Meg Rogers - The Portuguese in San Leandro

AZOREAN EMIGRANTS LEAVE FAIAL . Here Azorean emigrants leave Faial, Azores. At the turn of the century, the lure to cross the sea was powerful because Azores offered little in the way of economic or educational opportunity. A steady stream of Portuguese immigrants poured in from the Azores and mainland until 1924 when the INS enacted a quota system allowing only 440 Portuguese immigrants into the United States each year. John F. Kennedy thought the quota system was an injustice, and he fought for its elimination; he wanted immigration to be based on skill sets needed in America and not ethnicity. In 1964, after Kennedys death, President Johnson signed Kennedys bill lifting the unfair European immigration quotas. According to a study by Harvard professor Dr. Francis M. Rogers in 1970, there were 114,931 immigrants born in Portugal and the Azores residing in the United States. (Carlos Almeida.)

HORTA PRINCIPAL PORT, FAIAL, AZORES. This painting by Benjamin Russell and Caleb Purrington depicts ships departing Faial. Portuguese immigrants journeyed across the Atlantic aboard whaling vessels bound for the New World. Life aboard the whaling vessels was dangerous and dreary with long hours and poor rations. Captains took advantage of the young Azorean workers who signed on with themso much so that Azorean whalers often jumped ship to plow the fields of Hawaii and California. After the Gold Rush, San Leandro became one of the principal Portuguese settlements in the New World where immigrants worked on small farms and dairies. (Mar de Baleias by Joao Alfonso and Portuguese Immigrants .)

THE AZORES. More than 80 percent of Portuguese immigrants to San Leandro originally came from the Azores Islands, a mid-Atlantic chain 814 nautical miles out to sea from mainland Portugal. Platos Chrythias describes the nine islands in the Azorean archipelago as peaks of mythical Atlantis. The Seven Cities Lake of San Miguel has two lakes in an ancient crater. Legend says when an Atlantean princess died, her shoes fell into one lake, which turned green, and her dress slipped into the other lake, which turned blue. (JAF.)

AZOREAN WHALERS, 1880S . This picture depicts the whaling fleet of Lages do Pico. One whaler holds his harpoon down while another points his short barrel shotgun at the camera. Many early Portuguese settlers made their way to California through the whaling industry. (Tony Wilson and Carlos Almeida.)

SAN MIGUEL WHALING STATION, 1920S. Factory workers cut a whale into vertical pieces before extracting its oil. Whale flesh was first put into cauldrons six feet in diameter, and then a wood fire was lit below, causing the fat and oil to rise to the top. Whale hunting supported many different industries: the oil was harvested for lighting, the teeth turned into ivory jewelry and artwork, and the remainder was used for pharmaceutical purposes. ( Portuguese Immigrants .)