Performance on the anniversary of the Portuguese Cultural Association, 1996. Photo courtesy Portuguese Cultural Association
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Dreams of Portugal and the Dreams Continue
Arriving as immigrants to New Jersey at the
turn of the century, many Portuguese settled in the Newark,
New Jersey, area, where they created organizations to preserve
the culture and language of their homeland. One such
organization is the non-profit Portuguese Cultural Association
of Kearny, New Jersey, created in 1979, which has founded a
Portuguese ethnic school, where children can learn the
language through reading, writing, and dialogue, and a
folklore dance group, called
Dreams of Portugal. In
April 1981, the group made its inaugural performance at John
F. Kennedy Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, and from 1983 into
the late 1980s, it was the only group to represent the
Portuguese community at various New Jersey State functions and
festivals. The group won a number of honors and dance
competitions throughout the 1980s, notably the Centennial
celebration for the Statue of Liberty held in Manhattan.
In the early 1990s, the president of the Portuguese
Cultural Association suggested that
Dreams of Portugal form another dance group from the children of the association's
members, thus giving birth to
The Dreams Continue.
Since their inception, both groups have performed in
many states throughout the East, including New Jersey, New York,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia; in 1994, they were the only
performers asked to be part of the two-day Azalea Festival in
Norfolk, Virginia. More recently, they have performed at the New
Jersey Statewide Professional Citizenship Conference at Princeton
University, and the Anti-Defamation League's 50th Anniversary at
Liberty State Park, Ellis Island.
Project materials include seven pages of text, 22 8 x
10 color photos, a videotape, and a newspaper tabloid on the video
documentary which examines the Portuguese community in Kearny.
Originally submitted by: Frank Lautenberg, Senator.
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