Portuguese Cultural Society of Prince George

Founding Date:	January 7, 1981
Website:	www.pcspg.ca
Contact:	princegeorgeportuguesesociety@gmail.com

The following is part of an academic paper written by Mikeila Oliveira about the history of the Portuguese Cultural Society of Prince George

published with permission by the author

Audio Version:

The Portuguese Cultural Society of Prince George (hereby referred to as ‘the Society’) was incorporated under the Society Act in Victoria, B.C. on January 7, 1981.¹⁹ The purpose of the Society as listed in the constitution was and remains:

(a) To represent, assess the needs and promote the welfare of the Portuguese immigrants in the community.
(b) To cooperate with agencies serving immigrants in Prince George and the neighbouring area, Employment and Immigration Commission, Secretary of State, and other governments.
(c) To encourage Portuguese immigrants to participate in the life of the community. (d) To promote cultural pluralism in Prince George.
(e) To create a cultural awareness of and encourage cross-cultural sharing among people in Prince George…
(f) To promote, develop and organize Portuguese cultural activities in the community.
(g) To promote, develop and organize Portuguese cultural activities in the community.
(h) To co-operate with the Portuguese organization that serves the Portuguese immigrants throughout the world with culture, education and information.
(i) To co-operate with organization whether incorporated or not, which have objects or purposes similar in whole or in part to the purposes of the Society.
(j) To assist and encourage new Portuguese immigrants in their endeavors to become participating citizens in Canadian society. (k) To acquire and take by purchase, donation, devise, lease or otherwise real and personal property and to sell, exchange, mortgage, lease, let improve and develop the same and to erect and maintain any necessary buildings and to take any contributions and gifts of any kind and nature whatsoever, and to use and apply the same.²⁰

The first group of board directors were Baltazar Rodrigues (President), Joaquim Marques (Vise President), Virgilio Cerdeira (Treasurer), Armenu Sardinha (Secretary), Joao Silva (Director of Publicity), Manuel Augusto Jesus (Director with the Portuguese Consul), and John Furtado (Director Social Local).²¹ Prior to the Society, a group formulated by the Portuguese of Prince George was the Portuguese Catholic Community that was developed about four years before the Society.²² The president of the Portuguese Catholic Community was Luis Branco. Sacred Heart Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George held two masses in Portuguese annually; one in May and the other in October for Nossa Senhora da Fatima.²³ Owing to the desire to get involved in the cultural community, the necessity to register as a non-for-profit administration through the provincial government in Victoria, as well as conflicting ideas, caused the shift from a Catholic Community to a Cultural Society.²⁴ In this instance, to get registered, religion was categorized separately from culture, however, in the case of the Portuguese, religion is very much so intertwined in the culture. Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, and Saint celebrating festivals (festas) are integral to Portuguese cultural traditions.²⁵ For example, O Dia de Reis on January 6th celebrates the arrival of the Three Kings at the stable where Jesus was born and Dia de Todos os Santos, All Saints Day, are only two of the numerous national holidays and celebrations that have created traditions in Portuguese culture.²⁶ Each community has its own patron saint that is celebrated with church processions, dancing, music, food, and drinks.²⁷ Evidently, it would be impossible to create a Portuguese Cultural Society without any trace of Catholic influence. The Society had members not only from Prince George, but also Quesnel, Fraser Lake, and Fort Fraser.²⁸ In 1985, the Society had seventy members (families inclusive).²⁹ The City of Prince George had provided the Society with a portion of land for a nominal fee on 5th Avenue where Skyline Dental is today.³⁰ The objective of this land was to be used to construct a Portuguese Hall.³¹ The City set out specific guidelines that the construction would have to adhere by and owing to the requirement of funding from the community and fear of making a commitment that was not guaranteed to succeed, the project did not receive enough funding to proceed and the land was given away.³² The Society did not receive government funding, perhaps because the Province of British Columbia does not provide funding to support a municipal role in multiculturalism.³³ Ultimately, the Society was created as way to unite Portuguese members in the community of Prince George and the surrounding area, educate the population on Portuguese culture, and to try and maintain traditions among generations of ethnically Portuguese individuals.

