivals, you know, going to the
festivals in the tradition, you know, doing our pig
killings and all the festivals we used to do at home and which you don't
see it anymore, the Lost Generation. You know?
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Speaker 1: When did your family immigrate to the United States?
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Speaker 2: 1975.
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Speaker 1: Why did your family leave? If they did?
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Speaker 2: They left for a better life. Opportunity. American dream, I
guess I would say
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Speaker 1: So they left from the Azores to Africa?
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Speaker 2: Well, they left from my father was in Portuguese military.
believe it was he left in 1971 from Angola He was stationed in Angola. So
I went back to the Azore islands, St. George. And he
liked he liked Africa so much that he decided to move my siblings and,
you know, my mom to Mozambique Africa to work these, not under the
military. He went to go work there. My mom taught a Portuguese
school there. And my dad worked for a farmer. And they also had a store
and which was like, an outpost, which they sold different commodities,
you know, to the people. I mean, anything you wanted, you
could get it to like a general store that had everything. So that's what
my dad did. He worked for a guy that had a store, and they'd grow the
crops, fruits, everything, and then they would sell up at
the store, and my mom would teach school. So I had three other siblings
that were older than me that moved to Mozambique, so my mom was pregnant
with me. So then I was born. 1972 they went in 71. Now
I was born in June of 72. So my mom was already pregnant when she went
early stages, so.
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Speaker 1: So you are the youngest?
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Speaker 2: No, actually and I had a brother that was born here. They
came. Then they left. They stayed 1972 they went to Africa to Mozambique,
and then they left in 1974. They went back to the
islands. And then they immigrated over here in 1975. My mom was pregnant
with my youngest brother. So then he was born here. So we're five.
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Speaker 1: I have three siblings.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, where it's three brothers and two sisters.
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Speaker 1: Two sisters, one brother. Um, where did your family settle on?
Why there?
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Speaker 2: Well, first of all my parents, the people who had made the
paperwork where my uncle and aunt they lived in Artesia, so they went to
Artesia. My dad didn't like the work that he had there
factory work. So I had relatives here in the valley, Central Valley. So
he came down to Fresno. And he knew cows. And that's, that's what he did.
He started milking cows and he worked here in Fresno
for 33 years till he retired.
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Yes.
32
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Speaker 1: Did your parents or grandparents ever tell you what it was
like to adjust to life in a new country?
33
00:04:32,280 --> 00:05:19,860
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, it was hard. You know, they just had their
brothers or sisters that were already here. And not knowing the language
not having ever driven really cars my dad had driven
before my mom never had driven, you know, and to obey the laws and not
understand the language. It was, you know, it was hard to learn and tell,
you know, my dad would drive here and there but he
didn't even like the drive. So that's why he chose to work at a farm.
Because they supplied how homes form, so you wouldn't have to drive to
work. So made a lot easier than living in a city. Exactly.
So that's why they, you know, that's why they kind of chose that. And he,
like I said, he was more, he had cattle back in the islands, and he knew
that kind of work, farming and
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Speaker 1: were there any stories that were passed down regarding their
early experiences?
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Speaker 2: Not really, I mean, of course, everybody has hard times at the
beginning and then you get used to the lifestyle and, you know, pretty
much it was tough at the beginning, but they've already
you know, they got used to it. They've been here so many years. So over
time, I guess you know, you learn, learn the large you learn how things
work, and eventually you get used to it. So
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Speaker 1: How important was it for your parents to your parents for you
to be raised with a strong Portuguese identity?
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Speaker 2: Very important that they've always spoke Portuguese, they they
understand just a little bit English. They've always said they want us to
learn English but to keep our Portuguese heritage
alive which is very important to them all all my siblings, we all speak
Portuguese fluently. The name was very important that we, you know, kept
our traditions from our festivals and I'm actually a
board member here. So that's our deeper roots, you know, keeping to keep
it going. And my kids I try to instill the same thing, even though not
all of them. I have three kids not all speak Portuguese,
but they understand it and a couple do speak it and I wanted to continue
I mean, I try not to let it die. I don't want to die with my generation.
