Partisan and Nonpartisan Ballots and Ethnic Populations

The Political Incorporation of Portuguese Americans in New England: Partisan and Nonpartisan Ballots and Ethnic Populations

Dulce Maria Scott Anderson University

Abstract. After a brief examination of structural factors that have been identified in the literature as having an impact on the path of political incorporation of immigrant populations, this paper provides a succinct comparative analysis of the political incorporation of Portuguese Americans in New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton, and East Providence, USA. The political integration and incorporation of Portuguese Americans has been highly successful in some of these cities, while in others the political potential of this population group has not been fully realized. This study also provides a brief, but more extensive, analysis of the election of Portuguese Americans in New Bedford, first to this city’s City Council and second to the Massachusetts Legislative Assembly. This historical study shows that Portuguese political incorporation in American society, among other factors, has been impacted by variable electoral system structures and varying ethnic population dynamics in the four cities examined.

Keywords: Portuguese-American politics, Portuguese in New Bedford, New Bedford politics, immigrant political integration, political incorporation of Portuguese Americans

In the summer of 2012, while attending a conference in Portugal’s second largest city, Porto, I happened to mention to an educated resident of that city that I was researching the phenomenon of political incorporation of Portuguese Americans into the American political system. To my surprise, the person asked: “Ah, isso na política americana são só um ou dois portugueses, não é?” [Ah, in American politics, there are only one or two Portuguese, right?]. Even though this interrogatory assertion caught me off guard, in reality it reflects what has been until recently a prevalent assumption concerning the level of integration of the Portuguese and their descendants in the United States, that is, that this population group is not well integrated culturally, socioeconomically, and politically in this society.1 In reality, however, there have been few studies that have explored in a scientific and systematic manner the socioeconomic integration and, even to a lesser extent, the political integration and incorporation2 of the Portuguese-

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American population. A few recent studies (Barrow, 2002; Barrow & Borges, 2005; Bloemraad, 2009; Marinho & Cornwell, 1992; Moniz, 1979; Portuguese American Citizenship Project; Scott & Fraley, 2014) indicate that while in some areas of New England the political integration and incorporation of this population group fell somewhat short of its potential, in other areas it assumed theoretically expected parameters, particularly when one takes into consideration that Portuguese immigrants, for the most part, arrived in this country with low levels of education and were destined to the manual labor market of the American economy (Scott, 2009). Sociologists (inter alia, Portes & Böröcz, 1989; Portes & Rumbaut, 2006; Waldinger, Aldrich, Ward, & Associates, 1990) argue that the historical path of integration taken by any group of immigrants into the host society is influenced by several factors and interactions among them. As I explained in a September 2012 interview with Observatório da Emigração (Scott & Pinho, 2012):

Some of these factors are related to the cultural and socioeconomic attributes brought over by the immigrants, including their family structure, their levels of education and occupational skills, and their social class. Yet, of particular causal significance is the interaction of the immigrants’ transposed cultural and structural attributes with conditions found upon arrival in the host society. The latter include the economic opportunity structure, the context of reception (whether or not they are well-received by the dominant and other ethnic groups), and the characteristics of the pre-existing ethnic communities in the host country. All of these factors are also influenced by the evolving political and public policy contexts found upon arrival.

A study of the political integration and incorporation of the Portuguese and their descendants in the United States, thus, needs to take into account factors such as the structure of the political systems in the cities of immigrant settlement: if, for example, it is a partisan or nonpartisan electoral system;3 if primary elections are open or whether the candidates are nominated by political parties; the size of the political districts (inter alia, Cornwell, 1980; Marinho & Cornwell, 1992; Pomper, 1966; Wright, 2008); as well as the prevailing political cultures and subcultures within different regions of the United States (Elazar, 1984, 1994), among other variables. As the culture and political systems are molded by the characteristics of the population in areas where immigrants settle, as well as by the level of competition for power among groups of distinct ethnic backgrounds, variables related to the size and ethnic composition of the population of a given political division also need to be taken into account. As stated by Hero and Tolbert (1996): “States’ politics and policies are products of the cooperation, competition, and/or conflict between and among dominant and subordinate (minority) groups, not only of the dominant group(s) within a state” (p. 854). In this study, I take into consideration the impact of electoral structures and population factors in the political incorporation of the Portuguese in four cities, three in Massachusetts (New Bedford, Fall River, and Taunton) and one in Rhode Island (East Providence).4

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This study shows that Portuguese Americans historically have not been apolitical, that they have attained varying degrees of political incorporation in different urban contexts, and that such incorporation has been impacted by structural and demographic variables found in the host communities. After some theoretical considerations and a brief overview of comparative data pertaining to the four cities mentioned in the previous paragraph, this article provides a more detailed, albeit brief, analysis of the political incorporation of Portuguese from New Bedford into that city’s municipal government and the Massachusetts Legislative Assembly (also known as the State House and the Massachusetts General Court).

