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Away From Home
Old men gather around a fold up table with a cup of
coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other as they start their daily game
of dominos. They meet up everyday around
6 a.m. as they tell stories of what it was like back at home and what it’s like
in America.
This home away from home, the Artesia D.E.S. Portuguese Hall,
gives these men and other Portuguese citizens in Artesia, California a space to
remember a foreign culture in an American city. Founded in 1927, the community
grew in the early 1970s due to a large wave of immigrants from the Azores
Islands and Portugal. With a total population
of 16,522; 10 percent of the population was born in Portugal, according to the
2010 U.S. Census They migrated into the city creating its own soccer team and
philharmonic band. The hall was created to host traditional festivals, ceremonies
and dinners to celebrate the Portuguese culture.
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| Artesia D.E.S. Portuguese Hall lit up during late-night festivities. |
“What we have here is essentially a replication of what
we have in the Azores Islands,” said Artesia D.E.S president Jimmy Enes. “At the time it was an impoverished
place. Every one came to get away from
that and established this, but at the same time keeping in mind the same
tradition and the same ideals as before, where everybody gets together to help.”
The celebrations include ways of life, the Catholic
religion and the traditional past-time sport of soccer. Three times out of the year the Portuguese
community, near and far, celebrate as one at the Portuguese hall to honor and
celebrate the following Catholic figures: St. Anthony, the Holy Spirit and the
coming of the Virgin Mary to the city of Fatima, Portugal. At the beginning of
the year a queen and two aides are chosen and fill out a court. This matriarchal system is a tradition dating
back 150 years to the city of Fatima; where it is believed that the queen is a vessel
for the Holy Spirit to represent Queen St. Isabel who iniated the traditional
festival, and the following queen is chosen by the Holy Spirit. “It’s a way of handing down the traditions
from generation to generation so it isn’t lost,” said Susie Gomes, a member of
the Portuguese hall committee. There is
a struggle within the committee in whether to change and become more modern or to
continue with the more traditional meanings of the celebration.
It’s a struggle that the committee has been dealing with
for a few years and can’t seem to find a balance between staying with the older
more traditional ways or converting to a more modern way to try and attract the
younger crowd to the hall, said Gomes. That
might be a direct result of the committee consisting of older and younger
people. “We come here to remember what it was like at home (in Portugal)
because we are getting older and our grandchildren are brought up in an
American way, and the traditions of our culture are being lost here,” said Jose
Fernandes, a hall-goer for over 40 years.
This creates a clash of conflicting ideas at a time where, economically,
it’s hard to make money with the old ways of doing things. “To me it’s more about the sentimental meaning
behind celebrating the saints and sticking to the original meaning of what the
festivals stand for,” said Sofia Borges, a former committee member, who quit
because she couldn’t stand for the new direction the hall was going. Justin Sousa, 21, said that he goes to the
hall to hang out, party and just have a good time with his friends and the
meaning behind the festival is completely different from what his parents think
it is. There isn’t just an internal struggle
that surrounds the Artesia D.E.S. Portuguese Hall; there is a struggle with the
cultural practices and the way American society views them.
Every festival concludes with a bloodless bullfight held
on its property. In 2009, at the
conclusion of the Festa da Bola (Soccer Festival) a member of the Animal
Cruelty Investigations (ACI) shutdown the bullfight mid-way through for
violating animal rights. The officer
discovered 30 sticks with nails at the ends that were used to stab the bull in
the shoulder area. The investigation is
still ongoing but this isolated incident shows the struggle the Portuguese
community faces with the American community.
The cultural clash that the Portuguese community faces is just a microcosm
for what is going on in the world.
Cultural differences causing tension when one culture finds the other
culture wrong and will try anything to fix it
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