I want to try to continue it. So I try to get it
instilled in them too. I mean, you might not think you need it. And it's
not important. But when you get older, and the older my generations gone,
you're going to be Oh, I wish I would have you know,
that way one day they do go back to the islands, they could speak it they
understand. I've took them back already once showed them where I came
from, you know, where their grandparents came from, to
go grandparents with us so they could see what it was. So
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Speaker 1: My family wanted to get rid of that.
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Speaker 2: No, that's that's sad.
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Speaker 1: I don't know.
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Speaker 2: No, but sad. You know, it's sad because what's the language
now is Spanish. You know, how much you would help you? You know, get jobs
and get just anything. I mean, it's huge. You should
never I mean, that's my opinion. You should never let your your roots go
because that's what America is a melting pot. That's what was built on.
You know, you know, we all we all under the same flag
but we come from different places. That's a melting pot. That's what
America is to me. So.
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I'm learning Portuguese actually helps with my Spanish.
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Good. And my daughter she's a freshman in at Fresno City College and she
took Portuguese she understands this but she doesn't can't speak
fluently, but she wanted to learn. So it's not like we don't
speak it because my grandparents that's all they spoke was Portuguese.
But some pick it up one of my I have twin boys. One speaks it and
understands fully. The other one he understands most of it but
he doesn't speak it. You know, just a word here and there he picked up
and they're twins. So it's just how your brain picks it up. So
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Speaker 1: How is this identity expressed their language through
traditions and festivals?
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Speaker 2: Kind of a hard question.
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Speaker 1: You wanna skip, you wanna come back?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll get that later.
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Speaker 1: What cultural traditions have you maintained? Why has it been
important for you to maintain?
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Speaker 2: Well, I'd say pretty much. We're Catholic. So we do our
Portuguese festivals. So that's one thing that was really instilled in
us, we were kids, we participate in them, carrying whatever
they flag, whatever they needed in the parade. And I try to instill that
in my kids. And I think it's important because they still do it on the
islands the same way they've done it hundreds of years
ago. So we try to mimic that here. So it doesn't die and we're very
strong Portuguese community if you pay attention, it's really strong, but
we got Portuguese halls like this, and almost in so many
cities.
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Speaker 1: There is one in Selma.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have them all the way across California from San
Diego, all the way to up there by Oregon. I mean, they're everywhere.
It's amazing, you know, seems like a lot of the bigger cities
they have them guaranteed. And, you know, I think that was really
instilled in us as kids. Because it was a different time. We didn't have
the internet that we have now, our thing to go to go out was
as an immigrant, having an immigrant parents come in, and we'd probably
go out of town once a month, buy groceries. Our thing to get away was to
go to these festivals. That's how we got to meet
people. You know, our age and, you know, our culture. That's, that's what
our giveaway was was to go to these festivals. So that's, you know,
that's what I like to continue and then that we have them
and keep our tradition strong.
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Speaker 1: Have you been to the Azores? And what was the experience like?
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Speaker 2: Oh, I've been there five times. And I loved every minute of
it. So go back. My grandparents house was still there. It was remodeled
and knock on annamaya and remodeled it and it's there for
any of the nephews or any of us that want to go back. We have an uncle
lives there. Whenever we go back, we have a place to stay. So it's
something that our grandparents that that was left to my
uncle's, my uncle aunt and they want to pass it on to us by letting us
stay. Whenever we go back with a family or take our kids or our kids go,
they want you know, they want to keep the property and
everything kept up. And we help them out. We go back, we give them what
we can to help them keep the place up. And we have well have a place to
stay as long as you know, we want and it's, it's pretty
awesome when you think about your parents growing up there. You know, my
was nine. My grandparents had nine kids. So it's pretty amazing to see
it. Because I seen it transformed when it was old how my
parent my mom lived there. Still in the same fashion, everything was
pretty much the same. And then I seen it transformed when they remodeled
it, you know, so it's pretty cool to see. So that uncle's
when I go there I go fishing. Hiking is awesome. I mean, there's people
from Europe that's like their Hawaii to us. They go over there. All they
do is hike. Yeah, I mean, the scenery is unbelievable.
