Luciano Luis Interview
Item
Title
Luciano Luis Interview
Interviewee, Interviewer
Luis, Luciano
Silva, Edgar
Relation
Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute
Date
11/18/2019
Identifier
SCUAD_pbbi_00015
extracted text
1
00:00:03,540 --> 00:00:06,330
Speaker 1: So, what is your full birth name?
2
00:00:07,260 --> 00:00:09,690
Speaker 2: My name is Luciano Costa Lewis.
3
00:00:11,130 --> 00:00:14,010
Speaker 1: Were you named after anyone? Is there like a story behind your
name?
4
00:00:14,570 --> 00:00:34,100
Speaker 2: Uh, not really that I know of. The Costa came from my
grandfather side on my mom's dad there was Costas in there. And they
named me and my middle name give me Costa but I've never used my
middle name. I never use it, I think might be on my driver's license, but
that's the only time that I use it.
5
00:00:35,570 --> 00:00:36,440
Speaker 1: Where were you born?
6
00:00:36,870 --> 00:03:04,860
Speaker 2: I was born in faial in the Azores. And I came over here in
1967. I was 10 years old. And I came to Fresno and live on Malaga. So in
Portugal, I was I had gone school, I was in fourth grade.
And in Portugal, I didn't have to go to school anymore. Unless I wanted
to go to college. They call it high school, they call it college, but you
had to pay. So far when they came over here, I
wouldn't have to go back to school, you know what I mean? But nowadays,
things have changed. So anyway, I went to the fourth grade. So when I
came over here, my brother enrolled me in fifth grade
here. And I started out of Malaga. Did not know the language. It was
very, very strange going to a school where you can't speak English. So as
I was learning the language, it was very hard to
communicate, even with a teacher and all that. So I, I was learning the
language and you know, and then we moved. My brother was leasing some
property there because I live with my brother. He had to
be my sponsor to come over here. How it started was, my brother came over
here. He was a single man. The governor there in the Azores, my mom went
and asked him to let him go come to the United
States. And he did. So he came over here. He was a young man. So then he
got married here. And after he got married, my dad had died in Portugal.
So he wanted the whole family to come over here. So I
couldn't come with my mom. I was like 10 years old. So what they did is
my mom came in six months later, I came over here. And so it's like, my
mom, six months later, me then my oldest brother,
because he was a sponsor for all of us. And we all came and I've been
here 50-53 years because I was 10 years old and I'm 63 So yeah, I was
born and raised here till the age of 10. I have not gone
back. I would like to go back and see what the items are like. You see, I
see it on TV. A man may affect Dennis did some show one time and I seen
it on that chat. Well, that's where I was coming from.
7
00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:08,850
I would like to go back and see all the islands and do all that, but I've
never had.
8
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:18,290
Speaker 1: what are the earlier memories do you have a child in the
Portuguese of Portuguese American community?
9
00:03:20,340 --> 00:04:32,160
Speaker 2: Um, all I remember. I remember. I mean, we were very poor back
there. And I remember as a kid I had a couple of pairs of pants to go to
school in like three shirts. And if I get caught
playing with, with my school clothes on its bank. So it was like a big
thing. You had your suit to go to church on Sundays, and you had a couple
of pair of pants to go to school and you don't play
with your school clothes. Because if you get caught outside playing with
them, you're in trouble. It was it was hard because I lost my dad. Okay,
I came over here and I was 10. I lost my dad when I
was six, so I lived back there for four years with my mom. And my two
brothers above me, they were still single. And the rest of my brothers
were married, there was five boys. And one girl, and my
sister lives in Canada. She's never lived here. And she's like 80-85 now.
So there's a big difference between me and my sister. And she was already
married, or no, she got married when I was a year or
2 old. So.
10
00:04:34,470 --> 00:04:36,630
Speaker 1: When did your family migrate to the United States?
11
00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:46,980
Speaker 2: 1967. Well, my mom was the first one. So in 67, in the early
late 60s is when we came over here.
12
00:04:49,050 --> 00:04:51,600
Speaker 1: Is there a reason why your family left the Azores?
