Clube Recreativo Cultural e Desportivo Os Lusíadas
Dissolved
ASSOCIATION DISSOLVED SHY OF 30 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY
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Hamilton is currently home to Vasco da Gama, the only Portuguese association in this city (excluding Rancho Folclórico Províncias e Ílhas de Portugal). However, until the turn of the century it wasn’t like that. Os Lusiadas, founded in the distant year of 1973, also served the Portuguese community in this city until 2001. Today, the defunct association is doomed to remain in the realms of memory.
João Valentim was one of the presidents of this association and, in an interview with Luso-Ontario Magazine, in 2008, told us a little about its history.
“It started in April of 1972,” Mr. Valentim began. “There was a group of young people who played football. They were called the Mustangs. In 1973, they decided to enter a league and chose the name Os Lusiadas. The founding date was June 10. At that time, there was no one in Southern Ontario who was celebrating Portugal Day,” he said.
A headquarters on Severn Street – the same one that once housed Vasco da Gama – was the first meeting place but then the association moved to James Street North, in the center of the Portuguese community.
The growth was such that, at one point, Os Lusiadas had more than 250 members and held unforgettable parties of which the Beauty Pageant was the most popular. A Theatre group was also formed, in addition to many other celebrations of cultural and social interest.
Football, which had given rise to the association, grew to two men’s teams and an old-timers’ squad. Not long before the organization went into dissolution, it purchased its own headquarters in a place somewhat distant from the Portuguese community, on Main Street, an event which João Valentim partly attributes to the demise of the association.
And one day it was all over.
“Everything that has beginning also has an end. People began to lose interest and no one wanted to take office. I think it was because we left James Street North. In the new headquarters, things began to cool down. A lot of people today feel sad,” he laments.
“I thank all the Portuguese commercial establishments for the support and all the members who always did their best. I devoted my heart and soul to the club.” He pointed out.
| With files from Luso-Ontario Magazine, 2008 |
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