It's almost like a postcard. You can't believe that. You know how green
and how natural everything is. Seems like it hasn't been touched. There's
places there. There are cities that have been lost.
People have left there because there was a lot of people at one time
there in those islands and they all immigrated out of there. You know,
you went from 15,000 people to 3000 people in a matter of a
couple years. So some of those cities, they became empty, the older
people were there, they passed away and then nobody to come. So actually,
the overgrowth, everything grew then nobody took care of
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the city. So you can actually hike through there and see these places. So
pretty awesome. You know? Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Trace if you will, some of your experiences growing up in the
Portuguese American community community in the value valley throughout
you life.
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Speaker 2: Oh, I think that's a hard one. Like I said, I mean, I've just
gone up and down the state of California, participating in parades,
festivals, eating our traditional sopa, which is originally
what it was, they'd call that the poor man's food, which was bread,
they'd have an animal that they would raise, they would kill it. And they
would, you know they would cook it, cook the meat, cut the
meat up big pieces cook it, and then they with the water and, and onions
and different vegetable and then they mix it all together, they put the
soup and the meat on top of the bread because it was
hard bread, and they make a soup out of it. And that's what they would
sell you that that would be their food to celebrate, because they were
very simple, you know. So that's what we still do here. We
still have our sofhas which changed a little bit but not much. You know,
and that's all I have to say.
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Speaker 1: Of all that you have accomplished what are you most proud of?
What proud moments do you remember in the Portuguese American community?
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Speaker 2: Well I think for me myself staying connected to the Portuguese
community and probably one of my biggest accomplishments in this is
growing up I've come to before this hall was even built
we'd eat outside my the man I worked for my boss him and a few other guys
got the money together and they built his hall. So I remember them all
the board members the older gentleman here and and the
look back now and think that I made it to a board member where I used to
be a kid dance playing here and dance you know never think you know, you
never thought that but because it but as you get
older, you start thinking, wow, if we don't hold this together, it ain't
gonna happen. It'll die. So, I think probably one of the things I'm most
proud of is getting in here. You know, them wanting to
be to me to be involved. I've been here pretty much my whole life since I
was three. And now to help run it now I see what it is, and I get more
appreciation, you know, and I'm proud of that, that,
you know, we can, hopefully we can keep this going for another hundred,
or as long as we can, you know, that makes me proud to see, you know, the
accomplishments of the people before me and hopefully
the people after me after I leave here, hopefully they can keep it going.
That's why I try to teach my kids and I get one or two or three of them,
get on board and continue this be awesome, you know,
makes me proud. You know, to be Portuguese and to be like I said to be
able to help our cause, keep it going.
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Speaker 1: To what extent do you believe being Portuguese American has
shaped the way that has shaped the way you move through life or
professionally and personally.
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Speaker 2: I think it shows you both sides of coming from another
country. I think it makes you stronger as a person. You've seen what your
ancestors or your you know, before you came, how they lived,
you know, from pretty much nothing and in that American part where you
have pretty much everything. So, it's opportunity. You know, you can have
the best of both worlds. You know, you could live to go
back and see what, how they used to live and come back and just mix them
together. And you know, you can't have any better than this. I think it's
great. I mean.
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Speaker 1: What does being Portuguese American mean to you?
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Speaker 2: Good question, we'll come back to that.
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Speaker 1: How do you see the Portuguese American community?
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Speaker 2: I see it strong What am I gonna say? I see it you know strong
alive I see it. Everybody wants Portuguese community people that people
want to want to want to say this. contribute. You see a
lot of Portuguese your that they can they help they try to help the
community Communities are in and the communities are not in they they
tried to I think they tried to help economically. Spit it out.
I can't spit it out. Yeah, but I don't have these questions. So this is
all recorded?
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Is there anything we didn't cover that you'd like to
share?
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Speaker 2: No, not really. I think we did good. Okay. Okay, let's go.
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Speaker 1: Okay. How was your How was this identity expressive language
foods traditions and festivals?
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Speaker 2: Still this identity that come from the other question?