13
00:04:51,930 --> 00:04:57,660
Speaker 2: Yeah to better ourselves come to America, you know, everybody
wants to come to America to better yourself. Yeah.
14
00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:02,220
Speaker 1: Where did your family settle? Why there?
15
00:05:02,990 --> 00:05:03,830
Speaker 2: while they were there
16
00:05:03,950 --> 00:05:05,360
Speaker 1: or what? Why did they settle?
17
00:05:05,540 --> 00:05:21,380
Speaker 2: Oh, because it's where my brother's roots were at my brother
was a farmer. And we've came into Fresno we've never Well, some of us,
some of my brothers have moved to the Bay Area. But we've
all been here because my brother brought us here in this way we migrated.
18
00:05:23,810 --> 00:05:34,910
Speaker 1: Did your parents or grandparents ever tell you what it was
like to adjust to a new live in a new country? What stories were passed
down to you regarding this early choices?
19
00:05:35,680 --> 00:06:05,290
Speaker 2: My mom used to tell me that you know that things were you're
spoiled because things here are a lot different than what they were back,
you know, because let's put it this way. My mom, they
and dad, always we always got fed. But it was like take a little chunk of
meat and stretch it out to feed all the kids. We never went hungry but it
wasn't it's not like we had a lot. Yeah, you know,
we did we survived.
20
00:06:08,380 --> 00:06:21,310
Speaker 1: Are you a member of the second or the first second third
generation of your family to be born in the United States? How important
was it, it to your parents that you were, you'd be raised
with a strong Portuguese identity?
21
00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:37,450
Speaker 2: Well, they've been I've been involved in the last 30 years or
20 years. I've been involved in the Portuguese community here at the hall
and stuff. So it to me it's very important. I've
gotten my daughter kind of involved in stuff so it's good. It's good.
22
00:06:42,130 --> 00:06:49,360
Speaker 1: How is it? How is this identity expressed through languages
food, traditions and festivals?
23
00:06:50,080 --> 00:07:05,560
Speaker 2: Oh, it's, it's crazy because the old days it wasn't like it is
now but it's it's very nice. They do. Bring out your heritage. All these
celebrations and stuff, it's good to see all the old
traditions and stuff. So it's a lot of fun.
24
00:07:06,710 --> 00:07:12,740
Speaker 1: What cultural traditions have you maintain, why is it
important to you to maintain them?
25
00:07:14,579 --> 00:07:32,339
Speaker 2: To raise my daughter to know, I mean, that's one of the
reasons why I'd like to go back to Portugal to take my daughter to show
her where, you know, where I was born and raised. And of
course, Things are different now, but just to show her where I was at,
because I think it's important for your kids to know where you were born
and raised because I mean, she was born here.
26
00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:40,340
Speaker 1: Have you been to Azores? What was that experience for you?
27
00:07:41,110 --> 00:08:05,350
Speaker 2: I haven't been back since. I mean, I came over in 1960. I was
10 years old. I would love to go back but I haven't yet. And I'm working
on it. Maybe in the next couple years. They get to go
back. Because there's so much to see there. All the friends and family
they go back. Oh, you gotta go see this again. I've never have I know
that. There's a lot to see. Cuz there's a lot of stuff on
TV that they show when people go back there and they film it. It's it's
pretty awesome.
28
00:08:10,670 --> 00:08:21,410
Speaker 1: trace if you were, if you will some of the experiences growing
up, Portuguese American community in the valley throughout your life. So
some experiences growing up?
29
00:08:24,470 --> 00:08:41,090
Speaker 2: Portuguese community around here they're hard workers and
stuff and people usually they stick together when they decide to do
something like when they put on celebrations and I think it's a
very strong community that the way they do things and that's one thing
that I like about Portuguese community groups together.
30
00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:50,390
Speaker 1: Of all your accomplishments what are you most proud of and
what moment do you remember in the Portuguese American community?
31
00:08:52,640 --> 00:09:06,380
Speaker 2: Just being involved and and and proud that I have a daughter
that she was Queen here the Holy Ghost And yeah, I'm very proud that she
chose to do that. And it was an experience for both of
us for the whole family to do that.
