Norfolk County
NORFOLK COUNTY’S POPULATION: 64,044
STATISTICS FOR THE PORTUGUESE IN NORFOLK COUNTY:
| AS MOTHER TONGUE | AS MOST SPOKEN | KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE | BORN IN PORTUGAL | ETHNIC ORIGIN |
| 640 1% of population | 265 0.4% of population | 755 1.2% of population | 490 0.8% of population | 1,165 1.8% of population |
PORTUGUESE COMMUNITY OF SIMCOE
Article based on a piece by Paulo Pereira for Luso-Ontario Magazine, 2008
Audio Version:
If you visit Simcoe, you might not notice that there are Portuguese who reside here. You certainly won’t notice that there is a long tradition of many Luso-Canadians who helped shape this town and this region. You probably won’t also notice that both billiard halls in the city were once owned by Portuguese. José Campos and João Miranda were once co-owners of Simcoe Billiards. Both are from Barcelos, in northern Portugal.
The grand opening of the establishment, in the1980s, turned out to become a major event for the Portuguese community of this small town. It was here that, since then, the community met to socialize and talk about the motherland. It became the unofficial Portuguese Club of the town of Simcoe.
Simcoe Billiards had English owners before one of João Miranda’s brother purchased it and then sold it to the Barcelos’ duo proprietors. The establishment helped the community come together to watch football and to socialize.
Manuel Medeiros arrived in Simcoe in 1968. Native of S. Miguel, he followed his father, who had arrived in Canada 3 years earlier. “My father came to work on the railway but ended up working on the tobacco fields…it was his life. I worked with him for a while but then I worked in construction, at Stelco, at the refinery in Nanticoke, and at Hydro, etc… “, Manuel Medeiros reminisced.
Manuel Fernandes, a native of Lousã, District of Coimbra, arrived in 1969 and recalled helping many of his countrymen emigrate to this town. “When I got here, there weren’t many Portuguese. There were half a dozen of them. In the 1970s, many Portuguese arrived. When I got here, I’d often go to Toronto to bring many of them here. My boss helped them get working papers. I remember these Southern Ontario roads being goat tracks and today they are highways. You have no idea of the Portuguese who were here at the time. Nowadays, there are two or three thousand Portuguese. In the eighties, some came, but not so many, and in the nineties they stopped coming”, Manuel Fernandes recounted. “I came to work in the farms because I didn’t speak English. It was a hard life at first. I earned $4 a day and paid $30 a month for room and board. Then, I started working in construction, at Stelco, where I stayed for 50 years. Many Portuguese worked there. I was in charge of 27 men”, he recalled.
In 1997, the Portuguese community of Simcoe decided to found Simcoe Luso, an organization that held some parties in rented halls and even made the purchase of property on the road that connects Simcoe to Delhi. “We wanted to build a hall and purchased land. We raised funds in the community but the organization made the mistake of buying land where construction was not permitted. Construction never took place”, Manuel Fernandes said. “We held meetings in people’s homes and rented halls in Port Dover, Delhi, and Simcoe to hold parties”, he recalls.
Last time we checked, the land is still registered under Simcoe Luso.
While Simcoe Billiards plays the part of Portuguese Club, the month of May marks the biggest event for the Portuguese-Canadian community in this region when the festivities of Our Lady of Fatima take place.
PORTUGUESE COMMUNITY OF DELHI
Article based on a piece by Paulo Pereira for Luso-Ontario Magazine, 2008
Audio Version:
In times past, Delhi was the residence of choice for many Portuguese who worked in the tobacco fields. The decline of this industry and the integration of our community into Canadian society caused a major exodus. Arnaldo Oliveira, former owner of Arnie’s Billiards, is one of the last Portuguese to call Delhi his home.
We went to meet him at his establishment on a beautiful spring afternoon in 2007, months before he closed the doors for good.
“I can’t tell you how many Portuguese live here but there must be about two dozen families,” Arnaldo Oliveira began. “I arrived in Delhi in 1975,” he continued, “when we had a lot of Portuguese here. Many have already gone back home. I’ve been in this business since 1989. I took over from a Portuguese owner. This was a billiard hall just like it is now. The former owner opened a store but then was forced to close it about half a dozen years ago. The community is getting smaller,” he lamented and then spoke of the past. “Here, it was good to live because it was a tobacco zone. I remember, thirty years ago, when I got here. You have no idea how many Portuguese lived here. Some left for the Winter but most came to stay. I’m a native of the Municipality of Amares. Most people here are from Minho but we have some from Lousã and Azoreans too. This establishment was a place where the Portuguese met but nowadays not so much.”
We wanted to know if the youth still speak Portuguese. “The Portuguese youth wear the national jersey, are proud to be Portuguese. They come here looking for the jersey when Portugal is in the international competitions. I show soccer here on the weekends, I’ve got all the games. Most have soccer at home but a lot of people watch the game here. Currently, this is the only Portuguese establishment here. There is a mechanic that also has a Portuguese owner. I’ve placed this on the market and plan to close it this year”, he lamented.
The last remnant of the history of the Portuguese community in Delhi disappeared with the closing of Arnie’s Billiards.
| With files from Luso-Ontario Magazine, 2008 |
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