Throughout my education, I have had very little experience with diversity and “real” history until I got to college. Growing up, I lived in a town that had a significant white majority. In fact, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education, 90.8% of my high school was white during the year I graduated. During my primary and secondary education, I was taught to be proud of the pilgrims that “settled” the land I was living on, and of the fishing and whaling industry in New Bedford and how important we were for the world – with little to no mention of the slaughter of natives or of the intense racism that continues to affect my area to this day. In fact, I was taught that the name of my hometown, Mattapoisett, meant “Place of Rest” in Wampanoag – almost like saying, “It was so peaceful here! It’s a place of resting!” I often had to teach myself in high school to find out the true history on my area, and about the atrocities that were committed. Still to this day, I wonder how many lies I was fed and the extent people have tried to cover up the truth.

My interaction with the Portuguese speaking community in my area has been so strange in regards to race. A lot of the Portuguese people I know in the area are very conservative and racist (especially first generation), despite the Portuguese people being subjected to racism when first coming to the Southcoast of Massachusetts. My mother recalls being called a “portagee” (derogatory) in school, and recounts the struggles of not being exposed to English until she was in elementary school, and yet nowadays has a, “Why don’t *insert marginalized group* just stop complaining and work harder?” sort of mentality, or, “Kids these days are too soft,” when it comes to bullying. I think this might stem from her own experiences of having to conform to a different society, and how she didn’t grow up in a society like now, which offers a lot more support to people in general. My uncle experienced the same thing, and he also enlisted in the military, which could’ve played a part in his radicalization along with the bullying growing up. These aren’t isolated to my family either – almost every Portuguese person I know from my area – especially those in the middle/upper-middle class – have similar experiences with family members. This reminds me of an article I read about the Irish in America and how once being eventually accepted into American society, they became oppressors themselves.

“No longer embedded on the lowest rung of American society, the Irish unfortunately gained acceptance in the mainstream by dishing out the same bigotry toward newcomers that they had experienced.”

“When America Despised the Irish: The 19th Century’s Refugee Crisis” by Christopher Klein, History Magazine. Published March 16th, 2017.

Once marginalized groups become accepted by society, they tend to become the oppressors themselves, which could be an explanation as to why the Portuguese people in the US who are upper or middle class tend to be more conservative. However these are just my personal observations, and I’m sure there are many Portuguese in the US who aren’t like that at all.

I feel like there is so much history that we don’t know about, both worldwide and in our UMass Community, that with the right push, you can learn about things you never would’ve known happened. One of the classes I’m taking now is Spanish 497SW, which is about Fascism and the Spanish Civil War. One of the most recent topics we’ve covered is about the International Brigades, which is where solders from all across the world went to Spain to fight Franco and to defend democracy and the Spanish Republic. A group of soldiers from the US formed the Lincoln Brigade, and one of these soldiers in the Lincoln Brigade went to UMass Amherst (back then it was called Massachusetts Agricultural College). His name was Douglass Roach, and he died shortly after returning from Spain. It’s crazy to imagine that over 80 years ago, someone from the same college I am going to traveled across the Atlantic to help a group of people they had little connection to. During our class period, we went for a walk and sat outside of Memorial Hall – which is right next to Herter, to discuss the impact of soldiers like Douglass. Despite being so close to where I have so many classes, I failed to recognize the importance and the history behind a building I walk past every day.

Having reflected on my interactions with local history throughout my life, I feel like I’ve learned to take everything with a grain of salt. Not everything that’s taught in our schools is exactly true, especially given that our school systems are run by a society that likes to keep up the status quo which favors the people who have held power for so long.