Events with Portuguese Involvement

A nation that is known for festivals, food, and drinks is bound to be active participants in local and traditional festas. The Society held three annual events: Portugal Day, a Wine Festival, and a Traditional Christmas Celebration.³⁴ Portugal Day, Dia de Camoes, was celebrated by hosting a BBQ on whichever weekend landed closest to June 10th, the official day of celebration.³⁵ Prior to being held in Prince George, the barbeques were held in the village of Fort Fraser which inhabited a large Portuguese population.³⁶ At the local school field a soccer match was played every year–competing against each other were the married men versus the singles.³⁷

Eventually, when Portugal Day was celebrated in Prince George, the venue varied from locations such as the Rotary Stadium and local halls.³⁸ At the brink of summer, relay races were organized, the mayor was invited as a guest of honour, and a band was hired to keep the guests entertained.³⁹ The band was usually hired from Vancouver or Edmonton.⁴⁰ Around this time of Camoes in June, the Portuguese flag was hoisted and flown at the Prince George City Hall.⁴¹ The Wine Festival was held during the latter part of September or in October.⁴² The festival was hosted at the Kinsmen Hall and a live band from Vancouver or Edmonton was in attendance.⁴³ During the final years of offering the Wine Festival, the event was mixed with the Italian community.⁴⁴ The annual Christmas party occurred in December and comparably to the other events hosted by the Society with around 200 guests in attendance, a band was present and there was no shortage of good food, entertainment, drinks, and memories to be made.⁴⁵

Until the early 1990s, barbequed chicken and pork, sardinhas (sardines), and bolos fritos (fried dough rolled in sugar and cinnamon) were cooked/baked and sold at the Canada Day festivities hosted at Fort George Park (now Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park). “We were show stoppers.”⁴⁸ The end to the Portuguese booth at ‘Canada Day in the Park’ was owing to restrictions implemented by the City of Prince George on the ownership of Food Safe licensing.⁴⁹ In 1983, a Dia do Reis festa was hosted at Vanier Hall.⁵⁰ A talent show type of format was used. Some participants sang the traditional music of fado, others played instruments such as the guitar, piano, and organ, skits were performed, and the finale was a re-enactment of the nativity scene.⁵¹ The Folkfest was a function organized by the Prince George Folkfest Multicultural Heritage Society with a goal to promote “ethno-cultural awareness and make multiculturalism a way of life in Prince George.”⁵² The Folkfest (now called the Cold Snap) event displayed various cultures such as the Portuguese, Croatian, Ukrainian, Pilipino, Polish, and Greek.⁵³ Additionally, the Society contributed a booth to the Downtown Summerfest from 1986-1990.⁵⁴ The Society did not receive any governmental funding, rather the funds to host these various events came from membership fees and ticket sales for events.⁵⁵ The “cash cow” event that made the most money for the Society was the profit of food sales at the Canada Day event.⁵⁶ A large contribution to limiting costs and gaining funds was the use of volunteers to cook, decorate, clean, and organize events.^{57 58 59}

As a tool of Portuguese promotion, every second week on Channel 10 a Portuguese programme was broadcasted.⁶⁰ Members of the programme’s organization would prepare the media materials on Saturday evenings and the programme was broadcasted on Sundays from the 3rd Avenue broadcasting room.⁶¹ The broadcaster was PGTV on Cable Vision.⁶² David Branco, who currently works for CKPG, was one of the members of whom helped get the programme running.⁶³ The programme members would choose a theme for the specific week as a main focus for the show.⁶⁴ The programme used resources from the Portuguese Consulate in Vancouver, news from Portugal, local interviews, filmography from local events, notices of upcoming events, broadcasts of church, and Portuguese music clips as content for the show.⁶⁵ The programme’s purpose was to educate viewers on Portugal and also inform those living in the community about events and up to date news from the ‘homeland’.