Partisan Versus Nonpartisan Electoral Systems and Their Interaction With Population Factors Scholars (inter alia, Cornwell, 1960, 1968, 1980; Dahl, 1961; Glazer & Moynihan, 1963; Luconi, 2004; Marger 1979; Williams & Adrian, 1959; Wolfinger, 1968) have found that the political incorporation of immigrants (e.g., Irish and Italian) in the United States was positively impacted by partisan political systems. Competitive electoral efforts lead political “bosses” to include immigrants in their parties’ voting lists or tickets as a way of attracting the vote of members of new immigrant groups. Further, political parties mobilize the bases to bring out the vote in their favor, a process that results in the coordination and directing of the voting potential of new immigrant groups. In nonpartisan systems, which eliminate the involvement of political parties in the electoral process, newcomers, unable to benefit from the support, resources, and organizational infrastructure of political parties, will encounter overwhelming obstacles in the competition for office against candidates and incumbents from older and more established immigrant groups.5 Thus, as studies have shown, after nonpartisan electoral schemes were put into place during the Progressive Era (1890–1920), the political incorporation of immigrants was substantially reduced in some of America’s major cities (Adrian, 1952; Marger, 1979). In Massachusetts, cities generally adopted nonpartisan electoral systems in the early twentieth century, while in Rhode Island the political machines survived the Progressive Era reforms, remaining influential until the 1970s, particularly those of the Democratic Party (Moakley & Cornwell, 2001). In a comparative analysis of the Sixth Ward in New Bedford and the First Ward in Providence, wards with high Portuguese-American population concentrations, Cornwell (1980) argues that before the adoption in New Bedford of the nonpartisan ballot in 1938, the Portuguese were very successful in winning elections into the City Council,6 being included in ethnically balanced party tickets containing at least one candidate from the four largest ethnic groups in the Sixth Ward (English, French Canadians, Irish, and Portuguese). After 1938, despite running for office, the Portuguese were no longer able to win elections, as the power vacuum left by the exclusion of political parties from the ballot came to be filled by members of a powerful French-Canadian family, the Saulniers. After 1940, members of this family achieved a nearly monopolistic control of the Sixth Ward City Council

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seat, and later on also of the Massachusetts House of Representatives seat that included New Bedford’s Sixth Ward within its boundaries. By contrast, according to Cornwell (1980), in Providence’s First Ward, where partisan elections remained the norm, over time, the Portuguese gained complete political control of the First Ward including its two council seats and its State House seat. For Cornwell, the determining factor in the differences between New Bedford and Providence was the existence of nonpartisan elections in the first city and partisan elections in the second city. The role political parties perform in the integration and incorporation of immigrant groups, nevertheless, may be circumscribed by the demographic characteristics of the population in each city, as well as by competition among ethnic groups of diverse backgrounds. Data provided by Marinho and Cornwell (1992), relative to the Sixth and Fifth Wards of New Bedford, show that the integration of members of new immigrant groups into party and political structures might occur only if the political parties, in order to attain victories at the polls, need the vote of the new population.7 Existing political leaders are unlikely to make room in hierarchical party structures or share patronage jobs with newcomers unless electoral exigencies make it necessary to do so, and this does not bode well for numerically small population groups. Conversely, a nonpartisan system, where the most prominent voting cue, rather than party affiliation, becomes the candidates’ familiar last names, may be over time favorable to the political integration and incorporation of larger immigrant groups. In a context where groups of immigrant origins become the largest group, as the Portuguese did in some Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island cities, members of such groups will come to win elections and perhaps attain a dominant presence in various governing bodies, regardless of whether the system is partisan or nonpartisan. Still, in competitive partisan electoral systems, the incorporation of newcomers, including minority ethnic populations, might take place at a faster pace and become more unified, organized, and consistent than in nonpartisan systems.