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still I'm still stumped on that. I mean, I don't
know what they're trying to get. How was this identity expressed a
dignity of
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Speaker 1: you being Portuguese American so you saying how you want to
make the sophas?
72
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Speaker 2: Right?
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Speaker 1: Was it through the festas? I guess I did a festa. So that
could be a way.
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Speaker 2: Okay.
75
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Speaker 1: Clothing, traditional clothing, If you were songs to listen
to.
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Speaker 2: Me So, I mean, to tell you laughter music or what would that
be? What I the other question I answered about the Sopas would be pretty
close no?
77
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Speaker 1: Yeah pretty much. and I think it was.
78
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Speaker 2: How do you see? How does being Portuguese American or what
does Portuguese American mean to you? makes me proud being Portuguese
Americans I mean.
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Unknown: I'm sorry. I thought you were getting ready to finish and I
wanted to remind you this sign,
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Speaker 2: Okay. It makes me proud to know that I've kept our tradition
you know, kept our traditions
alive I guess I would say.
81
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Speaker 1: Alright.
82
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Speaker 2: Cool.
00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:04,200
Speaker 1: What is your full birth name?
2
00:00:05,020 --> 00:00:07,300
Speaker 2: Rogerio Paul
3
00:00:08,050 --> 00:00:09,100
Speaker 1: Would you mind spelling that out?
4
00:00:09,130 --> 00:00:11,080
Speaker 2: Yes, it's R-O-G-E-R-I-O
5
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Speaker 1: Paul?
6
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Speaker 2: yeah, Paul. Custodio, which is CUSTODIO
7
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Speaker 1: Were you named after anyone? Is there any story behind your
name?
8
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Speaker 2: No, it's just my father. His name was Roger.
9
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Speaker 1: So it's kind of after your father?
10
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
11
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Speaker 1: When were you born?
12
00:00:43,810 --> 00:00:44,860
Speaker 2: 1972
13
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Speaker 1: Where were you born?
14
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was born in Mozambique Africa.
15
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Speaker 1: Oh really?
16
00:00:50,620 --> 00:00:51,100
Speaker 2: Yes.
17
00:00:53,920 --> 00:01:00,040
Speaker 1: Um, what are the memories do you have a child in Portuguese
American community or in Portugal?
18
00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:23,370
Speaker 2: While I came to this country, I was three years old. But what
I remember as a kid is the Portuguese festivals, you know, going to the
festivals in the tradition, you know, doing our pig
killings and all the festivals we used to do at home and which you don't
see it anymore, the Lost Generation. You know?
19
00:01:25,350 --> 00:01:27,930
Speaker 1: When did your family immigrate to the United States?
20
00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:30,780
Speaker 2: 1975.
21
00:01:32,610 --> 00:01:35,190
Speaker 1: Why did your family leave? If they did?
22
00:01:36,570 --> 00:01:43,140
Speaker 2: They left for a better life. Opportunity. American dream, I
guess I would say
23
00:01:43,380 --> 00:01:45,360
Speaker 1: So they left from the Azores to Africa?
24
00:01:45,420 --> 00:03:09,900
Speaker 2: Well, they left from my father was in Portuguese military.
believe it was he left in 1971 from Angola He was stationed in Angola. So
I went back to the Azore islands, St. George. And he
liked he liked Africa so much that he decided to move my siblings and,
you know, my mom to Mozambique Africa to work these, not under the
military. He went to go work there. My mom taught a Portuguese
school there. And my dad worked for a farmer. And they also had a store
and which was like, an outpost, which they sold different commodities,
you know, to the people. I mean, anything you wanted, you
could get it to like a general store that had everything. So that's what
my dad did. He worked for a guy that had a store, and they'd grow the
crops, fruits, everything, and then they would sell up at
the store, and my mom would teach school. So I had three other siblings
that were older than me that moved to Mozambique, so my mom was pregnant
with me. So then I was born. 1972 they went in 71. Now
I was born in June of 72. So my mom was already pregnant when she went
early stages, so.
25
00:03:10,140 --> 00:03:10,560
Speaker 1: So you are the youngest?