A Portuguese school was started around 1982 and 1983 and ended approximately in 1986 because the students grew up and moved away for university or started their own lives.⁶⁶ The idea of beginning the school was created from families meeting at each other’s houses for visits and sharing the desire to pass on language and customs to their children.⁶⁷ The school program received materials from the consulate to use as teaching materials and women members from the Society taught.⁶⁸ The lessons were held at Quinson Elementary for a year and then moved to D.P. Todd, where two different groups would meet.⁶⁹ There was a younger group that would learn songs and play games in Portuguese.⁷⁰ The older group would learn grammar and pronunciation equivalent to grade 4 of the Portuguese school system.⁷¹ Contrary to a modern recognition that learning multiple languages is beneficial to cognitive abilities and increasing opportunities, a rumour in Kitimat circulated that enrolling children in second language classes would hinder their ability to excel in the English language, however this idea had minimal impact and did not prevent the Portuguese of Prince George from attending.⁷² The school was the exception to the lack of organized funding. As a benefit to organizing a Portuguese school, the Society received a grant from the Portuguese Consulate.⁷³

Additional Portuguese Groups

The Portuguese community also formed groups that are representative of traditions and cultural interests. Two of these groups were the rancho folclórico and a soccer team. Rancho folclórico is a folk-dance group. Owing to the diverse array of immigrants in Prince George from different regions in Portugal, the folclore group had the ability to include clothing, music, and dances from several regions.⁷⁴ The female dancers wore bouffant skirts, typically of bright vibrant colours with patterns, and sometimes a head scarf.⁷⁵ The male dancers wore black dress pants, a cummerbund, a vest, and a white dress shirt topped off with a black sombrero.⁷⁶ The folclore group was started by Alvaro Terroso and Dina Jesus around 1984 and ended in 1991.⁷⁷ Within the formation, there were three dancing groups: under twelve years old, teenagers, and an adults group all of which were made up of around 12 pairs.⁷⁸ The folclore began to assemble with the youngest group, and then the latter two were added.⁷⁹ The groups practiced once a week at Carlos Santos’s shop on Ogilvie and 15th Avenue or at the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society building.⁸⁰ The groups performed at cultural events in Prince George such as the January telethon to raise money for the local hospital which is now the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation that was broadcasted on Channel 10.⁸¹ Performances were also presented in Fraser Lake, and they even made a trip to Vancouver to perform where they were “very well received”.⁸²

It deems fit to include sports in the identity of a nation that is so recognized by its futebol stars–Eusebio, Luis Figo, and Cristiano Ronaldo to name a few. The “dream of every school boy in Portugal…to be drafted for the national soccer team” is not a passion that simply dies away, rather, the love for the game continued as a group of men started a Portuguese soccer team in the Prince George area.⁸³ The first team that was created was a futsal (indoor soccer) team.⁸⁴ Futsal only requires six players which was easier to attain. The futsal team competed at an annual tournament in Vanderhoof where they won the championship three years in a row.⁸⁵ At the Vanderhoof tournament they would play against teams of various ethnicities and other communities close in proximity such as Burns Lake.⁸⁶ After the futsal team, an 11 v 11, grass soccer team was formed. The team competed in the Cariboo Men’s League.⁸⁷ The player’s daily lives began to interfere, and the team folded as there were not enough players to continue. Some of the players who wanted to continue joined the Croatian team that was also a part of the Cariboo League.⁸⁸ However, successful Portuguese soccer players have been consistent throughout generations in the community. Nilton Terroso represented Canada at the levels U15 in 1995, U17 in 1995, U23 in 2001, and Portugal at the U20 level for training camps in preparation for the 1999 U20 World Cup in Nigeria.⁸⁹ Joao Medeiros played for Prince George Fury in the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League.⁹⁰ On the female side, I myself have won a title at the BC Provincial Championships with the U18 Prince George Timberwolves in 2017 and proceeded to play a season in the United Kingdom for Welsh Women’s Premier League winners, Cardiff Met Women’s FC. Portuguese players have been outstanding members of the athletic community, continuing their contributions after their own boots are hung up by coaching upcoming athletes.

