Azorean-American ethnicity remains largely overlooked in a small area at the intersection between Cambridge and Somerville, two small cities adjacent to Boston. However, there is still a resilient cluster of senior Azorean dwellers, immigrants, and descendants, living in or frequenting this central urban place. Social and familiar activities are largely polarized by the church and by some civic associations, some of which are more than a hundred years old. Based on ongoing ethnographic and historical research on the oldest Portuguese American organization in this neighborhood, we explore the meanings of Azorean transnationalism by analyzing tangible and intangible memories - such as artifacts, documents, shared narratives, and storytelling. A detailed qualitative analysis of a significant celebration in homage to the foundation of the homeland, the almost-Azorean nation (“The celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the Azores”), in 1932 aids in an attempt to better understand the perpetual movement between Portuguese, Azorean and American identities.

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This publication is an output of the following project(s):

• Ethnic heritage in the shadows: a collaborative ethnography of Azorean American resilience in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts, USA