ABSTRACT
Until the 1980s, the Portuguese-speaking communities of America were found primarily in southern New England and California, with roots in the Azores (700 miles west of Portugal) and Madeiras (360 miles west of Morocco) in the Atlantic Ocean, both of which had direct shipping ties to New England ports. These groups, sharing a Roman Catholic faith and deriving largely from two waves of immigration (1870-1930 and 19601990), resided together in ethnic enclaves sometimes referred to as “Little Portugals” (as in Danbury, Connecticut, and Newark, New Jersey); a small proportion of the total Portuguese-speaking community came from the European mainland.