Some Comparative Data: New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton, and East Providence Historians (Pap, 1981; Williams, 1982; inter alia) provide accounts of the arrival of the Portuguese, particularly from the Azores, into the United States. A significant Portuguese community, associated with the whaling industry, emerged first in New Bedford, a city that in the 19th century had become the principal center for the whaling industry in the United States (Williams, 1982, p. 3). In neighboring cities of Southeastern Massachusetts, such as Fall River and Taunton, Portuguese communities began to form somewhat later—for example, in the 1870s in Fall River (Pap, 1981; Santo Christo Parish). The labor needs in the cotton mills—which also reached great dimensions in New Bedford after the decline of the whaling industry at the end of the 19th century—provided the main impetus for such settlements.

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A third wave of Portuguese immigration to the United States began in 1958, increased during the 1960s, reached a zenith in 1970, and then began to decline rapidly in the 1980s (Scott, 2009). Currently, the cities of New Bedford and Fall River share similar Portuguese population characteristics (see Table 1), but Fall River has been the city in New England with the largest number and percentage of people of Portuguese ancestry. Taunton and East Providence, likewise, show similarities in the composition of their population, although in East Providence the percentage of Portuguese is higher than in Taunton.

Table 1. Population of Portuguese Ancestry in New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton, and East Providence City Total population Portuguese ancestry Percent of Portuguese ancestry New Bedford 95,006 38,158 40.2 Fall River 89,220 41,533 46.6 Taunton 55,930 16,617 29.7 East Providence 47,265 16,322 34.5 Source: U.S. Census Bureau: 2007–2011 American Community Survey 5–Year Estimates.

The date of the creation of the first parish or other types of religious organizations may serve as an indicator, albeit not a perfect one, of the social density and social capital of an immigrant population. In the city of New Bedford, the first Portuguese parish in North America—St. John’s the Baptist Church—was founded in 1871, and the construction of the Church building was completed four years later (Pease, 1918a, Vol. 1, p. 259). In Fall River, the Santo Christo Parish was established in 1892 (Santo Christo Parish). In Taunton, Saint Anthony’s Church was organized in 1903 and Our Lady of Lourdes was instituted two years later in 1905 (The Taunton Directory, 1921). In Providence, Our Lady of the Rosary was founded in 1886 within the area of Fox Point, and in January, 1915 the Masses of the new East Providence parish, Saint Francis Xavier, started to be celebrated at Phillips Street Hall until the completion of the church building in 1916 (Saint Francis Xavier). Table 2 compares the date of creation of the first parish in New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton, and East Providence, with the date of the first elections of Portuguese Americans to City Council and the state’s House of Representatives and Senate.8 New Bedford is the City with the earliest dates of political incorporation into the City Council and both chambers of the Massachusetts State House. This is not surprising given that the Portuguese settled in New Bedford earlier than in the other cities that are a part of this study.9 An extensive archival search, from 1870 to the present, shows that the Portuguese of New Bedford began to attain elected office on a regular basis starting with the municipal elections of 1895. Before that date, I was able to identify only one other legislator of Portuguese origins: Antone Sylvia, who emigrated from the Azorean Island of São Jorge in 1855, becoming later on a prominent businessman in activities related to whaling and other types of

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businesses.10 Antone Sylvia served in the New Bedford Common Council from 1875 to 1877, choosing not to pursue additional elected political office after 1877. Since Sylvia was the exception rather than the rule, in Table 2, we indicate 1895 as the date when the Portuguese of New Bedford began to attain electoral victories at the municipal level on a regular basis.

Table 2. Difference Between the Date of the Founding of the First Parish in Each City and the Date of Elections to City Council, State House of Representatives, and Senate New East Fall River Taunton Bedford Providence 1. Date of first Parish 1871 1892 1903 1915 2. Date of first election to 1895 1930 1939 1946 City Council* Difference between dates 2 24 38 36 31 and 1 (in years) 3. Date of the first election to State House of 1928 1944 1954 1940 Representatives Difference between dates 3 57 52 51 25 and 1 (in years) 4. Date of first election to 1938 1952 1988 1958 State Senate Difference between dates 4 67 60 85 43 and 1 (in years) * Excludes the election of Antone Sylvia at the end of 1874.

