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Luso-American

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Luso-Americans, or Lusitanic Americans are people living in the United States whose cultural background derives in part from countries with Portuguese speaking roots or traditions.

Luso-Americans include Portuguese Americans, whose roots are directly Portuguese; Brazilian-Americans; and those from other parts of the Lusophone world, such as Cape Verde, Angola or Mozambique. Because of the wide range of national origins of Luso-Americans, the group is considered a cultural one, rather than a homogeneous ethnic group. People of African, Macanese, Portuguese Jewish, and many other origins may be, under certain circumstances, considered Luso-Americans.

A Portuguese American, in contrast, denotes any person born in the United States whose family came to the USA from Portugal.

History

Luso-Americans can be found in all states and there are sizable Luso-American communities in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsyvania, Rhode Island, New York, Hawaii, and Florida. In total, the members of this community may be more than 3.5 million Americans. Two United States counties, namely Bristol County, Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts, are home to pluralities of people of Portuguese ancestry.

Jewish Luso-Americans

In September, 1654, shortly before the Jewish New Year, twenty-three Jews of Portuguese ancestry from Recife, Brazil, arrived in New York, which at the time was under Dutch rule and known as New Amsterdam. This arrival was the beginning of Jewish-American history. Sephardic Portuguese Jews were also the early settlers of Newport (where the country's first synagogue was founded), Charleston, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Language

Portuguese has been spoken in the United States by small communities of immigrants, especially in Fall River, Massachusetts; Miami; Pompano Beach; Orlando; Ludlow, Massachusetts; New Bedford, Massachusetts; Framingham, Massachusetts; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Bristol, Rhode Island; East Providence, Rhode Island; San Francisco, California; San Jose, California; Cranston, Rhode Island; Gustine, California; Mineola, New York;Tulare, California; San Pedro, California and the metropolitan New York City area. The Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey is also called "Little Portugal", and 46th Street in Manhattan is also named "Little Brazil Street". Portuguese is also spoken by some Chinese and Macanese immigrants from Macau, especially in California.

Luso-Americans also include speakers of Portuguese-based creoles, such as Macanese (Patuá or Macaista Chapado) and Papiamento. Elements of the Portuguese language can also be found in other former colonies such as Goa and Timor.

In the Luso-American community, there are minor differences between European Portuguese and other regional variations, notably Brazilian Portuguese. The differences between Portuguese(Portugal) and Portuguese (Brazilian) tend to due to accents and few words that have been adopted into only one geographical area. With Brazial version being influenced by Africa and other immigrant communites like Japanese while the Portuguese version more influenced by European languages like English and French. The difference is often exaggerated due to illiteracy rates and social economic factors (Brazil's GDP/capital is less than half of Portugal's). Language schools (especially in the U.S.) classes often teach the Brazilian dialect.[citation needed]

Famous Luso-Americans

Portuguese

Brazilian

Cape-Verdean

Indian

Chinese

Sephardic

Caribbean

References

  1. ^ [1] "She's part Brazilian – her mother is from Sao Paulo" [2] "Belle already speaks fluent Portuguese — her mother is Brazilian"
  2. ^ [3] "Nationality:, American/Brazilian" [4] "The 5’7’’ American Brazilian actress..."

See also


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