32
00:09:09,990 --> 00:09:19,740
Speaker 1: To what extent do you believe Portuguese American has shaped
the way you have moved your life professionally and personally?
33
00:09:21,430 --> 00:09:47,260
Speaker 2: Well, I think being Portuguese in the way I was brought up as
far as like a hard worker, I know your morals and you know what you want
out of life and nothing's free and work hard for your
stuff. I've been on my own since I was like 16 years old had a full time
job. Yeah. And I, I realized that if I was going to get anything or a
competency, I was gonna have to farm and that good, and
I'm happy for what I got.
34
00:09:48,790 --> 00:09:53,020
Speaker 1: Um, what does being Portuguese American mean to you?
35
00:09:53,000 --> 00:10:09,980
Speaker 2: It means that well I'm very proud to be a Portuguese American.
But I don't just I mean, I, I honored that I'm in the United States, you
know, citizens and but I do care about my heritage,
you know, and try to do as much as I can for the Portuguese community
around the year now.
36
00:10:12,500 --> 00:10:14,990
Speaker 1: How do you see the Portuguese American community today?
37
00:10:16,370 --> 00:11:05,360
Speaker 2: It's changed. We don't have the younger generation involved,
and all these Portuguese and community things that we've been doing. And
it's sad because there's, there's so much out there,
but it takes a lot of work. And our new generation that we have here, I
don't want to do that, when don't pay for that. You know, it's just it's
it's hard. They don't understand them. Some of them. We
are recruiting. We get family, young families a lot younger than than I
am. And here and we were trying to recruit your kids or something here
that are being interviewed. And I think that within time,
things will turn but right now it's a lot of these Portuguese clubs are
dying out because nobody gets involved. It's hard to do, but we're
working on it and I think we'll be alright.
38
00:11:06,210 --> 00:11:09,060
Speaker 1: Is there anything we didn't cover that you'd like to share?
39
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:10,890
Speaker 2: No, we did everything.
40
00:11:11,140 --> 00:11:12,550
Speaker 1: All right. Good.
41
00:11:12,700 --> 00:11:13,090
Speaker 2: Good.
42
00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:13,570
Speaker 1: Thank you.
43
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:14,350
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:00:03,540 --> 00:00:06,330
Speaker 1: So, what is your full birth name?
2
00:00:07,260 --> 00:00:09,690
Speaker 2: My name is Luciano Costa Lewis.
3
00:00:11,130 --> 00:00:14,010
Speaker 1: Were you named after anyone? Is there like a story behind your
name?
4
00:00:14,570 --> 00:00:34,100
Speaker 2: Uh, not really that I know of. The Costa came from my
grandfather side on my mom's dad there was Costas in there. And they
named me and my middle name give me Costa but I've never used my
middle name. I never use it, I think might be on my driver's license, but
that's the only time that I use it.
5
00:00:35,570 --> 00:00:36,440
Speaker 1: Where were you born?
6
00:00:36,870 --> 00:03:04,860
Speaker 2: I was born in faial in the Azores. And I came over here in
1967. I was 10 years old. And I came to Fresno and live on Malaga. So in
Portugal, I was I had gone school, I was in fourth grade.
And in Portugal, I didn't have to go to school anymore. Unless I wanted
to go to college. They call it high school, they call it college, but you
had to pay. So far when they came over here, I
wouldn't have to go back to school, you know what I mean? But nowadays,
things have changed. So anyway, I went to the fourth grade. So when I
came over here, my brother enrolled me in fifth grade
here. And I started out of Malaga. Did not know the language. It was
very, very strange going to a school where you can't speak English. So as
I was learning the language, it was very hard to
communicate, even with a teacher and all that. So I, I was learning the
language and you know, and then we moved. My brother was leasing some
property there because I live with my brother. He had to
be my sponsor to come over here. How it started was, my brother came over
here. He was a single man. The governor there in the Azores, my mom went
and asked him to let him go come to the United
States. And he did. So he came over here. He was a young man. So then he
got married here. And after he got married, my dad had died in Portugal.