26
00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:35,980
Speaker 2: No, actually and I had a brother that was born here. They
came. Then they left. They stayed 1972 they went to Africa to Mozambique,
and then they left in 1974. They went back to the
islands. And then they immigrated over here in 1975. My mom was pregnant
with my youngest brother. So then he was born here. So we're five.
27
00:03:38,380 --> 00:03:38,770
Speaker 1: I have three siblings.
28
00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:41,140
Speaker 2: Yeah, where it's three brothers and two sisters.
29
00:03:43,020 --> 00:03:47,580
Speaker 1: Two sisters, one brother. Um, where did your family settle on?
Why there?
30
00:03:48,080 --> 00:04:21,710
Speaker 2: Well, first of all my parents, the people who had made the
paperwork where my uncle and aunt they lived in Artesia, so they went to
Artesia. My dad didn't like the work that he had there
factory work. So I had relatives here in the valley, Central Valley. So
he came down to Fresno. And he knew cows. And that's, that's what he did.
He started milking cows and he worked here in Fresno
for 33 years till he retired.
31
00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:23,730
Yes.
32
00:04:25,170 --> 00:04:30,180
Speaker 1: Did your parents or grandparents ever tell you what it was
like to adjust to life in a new country?
33
00:04:32,280 --> 00:05:19,860
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, it was hard. You know, they just had their
brothers or sisters that were already here. And not knowing the language
not having ever driven really cars my dad had driven
before my mom never had driven, you know, and to obey the laws and not
understand the language. It was, you know, it was hard to learn and tell,
you know, my dad would drive here and there but he
didn't even like the drive. So that's why he chose to work at a farm.
Because they supplied how homes form, so you wouldn't have to drive to
work. So made a lot easier than living in a city. Exactly.
So that's why they, you know, that's why they kind of chose that. And he,
like I said, he was more, he had cattle back in the islands, and he knew
that kind of work, farming and
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Speaker 1: were there any stories that were passed down regarding their
early experiences?
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Speaker 2: Not really, I mean, of course, everybody has hard times at the
beginning and then you get used to the lifestyle and, you know, pretty
much it was tough at the beginning, but they've already
you know, they got used to it. They've been here so many years. So over
time, I guess you know, you learn, learn the large you learn how things
work, and eventually you get used to it. So
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Speaker 1: How important was it for your parents to your parents for you
to be raised with a strong Portuguese identity?
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Speaker 2: Very important that they've always spoke Portuguese, they they
understand just a little bit English. They've always said they want us to
learn English but to keep our Portuguese heritage
alive which is very important to them all all my siblings, we all speak
Portuguese fluently. The name was very important that we, you know, kept
our traditions from our festivals and I'm actually a
board member here. So that's our deeper roots, you know, keeping to keep
it going. And my kids I try to instill the same thing, even though not
all of them. I have three kids not all speak Portuguese,
but they understand it and a couple do speak it and I wanted to continue
I mean, I try not to let it die. I don't want to die with my generation.
I want to try to continue it. So I try to get it
instilled in them too. I mean, you might not think you need it. And it's
not important. But when you get older, and the older my generations gone,
you're going to be Oh, I wish I would have you know,
that way one day they do go back to the islands, they could speak it they
understand. I've took them back already once showed them where I came
from, you know, where their grandparents came from, to
go grandparents with us so they could see what it was. So
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Speaker 1: My family wanted to get rid of that.
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Speaker 2: No, that's that's sad.
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Speaker 1: I don't know.
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Speaker 2: No, but sad. You know, it's sad because what's the language
now is Spanish. You know, how much you would help you? You know, get jobs
and get just anything. I mean, it's huge. You should
never I mean, that's my opinion. You should never let your your roots go
because that's what America is a melting pot. That's what was built on.
You know, you know, we all we all under the same flag
but we come from different places. That's a melting pot. That's what
America is to me. So.
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I'm learning Portuguese actually helps with my Spanish.
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Good. And my daughter she's a freshman in at Fresno City College and she
took Portuguese she understands this but she doesn't can't speak
fluently, but she wanted to learn. So it's not like we don't
speak it because my grandparents that's all they spoke was Portuguese.
