1 00:00:00,030 --> 00:00:10,380 Good afternoon, and thanks for having me. I'm going to just use my 10 minutes because I know it's lunchtime, so everybody must be hungry, 2 00:00:10,380 --> 00:00:16,860 so I'm going to speak to you about the Portuguese community in Bermuda. 3 00:00:16,860 --> 00:00:23,550 We often hear that we define the ethical groups in Bermuda as three major ones. 4 00:00:23,550 --> 00:00:34,710 There's black, white and then the Portuguese. And sometimes even on surveys about race, we still see Portuguese as an option. 5 00:00:34,710 --> 00:00:42,540 Very interesting when we look at the Portuguese being a nationality and not a race per se. 6 00:00:42,540 --> 00:00:50,730 So today is a very, very interesting date because tomorrow, November 4th, 7 00:00:50,730 --> 00:01:00,240 Sunday marks the one hundred and sixty ninth anniversary of the arrival of the first group of Portuguese immigrants to Bermuda. 8 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:11,060 OK. Please be reminded that next year on the same date, you have a holiday, as stated by Premier Burt. 9 00:01:11,060 --> 00:01:17,120 Yes. So you're very welcome for the day off. Yes. 10 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:21,260 So why do the Portuguese come to the island, OK? 11 00:01:21,260 --> 00:01:30,680 There was a push to modernise our agricultural industry because we had a decline on the seafaring industry. 12 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:35,750 It met its demise. So we had to get our economy going. 13 00:01:35,750 --> 00:01:44,120 So Governor Reid proposed that we should develop or redevelop, rather the agricultural industry. 14 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,740 So we needed labour. We needed expertise. 15 00:01:48,740 --> 00:01:57,950 So we looked around. And a group of 58 Portuguese nationals came on November 4th nine. 16 00:01:57,950 --> 00:02:10,880 Sorry, 18 49. If you look on the map of the world, if you look due east, you'll find that Madeira is on the same parallel. 17 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:24,590 OK, so the idea was to bring those people to Bermuda so that they can plant vine and make wine just like the mandarins do. 18 00:02:24,590 --> 00:02:35,630 Madeira Madeira wine is something that it's a. Something off of just like port wine, something exquisite, so we wanted that as well in Bermuda. 19 00:02:35,630 --> 00:02:40,700 However, we didn't go into that type of business. We developed agriculture. 20 00:02:40,700 --> 00:02:49,640 OK. There is proof that agriculture grew in the in the following decades two, three decades. 21 00:02:49,640 --> 00:02:55,190 Four decades it grew. And sometimes we give credit to the Portuguese that came here. 22 00:02:55,190 --> 00:03:02,750 Of course, they had the role in that, but there was also introduction of technology. 23 00:03:02,750 --> 00:03:11,330 Governor Reed introduced technology mainly ploughs, but that was the introduction of that. 24 00:03:11,330 --> 00:03:20,420 Between forty nine and the turn of the century, the Portuguese population grew. 25 00:03:20,420 --> 00:03:32,060 There was growth in the population and by nineteen ninety one we could see that a lot of the Portuguese immigrants that came, 26 00:03:32,060 --> 00:03:38,780 you know, their children, their grandchildren, they start venturing into other occupations. 27 00:03:38,780 --> 00:03:45,620 We start seeing them into other occupations, and they were also educating themselves. 28 00:03:45,620 --> 00:03:52,520 There's an article on the Road Gazette, I believe, February nine, 2011. 29 00:03:52,520 --> 00:04:07,310 Mr Trevor Monae's mentions that a grand uncle was the first Portuguese student accepted that Salter's OK, so there was some progress. 30 00:04:07,310 --> 00:04:12,560 OK. When it comes to discrimination, 31 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:26,120 we have to look at the Portuguese as someone that came in the middle of the two main ethnic groups in Bermuda, the whites and the blacks. 32 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:31,520 OK. And they faced discrimination from both sides, particularly when they came in. 33 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:38,210 Eighteen forty nine. OK. The whites were discriminated because these people came. 34 00:04:38,210 --> 00:04:44,240 They would they came to do menial, menial jobs, low paying wages. 35 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,170 They couldn't speak. The language they couldn't ride. They couldn't read. 36 00:04:48,170 --> 00:04:52,260 So they were kind of pushed to the side. They did the labour. 37 00:04:52,260 --> 00:04:54,650 They stuck to each other in communities. 38 00:04:54,650 --> 00:05:07,070 But that's a form of a way that they were discriminated against by the white population from the black population, of course, in 1849. 39 00:05:07,070 --> 00:05:16,040 Why were we bringing people in? We had enough people available on the island that could do those types of work of jobs. 40 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:21,740 But so there was a pushback from the black community as well, and some would say rightfully so. 41 00:05:21,740 --> 00:05:28,340 Why are we bringing people when we have labour available on the island? 42 00:05:28,340 --> 00:05:37,250 OK, now moving forward to the twenties, as doctor, as the minister, Brown said. 43 00:05:37,250 --> 00:05:42,380 And Mr Winfield said there was a change in labour. 44 00:05:42,380 --> 00:05:54,470 It was the importation of other of other groups and despite the in spite of the progress that the Portuguese have achieved, 45 00:05:54,470 --> 00:05:59,180 they still didn't get membership into certain clubs. 46 00:05:59,180 --> 00:06:07,280 So they form their own club, Worksman Workman's Club, in nineteen thirty five and it's still open today. 47 00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:14,300 It's Vasco da Gama and we can Mr Abel Pimentel. 48 00:06:14,300 --> 00:06:22,190 He was the first president and we can look at him as the first social activist coming from the Portuguese community. 