If the question is even asked as to whether Portuguese or Hispanic, then we have to start off with the acknowledgement that the question is an American one, because the term Hispanic when used in comparison to Portuguese, can only relate to the difference between what are perceived as "Latinos" and the other races. It isn't only a matter of white or whiter, because there are Brazilian Portuguese who may be darker, and African Portuguese who tend to be darker, then you have the continental Portuguese who may be lighter with Scandinavian features, and the Moorish mixture which is Mid-Eastern, and then the Macauan Portuguese and Japanese-Portuguese who survived their persecution Namban era, who are definitely Oriental.

The Portuguese really got-around. Of course, after advancements in celestial navigation, Portugal once 'ruled the seas', and set-up colonies around the world. If you came to America, you may have come in any number of waves of immigration. It is as much a mistake to assume that all Americans of Portuguese ancestry worked the sugarcane fields of Hawaii, as it is to say that all worked the long lines of the American NorthEast fisheries, or the ranches of California.

When Portugal, who started off glorifying God, and was blessed by God, accumulating riches, and lands, started doing the most despicable things at home, amongst their people, and abroad, to other peoples, they dragged God's Good Name into the mud. God shows no blessing to evil, and His Glory departed from Portugal and they fell from a world-leader to a third-world nation, as they lost everything. (note, the same Bible says that IF, my people, who are called by my Name shall humble themselves, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and heal their land.) If you say you follow God, you ought to believe what He says right? Otherwise stop the on-again, off-again belief system.

In America, three things that separated white Portuguese upward mobility from, say, Italians, or French, or English, is that they came over in far, fewer numbers, came over later (in terms of the development of the nation), and they weren't as discriminative as to marrying into another race. Of those three, the one that proved to be the most critical was the latter. Because the Portuguese intermarried (I simply speak factually here, not trying to make a point for the evils of segregation), the end result is that they ceased to exist as a recognizable, united, people group/voting-block to fight for their rights amongst the major groups in the country. The exception might be in small pockets of ethnic concentrations of Portuguese in northern California, or the northern East coast.

When the Blacks made their rise in the 1960's, the American Indians and the Hawaiians all tried to emulate their looks, their militant stand, and their economic, and political actions. Even the women's liberation movement, you could argue rode to some extent on the coattails of the fight for equal rights of the black movement.

You couldn't find a Portuguese with enough Portuguese blood who wanted to associate himself with the Portuguese ethnic group. All to often, according to sociologists, a person with mixed nationalities will hold one of the nationalities up as their 'trophy nationality' with which to be proud of and excel in, and hide behind their other nationality, or use it to give them an excuse for anti-social or foolish behavior. They may even go through life, acting differently, in different social circles.

While we would like to think that we've put discrimination behind us, I think we all know better. My aunt, about 30 years ago told the family that she told everyone in her continental U.S. city, that she was of French ancestry, because if they found out that she was Portuguese, they would exclude her, and her family from their social functions like they did the Mexicans, and the other Latinos. Even her own children thought they were Scandinavian/French (their dad was Scandinavian), until someone 'spilled-the-beans' to them only after they were already living as adults.

Today, I refer to myself as Latino because I'm not 'white enough' to be accepted in the circles with the whites, and I can't pass for an Oriental, Black, or Indian. I have a receding hairline and take a decent tan like the Latinos, so, why not? What have I got to lose, really? I'm not throwing away my ancestry. As a matter of fact, I'm acting more American than most by being an American citizen first, before my nationality. as far as I'm concerned, it's the other nationalities who are acting schizophrenic by saying they are American, yet beat their breasts with ethnic pride as they march in parades like, the Sons of Italy, or the Black Pride, or the Saint Patrick Irish parade. The only reason for alliance to the Latino ethnic movement is that there is no other conduit for a voice calling for equal treatment using the law, where Black and White people's sensibilities seem to miserably fail.

Gary Viveiros

gviveiros@earthlink.net

' Virtue Pietas '