The data in Table 2 show—without taking Antone Sylvia into consideration—that it took between 24 and 38 years after the formation of the first parishes and the election of a Portuguese American to the City Councils of each city. In New Bedford, it took 24 years, in Fall River 38, Taunton 36, and East Providence 31 years. Incorporation into the House of Representatives took more than 50 years in all three Massachusetts cities. The exception was East Providence in Rhode Island where we find the peculiarity of the Portuguese entering into the Rhode Island General Assembly six years before they were able to win an election at the municipal level.11 This peculiarity may in part be explained by population factors, with more established immigrant groups, such as the Irish, having gained a firm grip over local politics that resulted in the exclusion of the Portuguese from elected and appointed office at the Municipal level until a later date. East Providence also shows the shortest time span between the construction of the parish and the first election to the state Senate (43 years), followed by Fall River and New Bedford (60 and 67 years respectively). In Taunton, it would take 85 years before a Portuguese American held a Massachusetts senate seat. Larger senate districts in Massachusetts than in Rhode Island, as well as lower Portuguese population percentages in Taunton than in the other cities, may partially account for a much longer time span between the creation of the first parish and the election of a Portuguese-American senator from this city.

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Table 3 presents data compiled from Public Officers of Massachusetts and RI Secretary of State, Rhode Island Manual. The data indicate, as we had verified in Table 2, that the political incorporation of Portuguese Americans into state level political offices took place first in the Greater New Bedford area. However, despite a very promising start, the political incorporation of the Portuguese from this city at the state level did not reach its full potential, especially when the size of this ethnic group in New Bedford is taken into account. A change from a partisan to a nonpartisan electoral system at the municipal level, starting with the election of 1938, as well as ethnic population dynamics in different Wards in this city (to be addressed in the next section of this paper), may provide a partial explanation for shortcomings in Portuguese-American political integration and incorporation found in New Bedford.

Table 3. Number of Elected Representatives and Senators and Number of Elections Won by Portuguese Americans by City (From the 1928 to the 2014 Elections) City New Fall River Taunton East Bedford Providence Date of first election to House 1928 1944 1954 1940 Number of elected representatives 17 14 4 15 Total victories for House 61 70 22 71 Date of first election to the Senate 1938 1952 1988 1958 Number of elected senators 5 2 2 6 Total victories for Senate 12 19 13 30 Total election victories (House and 73 89 35 101 Senate) * This Table does not include elected officials of Cape-Verdean origin. Additionally, it does not include special elections that took place occasionally after the resignation of an elected politician.

Fall River is the city in the state of Massachusetts where Portuguese Americans have achieved the highest number of state level electoral victories (70 to the House and 19 to the Senate). Of note in this city is the election of Mary Fonseca to the Senate, where she served from 1953 to 1984. She was the first woman with a position of leadership in the Senate, serving as Assistant Majority Floor Leader, from 1973 to 1984. However, after her defeat in the 1984 elections, it would not be until 2011 that Fall River would again be represented by another Portuguese-American senator, Michael Rodrigues, whose grandparents are from Portugal. Competition for political power with other more established population groups,12 such as the English, French Canadians, and especially the Irish—the dominant political ethnic group in Fall River during the first half of the twentieth century (Goldberg, 1977a)—delayed the political incorporation of the Portuguese in this city. By the 1920s, the Irish-dominated Democratic Party had replaced the Republicans as the dominant political party in this city, and the Irish and the French Canadians had established a political alliance, starting in 1910 (Goldberg, 1977a), in which they did not need to include the Portuguese.13 Events surrounding the municipal election of 1942 provide an illustration of the political exclusion of the Portuguese in Fall River. The Portuguese leadership of

