Belongings and interactions negotiating Portuguese speaking identities in Boston

Abstract

This article aims to present and discuss some reflections about an ongoing research project on the current movement for affirmative action on behalf of Portuguese speakers in Metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts, through a cross-cutting perspective combining ethnography and social history within a socio-anthropological analysis. The focus is on the interactive relationships among different Portuguese speaking immigrants and its descendants within a nonprofit association, Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers, MAPS. What makes so interesting the 'Portuguese-speaking' case is the way it includes within a single category a very disparate set of populations and identities, including their contrastive migratory history and pathways of incorporation and, also, their different mother tongues (Portuguese and Kriolu).