49 00:06:22,190 --> 00:06:32,840 You don't accept us. We can create our own. And the club became a centre for culture, a centre where the Portuguese could go and get help. 50 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:44,990 Get educated, get assistance. OK, so the club is still a very vibrant club in Bermuda over well, 85 90 years. 51 00:06:44,990 --> 00:06:58,640 It's still in operation, OK? As was mentioned before, with the stricter immigration rules, the Portuguese living on the island, the newcomers, 52 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:10,880 not the ones that were here in eighteen forty nine, but there was strict rules and the Portuguese were unable to bring their wives and their children. 53 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:17,240 OK, so one can imagine that in those days they couldn't travel back and forth as we do today. 54 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:23,990 So they would they would lose important years in the life of their children, their formative years. 55 00:07:23,990 --> 00:07:29,750 The parents would be away from them. OK. There was a priest. 56 00:07:29,750 --> 00:07:34,250 Father. Father Felipe Macedo. 57 00:07:34,250 --> 00:07:46,130 He was an advocate, too, for the Portuguese community, and he fought for that rule to change. 58 00:07:46,130 --> 00:07:55,070 So in 1958, there was a change. And from then on, the Portuguese of living on the island, they could bring their wives. 59 00:07:55,070 --> 00:08:04,010 In fact, there's an article in the Bermuda magazine that says that he performed up to a thousand weddings, 60 00:08:04,010 --> 00:08:09,410 so people that united or reunited and boyfriend girlfriends. 61 00:08:09,410 --> 00:08:14,420 And then they got together and he got the married, OK. 62 00:08:14,420 --> 00:08:25,700 Like Mr Pimentel from Vasco da Gama, the first president like Father Marcello, we have had other activists from the Portuguese community. 63 00:08:25,700 --> 00:08:32,420 We can, we can name a few. We have Miss Patricia Mudd. 64 00:08:32,420 --> 00:08:38,870 She was the first that she wrote a book on that on the Portuguese Bermudian history. 65 00:08:38,870 --> 00:08:44,480 A very interesting book I think is the only one of the kind. So I look at her as an activist, 66 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:55,370 someone that was proactive in in helping the Portuguese with the problems they had or at least tell the story of the Portuguese. 67 00:08:55,370 --> 00:09:01,250 We often hear Mr. Trevor Monice advocating for the rights of Portuguese people on the island. 68 00:09:01,250 --> 00:09:10,880 We often hear about Mr Robert Perez and of course, who can forget, who can forget Eddie de Mello? 69 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:16,580 He was an advocate for the Portuguese rights on the island. 70 00:09:16,580 --> 00:09:22,490 So when it came to resistance, I gave you examples, you know, 71 00:09:22,490 --> 00:09:30,800 people that may have fought against discrimination towards the Portuguese community on the island. 72 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:38,780 But I understand and that the Portuguese were not a a defiant people. 73 00:09:38,780 --> 00:09:49,580 OK. They were not a defiant people. And I take the the idea of Rennie at or large. 74 00:09:49,580 --> 00:09:54,830 She presented in one of these forums at Oxford University, 75 00:09:54,830 --> 00:10:01,100 and she mentions and I take her ideas and they want to bring it to the plight of 76 00:10:01,100 --> 00:10:07,610 the Portuguese on the island is that the Portuguese understood that loose lips. 77 00:10:07,610 --> 00:10:13,160 And noise could get you in trouble. Yes, it could get you in trouble. 78 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:21,830 It could. You could go home and that's often the the the trap that comes towards the community. 79 00:10:21,830 --> 00:10:30,350 So the the choice was to bite your tongue, do what you must and get ahead in life. 80 00:10:30,350 --> 00:10:39,770 And many did. So if you look at our community today, we see a lot of we see a lot of business leaders. 81 00:10:39,770 --> 00:10:50,720 We see a lot of business owners and we still see remnants of what we eat, what the Portuguese did in eighteen forty nine, 82 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:57,950 most of the farming is still in the hands of Portuguese food distribution construction. 83 00:10:57,950 --> 00:11:06,710 So there was a lot of progress, a lot of progress over the years, and we even had a period between 88 and 92. 84 00:11:06,710 --> 00:11:12,270 There were about six amps that carried the Portuguese name. 85 00:11:12,270 --> 00:11:20,510 OK. Carrying a Portuguese name is a strong aspect of your heritage, of course, 86 00:11:20,510 --> 00:11:27,950 but it doesn't mean that those people who carry that name will be advocates for the for the for the for the community. 87 00:11:27,950 --> 00:11:42,110 And I was just I was just I would just end by saying that again with the ideas of Mr Rennie and alarge that there's a sentiment in the Portuguese 88 00:11:42,110 --> 00:11:52,130 community even to this day that there is a passive aggressive approach by the various governments towards the plight of the Portuguese people. 89 00:11:52,130 --> 00:11:56,870 OK. There is a procrastination. There is a pushing to the side. 90 00:11:56,870 --> 00:12:03,020 There was an hesitation in taking care of some of their issues. 91 00:12:03,020 --> 00:12:13,190 And the main issue that we know here is the fact that they feel or the generally they feel that they belong to Bermuda. 92 00:12:13,190 --> 00:12:20,750 They were allowed to come here a century or so ago. They were allowed to be working here for 40 50 years. 93 00:12:20,750 --> 00:12:25,250 They were allowed to to bear children and grandchildren. 94 00:12:25,250 --> 00:12:36,230 Yet there are some people that still don't have something that says, I belong to this island and they live as Bermudian. 95 00:12:36,230 --> 00:12:48,470 They feel Bermudian. But this passive aggressive approach by the different governments is something that they feel should be addressed. 96 00:12:48,470 --> 00:12:55,210 Thank you very much. Thank you.