But some pick it up one of my I have twin boys. One speaks it and
understands fully. The other one he understands most of it but
he doesn't speak it. You know, just a word here and there he picked up
and they're twins. So it's just how your brain picks it up. So
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Speaker 1: How is this identity expressed their language through
traditions and festivals?
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Speaker 2: Kind of a hard question.
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Speaker 1: You wanna skip, you wanna come back?
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00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:08,810
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll get that later.
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Speaker 1: What cultural traditions have you maintained? Why has it been
important for you to maintain?
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Speaker 2: Well, I'd say pretty much. We're Catholic. So we do our
Portuguese festivals. So that's one thing that was really instilled in
us, we were kids, we participate in them, carrying whatever
they flag, whatever they needed in the parade. And I try to instill that
in my kids. And I think it's important because they still do it on the
islands the same way they've done it hundreds of years
ago. So we try to mimic that here. So it doesn't die and we're very
strong Portuguese community if you pay attention, it's really strong, but
we got Portuguese halls like this, and almost in so many
cities.
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00:10:00,260 --> 00:10:01,010
Speaker 1: There is one in Selma.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have them all the way across California from San
Diego, all the way to up there by Oregon. I mean, they're everywhere.
It's amazing, you know, seems like a lot of the bigger cities
they have them guaranteed. And, you know, I think that was really
instilled in us as kids. Because it was a different time. We didn't have
the internet that we have now, our thing to go to go out was
as an immigrant, having an immigrant parents come in, and we'd probably
go out of town once a month, buy groceries. Our thing to get away was to
go to these festivals. That's how we got to meet
people. You know, our age and, you know, our culture. That's, that's what
our giveaway was was to go to these festivals. So that's, you know,
that's what I like to continue and then that we have them
and keep our tradition strong.
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Speaker 1: Have you been to the Azores? And what was the experience like?
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Speaker 2: Oh, I've been there five times. And I loved every minute of
it. So go back. My grandparents house was still there. It was remodeled
and knock on annamaya and remodeled it and it's there for
any of the nephews or any of us that want to go back. We have an uncle
lives there. Whenever we go back, we have a place to stay. So it's
something that our grandparents that that was left to my
uncle's, my uncle aunt and they want to pass it on to us by letting us
stay. Whenever we go back with a family or take our kids or our kids go,
they want you know, they want to keep the property and
everything kept up. And we help them out. We go back, we give them what
we can to help them keep the place up. And we have well have a place to
stay as long as you know, we want and it's, it's pretty
awesome when you think about your parents growing up there. You know, my
was nine. My grandparents had nine kids. So it's pretty amazing to see
it. Because I seen it transformed when it was old how my
parent my mom lived there. Still in the same fashion, everything was
pretty much the same. And then I seen it transformed when they remodeled
it, you know, so it's pretty cool to see. So that uncle's
when I go there I go fishing. Hiking is awesome. I mean, there's people
from Europe that's like their Hawaii to us. They go over there. All they
do is hike. Yeah, I mean, the scenery is unbelievable.
It's almost like a postcard. You can't believe that. You know how green
and how natural everything is. Seems like it hasn't been touched. There's
places there. There are cities that have been lost.
People have left there because there was a lot of people at one time
there in those islands and they all immigrated out of there. You know,
you went from 15,000 people to 3000 people in a matter of a
couple years. So some of those cities, they became empty, the older
people were there, they passed away and then nobody to come. So actually,
the overgrowth, everything grew then nobody took care of
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the city. So you can actually hike through there and see these places. So
pretty awesome. You know? Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Trace if you will, some of your experiences growing up in the
Portuguese American community community in the value valley throughout
you life.
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Speaker 2: Oh, I think that's a hard one. Like I said, I mean, I've just
gone up and down the state of California, participating in parades,
festivals, eating our traditional sopa, which is originally
what it was, they'd call that the poor man's food, which was bread,
they'd have an animal that they would raise, they would kill it. And they
would, you know they would cook it, cook the meat, cut the
meat up big pieces cook it, and then they with the water and, and onions
and different vegetable and then they mix it all together, they put the
soup and the meat on top of the bread because it was
hard bread, and they make a soup out of it. And that's what they would
sell you that that would be their food to celebrate, because they were
very simple, you know. So that's what we still do here. We
still have our sofhas which changed a little bit but not much. You know,
and that's all I have to say.