Moving Forward

The Portuguese Cultural Society of Prince George is still an organization. The Society continues to host Portugal Day BBQs and Christmas parties that are open to members and non-members alike to attend. In the most recent years, the Portugal Day BBQ has been hosted at the Pineview Hall or the Prince George Soccer Association. The Greek Orthodox Church on Tabor Boulevard and 5th Avenue has been the venue for the annual Christmas Party. The current Board of Directors have discussed intentions of once again offer Portuguese language classes and the public expressed an interest. Unexpectedly, the Covid-19 pandemic restricted the possibility of beginning that process. It appears that as the first wave of immigrants have grown old, the following generations have become more suffocated by daily life or as time has passed and families become more ethnically diverse, there is less of an attachment to maintaining cultural events and traditions. Unfortunately, this neglect, or perhaps a lack of dedication to continue cultural practices, has seen a halt in Portuguese events and group involvement in the community like the folclore group, soccer team, TV broadcasts, cooking lessons, and city Folkfest. I describe it as a ‘halt’ because I hope that the current generation can bring back some of the teachings and events set out by the past and continue it for the future. There is a saying in Portuguese that goes, saco vazio não para em pé. This means that an empty bag will not stand. Similarly to the bag, the community must continue to invest into the teachings of the culture, language, and the continuation of traditions in order keep the Portuguese culture, “Portugueseness”, in Northern B.C. proudly standing.

References cited by the author:

22 Carla Terroso in discussion with the author, April 11, 2021; 23 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 24 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 25 Jose Mapril, “Travelling Spirits, Localizing Roots,” 807; 26 “O Dia de Reis Pelo Mundo e as Diferentes Tradicoes,” National Geographic, https://www.natgeo.pt/historia/2020/01/o-dia-de-reis-pelo-mundo-e-diferentes-tradicoes (accessed April 13, 2021); Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 27 “Portugal Holidays and Festivals,” iExplore, https://www.iexplore.com/articles/travel-guides/europe/portugal/festivals-and-events (accessed April 14, 2021); 28 Arlette Santos, April 7, 2021; 29 Folkfest Committee, Folkfest Fanfare; 30 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 31 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 32 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 33 Kristin Good, Municipalities and Multiculturalism: The Politics of Immigration in Toronto and Vancouver, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), 143; 34 Folkfest Committee, Folkfest Fanfare 15, 4; 35 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 36 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 37 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 38 Folkfest Committee, Folkfest Fanfare 15, 6; 39 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 40 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 41 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 42 Folkfest Committee, Folkfest Fanfare 15, 4; 43 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 44 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 45 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 46 Folkfest Committee, Folkfest Fanfare 15, 4; 47 Ric Ernst, “Afternoon in Portugal,” The Prince George Citizen, January 9, 1984; 48 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 49 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 50 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 51 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 52 “Folkfest Group Buys Heritage Liquor Store,” The Prince George Citizen, February 24, 1988; 53 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; Baljit Sethi, “Multiculturalism,” Report on the Quality of Life in Prince George, 1997: 238; 54 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 55 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 56 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 57 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 58 David Milne, “Canada Day in the Park,” The Prince George Citizen, July 3, 1989; 59 “Miss Portugal”, Carla Terroso and Joe Janela at Folkfest 1988; 60 Folkfest Committee, Folkfest Fanfare 15, 4; 61 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 62 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 63 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 64 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 65 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 66 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 67 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 68 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 69 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 70 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 71 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 72 Arlette Santos, April 7, 2021; Daniela Perani, Stanislas Dehaene, Franco Grassi, Laurent Cohen, Stefano F. Cappa, Emmanuel Dupoux, Ferruccio Fazio, and Jacques Mehler, “Brain Processing of Native And Foreign Languages,” NeuroReport-International Journal for Rapid Communications of Research in Neuroscience 7, no. 15 (1996): 2439; 73 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 74 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 75 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 76 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 77 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 78 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 79 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 80 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 81 Carla Terroso, April 11, 2021; 82 Carlos and Betty Santos, April 7, 2021; 83 Teresa Mallam, “Love Conquers Soccer Dreams,” Prince George Free Press, March 9, 2010, http://www.pgfreepress.com/love-conquers-soccer-dreams/; 84 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 85 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 86 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 87 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 88 Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 89 Terry Phillips, “Analysis: Meet the Man Whose Appliance of Science Could Push Cardiff City to Promotion,” Wales Online, March 26, 2013, https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/analysis-meet-man-whose-appliance-2034903; Alvaro Terroso, April 10, 2021; 90 Jim Swanson, “First Win for Pro Soccer Club,” The Prince George Citizen, February 1, 2010, https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/sports/first-wins-for-pro-soccer-club-1.1088973; 91 Portuguese soccer team at a tournament in Vanderhoof displaying their trophies; 92 Nilton Terroso in the Canadian uniform, 1999.

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