Word: ethnicity
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Today, among the Portuguese the impulse to assimilate is giving way to an increased emphasis on ethnic heritage. Among the newer Portuguese immigrants, pride in national origin and customs is replacing the impulse to Americanize...
Many of the younger Portuguese, like Madalena Barboza, who came to Cambridge in 1961 when she was nine years old, flatly reject assimilation as a solution to ethnic identity problems. "We should de-emphasize the ideal of Americanization," Barboza says. "If I'm going to be called anything, I'd like to be called Portuguese, because I don't believe in giving up a nationality and taking on another one. There is no American heritage. I feel that I would be giving up something by becoming American...
Ruben Cabral, executive director of the Cambridge Organization of Portuguese Americans (COPA) points out that ethnic identity is of fundamental importance to the Portuguese in this country. "It is important to preserve your own heritage," Cabral says, "for if you lose your heritage you lose yourself. We have to keep our own things that can identify us. The Portuguese can become anything. They have shown a tremendous facility for adopting other cultures. To preserve our culture we have to have a very strong emphasis on what it is to be Portuguese...
...founding of COPA in 1970 was largely influenced by the question of ethnic identity, especially in its effect on politics. "The whole thing [COPA] developed out of black awareness," Aurelio Torres, a former director of COPA, says. "A lot was being said about black awareness at the time--we wanted to raise Portuguese awareness...
...unification of the Portuguese community in Cambridge has been a less-than-successful undertaking for the COPA organizers. The pressures to assimilate, though declining, are still strong in the Cambridge Portuguese community, and these forces have hampered COPA's efforts to foster Portuguese ethnic identity and political organization...