So he wanted the whole family to come over here. So I
couldn't come with my mom. I was like 10 years old. So what they did is
my mom came in six months later, I came over here. And so it's like, my
mom, six months later, me then my oldest brother,
because he was a sponsor for all of us. And we all came and I've been
here 50-53 years because I was 10 years old and I'm 63 So yeah, I was
born and raised here till the age of 10. I have not gone
back. I would like to go back and see what the items are like. You see, I
see it on TV. A man may affect Dennis did some show one time and I seen
it on that chat. Well, that's where I was coming from.
7
00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:08,850
I would like to go back and see all the islands and do all that, but I've
never had.
8
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:18,290
Speaker 1: what are the earlier memories do you have a child in the
Portuguese of Portuguese American community?
9
00:03:20,340 --> 00:04:32,160
Speaker 2: Um, all I remember. I remember. I mean, we were very poor back
there. And I remember as a kid I had a couple of pairs of pants to go to
school in like three shirts. And if I get caught
playing with, with my school clothes on its bank. So it was like a big
thing. You had your suit to go to church on Sundays, and you had a couple
of pair of pants to go to school and you don't play
with your school clothes. Because if you get caught outside playing with
them, you're in trouble. It was it was hard because I lost my dad. Okay,
I came over here and I was 10. I lost my dad when I
was six, so I lived back there for four years with my mom. And my two
brothers above me, they were still single. And the rest of my brothers
were married, there was five boys. And one girl, and my
sister lives in Canada. She's never lived here. And she's like 80-85 now.
So there's a big difference between me and my sister. And she was already
married, or no, she got married when I was a year or
2 old. So.
10
00:04:34,470 --> 00:04:36,630
Speaker 1: When did your family migrate to the United States?
11
00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:46,980
Speaker 2: 1967. Well, my mom was the first one. So in 67, in the early
late 60s is when we came over here.
12
00:04:49,050 --> 00:04:51,600
Speaker 1: Is there a reason why your family left the Azores?
13
00:04:51,930 --> 00:04:57,660
Speaker 2: Yeah to better ourselves come to America, you know, everybody
wants to come to America to better yourself. Yeah.
14
00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:02,220
Speaker 1: Where did your family settle? Why there?
15
00:05:02,990 --> 00:05:03,830
Speaker 2: while they were there
16
00:05:03,950 --> 00:05:05,360
Speaker 1: or what? Why did they settle?
17
00:05:05,540 --> 00:05:21,380
Speaker 2: Oh, because it's where my brother's roots were at my brother
was a farmer. And we've came into Fresno we've never Well, some of us,
some of my brothers have moved to the Bay Area. But we've
all been here because my brother brought us here in this way we migrated.
18
00:05:23,810 --> 00:05:34,910
Speaker 1: Did your parents or grandparents ever tell you what it was
like to adjust to a new live in a new country? What stories were passed
down to you regarding this early choices?
19
00:05:35,680 --> 00:06:05,290
Speaker 2: My mom used to tell me that you know that things were you're
spoiled because things here are a lot different than what they were back,
you know, because let's put it this way. My mom, they
and dad, always we always got fed. But it was like take a little chunk of
meat and stretch it out to feed all the kids. We never went hungry but it
wasn't it's not like we had a lot. Yeah, you know,
we did we survived.
20
00:06:08,380 --> 00:06:21,310
Speaker 1: Are you a member of the second or the first second third
generation of your family to be born in the United States? How important
was it, it to your parents that you were, you'd be raised
with a strong Portuguese identity?
21
00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:37,450
Speaker 2: Well, they've been I've been involved in the last 30 years or
20 years. I've been involved in the Portuguese community here at the hall
and stuff. So it to me it's very important. I've
gotten my daughter kind of involved in stuff so it's good. It's good.
22
00:06:42,130 --> 00:06:49,360
Speaker 1: How is it? How is this identity expressed through languages
food, traditions and festivals?
23
00:06:50,080 --> 00:07:05,560
Speaker 2: Oh, it's, it's crazy because the old days it wasn't like it is
now but it's it's very nice. They do. Bring out your heritage. All these
celebrations and stuff, it's good to see all the old
traditions and stuff. So it's a lot of fun.
