ORIGINS

Early on in this blog we stated that the population of the Village was predominantly Portuguese in origin. We have become more familiar with our parent's lives and the years that my generation was growing up in the Village---going back to the thirties in some cases.  But what about further back than that....to the years of our grandparents and great-grandparents?
There are tantalizing photos that we try to analyze and read, often just becoming
frustrated with a dearth of information.

This is my maternal Grandmother Isobel Bento Correia Motta as she looked when she first arrived in this country in 1915.  The photo was taken in Bristol, R.I., where after obtaining the record of her ship passsage, we found she first lived in the U.S. She had come to live with her sister Anna and Anna's husband.   It took me years and years to research and understand her life. This photograph and everything that happened to her after she

 immigrated here was uncovered slowly over time.

I love noting each detail,: her dress and its tiny pin, her hair.  The dreams still in her eyes.

Her hair was done up in the style of the day, wrapped around a clean rag to form that pompadour.  We will talk about styles of the time later.

We cannot know everything that happened to these long ago loved ones.  But, we can find out more about where they came from, and then what greeted them here,
 what some of their lives were like.

These posts are my tribute to them, to those courageous people whose journey allowed us to have our journey here.  I hope that others will share, too, as we build up a memory and knowledge tree to more

fully understand our origins.

 They were Portuguese but not homogeneous.  I am told by a friend who lived in the Village in the 30's that there was a melange of accents, a symphony, as it were.  As I child, I never took the time to listen to the differences in regional linguistics 

even though all related to the Mother Country.

* There was Lisboan such as that spoken by my Uncle John Bernadino who was born in Lisbon,

capital city of mainland Portugal.

*There was Madeirenses, Madeira from where three of my grandparents came.
To further refine that,

two of them (the Souzas) were from the high volcanic mountain country
in a little town called Arca Da Calheata.
My other grandfather (Motta) was
from the capital of Madeira: the harbor city of Funchal.

*There were the various Island accents of each Azorean island.
 My maternal grandmother was from

Sao Miguel, St. Michael's.  She was from the coastal city of Aqua d'Alto
on Sao Miguel.

But, there were other islands in the Azorean chain:
Santa Maria, Pico, Faial, Terceira, Flores, Graciosa, Sao Jorge and Corvo.

Let's pretend that we are on a whaling ship bound for all those places...exploring, learning, perhaps staying for a while or forever.....

and listen to the Fado music of Dulcie Pontes
embodying the saudade

which stayed in the hearts and memories of all of those
who came to America following a dream, and yet
leaving so much behind.