The east side of Cambridge has changed over the past decades due to urban renewal that began in the mid-1960s in and around Kendal Square. Since then, a surging high-tech community has had a growing impact in the neighboring residential communities. Old low-income working-class neighborhoods, ethnically mixed and once populated by a majority of Portuguese immigrants and their descendants, have changed considerably. Yet, despite the reduction in the number of Portuguese residents, this does not portend the disappearance of the Portuguese flavor of this area. A myriad of discreet places, such as stores, restaurants, clubs, a bakery, a funeral-home, a credit union, a travel agency, a public library, a community school, as well as St. Anthony’s Church, continue to be the stage for an urban and metropolitan Portuguese experience, keeping the pre-existing network of relationships alive in different and changing ways. Based on ongoing research, this talk aims to show how this local Portuguese brand, ever more threatened by gentrification, still survives in multiple ways, displaying remarkable durability and resilience.

Saab Center for Portuguese Studies, UMass Lowell

Portuguese-Americans,Greater Boston,Ethnic identity