24
00:07:06,710 --> 00:07:12,740
Speaker 1: What cultural traditions have you maintain, why is it
important to you to maintain them?
25
00:07:14,579 --> 00:07:32,339
Speaker 2: To raise my daughter to know, I mean, that's one of the
reasons why I'd like to go back to Portugal to take my daughter to show
her where, you know, where I was born and raised. And of
course, Things are different now, but just to show her where I was at,
because I think it's important for your kids to know where you were born
and raised because I mean, she was born here.
26
00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:40,340
Speaker 1: Have you been to Azores? What was that experience for you?
27
00:07:41,110 --> 00:08:05,350
Speaker 2: I haven't been back since. I mean, I came over in 1960. I was
10 years old. I would love to go back but I haven't yet. And I'm working
on it. Maybe in the next couple years. They get to go
back. Because there's so much to see there. All the friends and family
they go back. Oh, you gotta go see this again. I've never have I know
that. There's a lot to see. Cuz there's a lot of stuff on
TV that they show when people go back there and they film it. It's it's
pretty awesome.
28
00:08:10,670 --> 00:08:21,410
Speaker 1: trace if you were, if you will some of the experiences growing
up, Portuguese American community in the valley throughout your life. So
some experiences growing up?
29
00:08:24,470 --> 00:08:41,090
Speaker 2: Portuguese community around here they're hard workers and
stuff and people usually they stick together when they decide to do
something like when they put on celebrations and I think it's a
very strong community that the way they do things and that's one thing
that I like about Portuguese community groups together.
30
00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:50,390
Speaker 1: Of all your accomplishments what are you most proud of and
what moment do you remember in the Portuguese American community?
31
00:08:52,640 --> 00:09:06,380
Speaker 2: Just being involved and and and proud that I have a daughter
that she was Queen here the Holy Ghost And yeah, I'm very proud that she
chose to do that. And it was an experience for both of
us for the whole family to do that.
32
00:09:09,990 --> 00:09:19,740
Speaker 1: To what extent do you believe Portuguese American has shaped
the way you have moved your life professionally and personally?
33
00:09:21,430 --> 00:09:47,260
Speaker 2: Well, I think being Portuguese in the way I was brought up as
far as like a hard worker, I know your morals and you know what you want
out of life and nothing's free and work hard for your
stuff. I've been on my own since I was like 16 years old had a full time
job. Yeah. And I, I realized that if I was going to get anything or a
competency, I was gonna have to farm and that good, and
I'm happy for what I got.
34
00:09:48,790 --> 00:09:53,020
Speaker 1: Um, what does being Portuguese American mean to you?
35
00:09:53,000 --> 00:10:09,980
Speaker 2: It means that well I'm very proud to be a Portuguese American.
But I don't just I mean, I, I honored that I'm in the United States, you
know, citizens and but I do care about my heritage,
you know, and try to do as much as I can for the Portuguese community
around the year now.
36
00:10:12,500 --> 00:10:14,990
Speaker 1: How do you see the Portuguese American community today?
37
00:10:16,370 --> 00:11:05,360
Speaker 2: It's changed. We don't have the younger generation involved,
and all these Portuguese and community things that we've been doing. And
it's sad because there's, there's so much out there,
but it takes a lot of work. And our new generation that we have here, I
don't want to do that, when don't pay for that. You know, it's just it's
it's hard. They don't understand them. Some of them. We
are recruiting. We get family, young families a lot younger than than I
am. And here and we were trying to recruit your kids or something here
that are being interviewed. And I think that within time,
things will turn but right now it's a lot of these Portuguese clubs are
dying out because nobody gets involved. It's hard to do, but we're
working on it and I think we'll be alright.
38
00:11:06,210 --> 00:11:09,060
Speaker 1: Is there anything we didn't cover that you'd like to share?
39
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:10,890
Speaker 2: No, we did everything.
40
00:11:11,140 --> 00:11:12,550
Speaker 1: All right. Good.
41
00:11:12,700 --> 00:11:13,090
Speaker 2: Good.
42
00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:13,570
Speaker 1: Thank you.
43
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:14,350
Speaker 2: Thank you.