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Speaker 1: Of all that you have accomplished what are you most proud of?
What proud moments do you remember in the Portuguese American community?
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Speaker 2: Well I think for me myself staying connected to the Portuguese
community and probably one of my biggest accomplishments in this is
growing up I've come to before this hall was even built
we'd eat outside my the man I worked for my boss him and a few other guys
got the money together and they built his hall. So I remember them all
the board members the older gentleman here and and the
look back now and think that I made it to a board member where I used to
be a kid dance playing here and dance you know never think you know, you
never thought that but because it but as you get
older, you start thinking, wow, if we don't hold this together, it ain't
gonna happen. It'll die. So, I think probably one of the things I'm most
proud of is getting in here. You know, them wanting to
be to me to be involved. I've been here pretty much my whole life since I
was three. And now to help run it now I see what it is, and I get more
appreciation, you know, and I'm proud of that, that,
you know, we can, hopefully we can keep this going for another hundred,
or as long as we can, you know, that makes me proud to see, you know, the
accomplishments of the people before me and hopefully
the people after me after I leave here, hopefully they can keep it going.
That's why I try to teach my kids and I get one or two or three of them,
get on board and continue this be awesome, you know,
makes me proud. You know, to be Portuguese and to be like I said to be
able to help our cause, keep it going.
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Speaker 1: To what extent do you believe being Portuguese American has
shaped the way that has shaped the way you move through life or
professionally and personally.
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Speaker 2: I think it shows you both sides of coming from another
country. I think it makes you stronger as a person. You've seen what your
ancestors or your you know, before you came, how they lived,
you know, from pretty much nothing and in that American part where you
have pretty much everything. So, it's opportunity. You know, you can have
the best of both worlds. You know, you could live to go
back and see what, how they used to live and come back and just mix them
together. And you know, you can't have any better than this. I think it's
great. I mean.
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Speaker 1: What does being Portuguese American mean to you?
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Speaker 2: Good question, we'll come back to that.
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Speaker 1: How do you see the Portuguese American community?
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Speaker 2: I see it strong What am I gonna say? I see it you know strong
alive I see it. Everybody wants Portuguese community people that people
want to want to want to say this. contribute. You see a
lot of Portuguese your that they can they help they try to help the
community Communities are in and the communities are not in they they
tried to I think they tried to help economically. Spit it out.
I can't spit it out. Yeah, but I don't have these questions. So this is
all recorded?
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Is there anything we didn't cover that you'd like to
share?
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Speaker 2: No, not really. I think we did good. Okay. Okay, let's go.
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Speaker 1: Okay. How was your How was this identity expressive language
foods traditions and festivals?
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Speaker 2: Still this identity that come from the other question?
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00:19:56,890 --> 00:19:57,280
Speaker 1: Yeah.
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00:20:27,850 --> 00:20:40,750
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still I'm still stumped on that. I mean, I don't
know what they're trying to get. How was this identity expressed a
dignity of
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Speaker 1: you being Portuguese American so you saying how you want to
make the sophas?
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Speaker 2: Right?
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00:20:48,850 --> 00:20:53,410
Speaker 1: Was it through the festas? I guess I did a festa. So that
could be a way.
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Speaker 2: Okay.
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Speaker 1: Clothing, traditional clothing, If you were songs to listen
to.
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Speaker 2: Me So, I mean, to tell you laughter music or what would that
be? What I the other question I answered about the Sopas would be pretty
close no?
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Speaker 1: Yeah pretty much. and I think it was.
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Speaker 2: How do you see? How does being Portuguese American or what
does Portuguese American mean to you? makes me proud being Portuguese
Americans I mean.
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Unknown: I'm sorry. I thought you were getting ready to finish and I
wanted to remind you this sign,
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Speaker 2: Okay. It makes me proud to know that I've kept our tradition
you know, kept our traditions
alive I guess I would say.
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Speaker 1: Alright.
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Speaker 2: Cool.