Sausalito Portuguese Cultural Center

Sunrise over Pico.

We hope everyone has had the opportunity to vote! Here’s a story about one member of our community who was successful in several Sausalito elections. Fundação Luso-Americana #FLADChallengeElectionDay

We recently came across the photo on the upper left of the attached collage in a clipping from a 1959 issue of a publication named "Marin This Month." It is a photo that we have posted here in the past, and is very significant for us since it is the only photo we have showing Festa activities outside our old hall on Filbert Street. The photo in the clipping was important for a number of reasons. First, it is a better quality image than the one we have in our archives. Seco...nd, it provides the date of the photo - 1948. And third, it provides the source - the collection of Mrs. Manuel (Leonor) Almeida. With the date of the photo we went back to the Sausalito News archives and retrieved the attached article reporting on the 1948 Festa, which was held that year on Sunday, May 16. We were also able to find in our archives the attached photos of that year's Big and Little Queens - Geraldine Almeida (the daughter of Manuel and Leonor Almeida) and Elaine Hedge. It may be Geraldine and Elaine are visible in the photo, but the resolution is unfortunately insufficient to be sure. It is also interesting to note that it was only at the 1948 Festa that Queen Isabel was portrayed for the first time - by Rose Lopes. While our organization moved to our current hall in 1953, for any who do not know, the beautiful old hall still stands at 131 Filbert Street. Today it is the home of the Sausalito Christian Fellowship. As can be seen from the photo at the lower left, it is largely unchanged from 1948. It is Stop #19 on our Sausalito Portuguese Heritage Walking Tour (the Guidebook for which is available from our History page - https://idesst.wildapricot.org/history). The same 1959 article in which the photo of the original hall appeared also included a number of other wonderful historic photos that had also come from Mrs. Almeida's collection. If anyone is in touch with any descendants of the Almeida family, it would be great to see if we could try to track down any such photos down. Incidentally, here is a post we did a couple of years ago featuring Manuel and Leonor Almeida who were both very active with our organization, including Manuel's term as President - https://www.facebook.com/131176450260705/posts/1888834124494920/.

The Zaca, from the Nunes Brothers boatyard, may have been the most famous ship ever built in Sausalito. For more see http://www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com//zaca-and-sausal.

The following is a post I just shared with the Facebook group São Jorge Genealogical Society - Genealogia da Ilha de São Jorge. The reason for the post was the apparently large percentage of individuals who immigrated here to the Sausalito area from that island, in comparison to the other eight Azorean islands. Based on the membership roll of the UPEC - one of the Portuguese benevolent societies - it looks like that percentage was more than 70%. The following post, focus...Continue reading

A year ago today in Ft. Bragg.

Saturday at the 2019 Ft. Bragg Festa!

In this sadly Festa-less year, we thought we would share some memories of last year’s Festa up in Ft. Bragg, traditionally the last Festa of the year in which our Queens participate. We start with Friday, when many participants begin to gather in order to enjoy the fish dinner.

And speaking of our Zoom Portuguese classes, don’t forget that we have a class on Tuesdays for kids ages 7-12. For more information see https://idesst.wildapricot.org/page-18217. Alda Casqueira Fernandes is an educator based in the Azores who has produced a series of music videos for kids. They are available on her YouTube channel. For example, here’s one about counting from one to ten: https://youtu.be/DI0pg1BAMsU. They might even be helpful for a few of the adults in our beginning classes!

Thanks to everyone who is supporting our Zoom language classes! The classes are off to a great start with a record number of students at all levels. Don’t forget, even though the first classes for the different levels are done, you can still sign up. For more information see https://idesst.wildapricot.org/page-18217. Any questions about the classes can be directed to [email protected]. Music is a great tool to learn any foreign language. Letras is a Brazilian site wh...ere you can find the lyrics for many songs, often with an embedded video performance. You can also find informal English translations for the Portuguese lyrics of many songs at the LyricsTranslate site. See the links below. By way of example, attached are the lyrics for Desfado, a popular Ana Moura piece (a link to a YouTube performance is below). In this case, there were two translations on LyricsTranslate. It’s always interesting to see the differences. Enjoy! Ana Moura - Desfado: https://youtu.be/t6b-jppQ198 Letras: https://www.letras.mus.br/ LyricsTranslate: https://lyricstranslate.com/

Regarding our Portuguese classes offered via Zoom that begin this Sunday, questions had come up as to whether one could still take a class if one was not able to make the first class. The answer is sim (yes!). We appreciate that this is the Labor Day Weekend and that folks may have other commitments. Registration is permitted anytime through the fifth class, although we are not in a position to prorate the class fees. Needless to say, it would be best to be able to attend... all of the classes, although typically the first class consists mostly of introductions and going over the virtual classroom guidelines (which will be available in writing to all students). As a result, it should not be a problem if a student has to miss the first class. Further information about all of the classes may be found at https://idesst.wildapricot.org/page-18217. Note that some begin on Sunday, some on Monday and some on Tuesday, and that there is even one that is GRÁTIS (yes, that’s FREE). Please direct any specific questions about the classes to [email protected].

Our Zoom Portuguese classes start this Sunday! For more information see https://idesst.wildapricot.org/page-18217.

We hope that many of you will be taking the European Portuguese classes that we will be offering online via Zoom starting this Sunday. There are classes for all levels of proficiency, and for both adults and kids. More information about the classes may be found here: https://idesst.wildapricot.org/page-18217. We began these Portuguese classes at the Center several years ago, although obviously they only went online this past Spring. We have been fortunate over the years to... have had excellent teachers most recently Margarida Castela, from Castelo Branco in Portugal’s Centro region, and before her, Duarte Pinheiro, from Santo Tirso, about 15 miles northeast of Porto. For any who may be considering the beginning class this term, or who may just be interested in hearing a bit of Portuguese, attached is a series of words which highlight at least some of the sounds that our beginning students have found to be a particular challenge. In addition, here’s a link to a SoundCloud file where Duarte pronounces each of those words in the order shown on the attached: https://bit.ly/3gVnpy5. We hope you may find this exercise useful, and that it may help a bit for those of you who may just be starting out with Portuguese. It does get easier, and is certainly a lot of fun along the way. Boa sorte!!

Nelson Silva is a photographer living in Horta on the island of Faial. His Facebook page includes a lovely selection of photos taken around the island. Here’s one taken from Praia do Almoxarife on Faial’s east coast with a view across the channel to Pico.