Portuguese American

Sons of Portugal Scholarship Essay It all began when the first words that came out of my mouth were unfamiliar to the common American. My father, mother, and brother arrived to America to begin their new life in 1992. They came to provide their children with endless opportunities. In 1998, I was born and my family's Portuguese culture was not thrown into the United States melting pot. Due to my parents limitation on English, Portuguese was my first language. It caused me to lack guidance in my education at home and school became a constant struggle. I was always tangled amongst the two idioms, but I never allowed this to stop me. I constantly worked to excel in my curriculum even though my teachers assumed I was different. My father and mother were the stereotypical parents that you often see role played by the “Portuguese Kids” in their comedy shows. My brother and I were constantly dragged to our parents doctor appointments, answering phone calls, and resolving any issues that required English. This allowed me to…

Throughout my life, I have always been interested in different cultures from my own. I grew up in two worlds—my Colombian life at home and my American life once I stepped outside my house. I always compared the two cultures which I was part of and from those similarities and differences grew my interest in the traditions in the different parts of the world. As I grew older I noticed that one of the countries in south America had one major difference when comparing its culture—Brazil. This…

will need to have business knowledge of the legal and economic systems. As discussed previously, the Brazilian legal and tax system is very complicated. One of the decisions a new company needs to make is if it should partner with an established Brazilian company, as this will make things much easier for them. In Brazil, knowing the culture is imperative. If a business does not know and understand the cultural norms, it will not only frustrate the business owners, but the company will…

possession of territories, and foundation of new colonies. In Frontier of Possessions, Tamar Herzog, a historian, professor of Latin American presents an account of the conquest from a different perspective, one that proposes that the acquisition of the territory of the New World by Spain and Portugal was a result of “interactions of many actors that caused territorial division in both Iberia and the Americas” (Herzog, 6). Hence, I conquer that one of the reasons of the conquest was the desire…

Latin America has one of the most geographical variations of any location in the world. You can travel across Latin America and be close to the Pacific Ocean, a top of the Andes Mountain ranges, or be in the middle of the Atacama Desert. These variations of geography have a major impact on one of the most densely populated regions in the world. “Geography has strong and pervasive effects on economic and social development.” Most of the population in Latin America lives near the coast. Over 490…

Between 1492 and 1750 new trading routes were created and this resulted in new contacts between Western Europe, Africa, and the Americas. These countries formed a triangle of trade that created changes and continuities over time in society and the economy. From 1492 to 1750 societies and economies changed as a result of new Atlantic world contacts western Europe created a social gathering place, African women gained more jobs that were previously the job of men, African women entered into…

The articulations of custom, tradition and culture have been posited against discourses of rights in terms of British Colonial rule in India. These distinctions emerged alongside the British ‘civilizing mission’ in which the question of rights came to the forefront of the discourse and were matched with the invention of culture. Edmond Burke’s analysis of rights in the context of the French revolution reveals that natural rights are inherited and passed down from generation to generation, as…

According to King Afonso, the many benefits that came from the Portuguese presence became overshadowed as the people and the economy began to suffer. The west brought over many diseases that reached Afonso’s people. In order to fix the problem, he wrote a letters to the king of Portugal. In one of his many letters, he asked for proper medication to treat the illnesses. But the diseases brought many to believe that God was not helpful or necessary to their health. Once being cured with other…

but very rarely put the two together. However, in Lila Ellen Gray’s article Memories of Empire, Mythologies of the Soul: Fado Performance and the Shaping of Saudade, she challenges this idea as she describes both the mind and the soul of the Portuguese people becoming collective unit within their music. By describing the history of fado and the development…

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story”-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Before watching this Ted Talk, I thought that my story of Africa and Latin America was the only story. I quickly learned how incorrect I was about this. As I was first questioned about Africa and Latin America, I wrote words such as “poverty, uneducated and hungry”. Before learning about the…