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this city, feeling neglected by the administration of the sitting mayor, Alexander C. Murray, threw its full support behind opposition candidate, Edmond P. Talbot, who had been mayor in the 1920s (“Editorial,” 1942; “As Eleições Municipais,” 1942). Despite an intense campaign, Talbot was defeated by Murray (“Arthur,” 1942), and the latter continued to ignore the Portuguese when making appointments to his new administration (“O Poder,” 1943). In 1926, Attorney Francis J. Carreiro had been elected to the Fall River School Committee and in 1930 labor leader, John Machado, with strong support from the labor movement, won a City Council seat. However, after Carreiro left the School Committee in 1928, and the unexpected death of John Machado in 1935, it was not until 1945 and 1949 that other Portuguese Americans would be elected respectively to the School Committee (Mary Fonseca) and the City Council (Manuel J. Duarte). Frank Oliveira, elected in 1944, was the first Portuguese American from Fall River to win a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The Portuguese of Fall River continued to compete with other ethnic groups in subsequent decades; however, the exit from the city of middle-class descendants of Irish and Canadian immigrants and new immigration from Portugal led the Portuguese to become the largest ethnic group in this city. By 1970, the Portuguese represented close to one-third of the total population, while the French-Canadian share had declined to 25 percent, the Irish to 14.7 percent and the English to 11.2 percent (Goldberg, 1977a). Analysis of election results in the 1970s showed that French Canadians, perhaps still fueled by antipathies developed as a result of competition with the Portuguese for factory jobs earlier in the twentieth century, continued to exercise an “anti-Portuguese vote” (Goldberg, 1977b). Nevertheless, with increasing population percentages, over time the Portuguese increased their access to political office, and it was in this city that the first Portuguese American conquered the position of Mayor in a New England city. John M. Arruda was elected Mayor of Fall River in 1957, an office that he kept until 1963. Since then, there have been three additional Fall River mayors of Portuguese background, including Carlton Viveiros who served from 1978 to 1990. In state elections, the Portuguese of Fall River have also attained success, with 14 representatives and 2 senators, from 1994 to the present, who have won a total of 89 elections (see Table 3). In correspondence with the Portuguese of New Bedford in the Fifth Ward (see the analysis in the next section), the Portuguese of Fall River did not benefit from the existence of a bipartisan political system at the municipal level during the first quarter of the twentieth century, as the allied Irish and French Canadians could attain victories at the polls against the old Yankees of the declining Republican Party, without including the Portuguese. Had the bipartisan electoral system remained strong and competitive in Fall River, the Portuguese, due to the increase in their share of the city’s population, would eventually have to be incorporated by the existing political parties, who would in turn channel and unify the Portuguese vote in favor of their candidates. Even though the numerical dominance of the Portuguese would lead to victories of members of this ethnic group at the polls, we can speculate that had Fall River’s electoral system remained strongly partisan,

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the Portuguese might have attained higher and more consistent levels of political incorporation in this city than they have thus far. In Taunton, the Portuguese were not able to conquer a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives until the elections of 1954 and in the Senate until the elections of 1988. The delay in the political incorporation of the Portuguese in Taunton can perhaps be explained by a lower population percentage and a later time of settlement of this ethnic group in this city, as compared to the other two Massachusetts cities considered in this study. The early control of the political system by other European ethnic groups (e.g., English, French-Canadians, and Irish) might be another explanatory factor. Despite the late start, the Portuguese have attained high levels of political incorporation in Taunton, with the election of four Portuguese-American mayors: Rudolph da Silva (1972–1973), Theodore Aleixo (1974–1975), Joseph Amaral (1978–1981), and Robert Nunes (1992–1999 and 2004–2007). Portuguese Americans also came to attain a majority of seats in the City Council during different terms, and gained control of both the state House of Representatives seat (from 1955 to the present) and the Senate seat (since 1989 to the present). Frank Rico was the first Portuguese American to be elected as state representative in 1954, followed by Theodore Aleixo in 1968, who was elected as the state senator in 1988. Marc Pacheco replaced Aleixo as representative in 1989 and was elected to the Senate in 1992. Shaunna O’Connell, who is a descendant of a Portuguese grandmother, currently holds the state representative seat. It is in East Providence that the Portuguese have achieved the highest level of electoral victories to state offices. The election of 1940 brought into the Rhode Island House of Representatives two Portuguese-American legislators—Frank Maciel, a member of the Republican Party, and Anthony Lamb, Jr., a Democrat— who began their legislative terms in January of 1941. In January of 1959, Gilbert Rocha, the first senator of Portuguese origins from East Providence, took his seat in the Senate, a seat that since then has been consistently occupied by a legislator of Portuguese ancestry, the latest of whom is Daniel da Ponte (1999–present). The factors that have contributed to such a high level of success in the political incorporation of the Portuguese in East Providence are examined in more detail in Scott and Fraley (2014). To summarize, however, the existence of a competitive partisan electoral system—as evident in the initial election of two Portuguese legislators, one from each political party, in 1940—may have provided an impetus for the political incorporation of the Portuguese in this city. Insertion into political party commissions and party nominations for office, as well as participation and leadership of the Portuguese in labor unions, led to a politicization of community organizations and to the emergence of what has been referred to as the Portuguese “political machine” of East Providence (Bailey, 2000). As the Republican Party went into permanent decline and Rhode Island came to have what amounted to a single-party electoral system,14 the Portuguese-American political infrastructure and the grassroots mobilization laid out by earlier Portuguese politicians and community leaders have continued to

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propel a new generation of Portuguese Americans into elected office. The Portuguese Americans of East Providence may have also benefitted from population concentration in electoral districts that are smaller than those found in Massachusetts. In this section, while providing a brief overview of the political incorporation of Portuguese Americans in New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton, and East Providence, I have demonstrated that the political incorporation of people of this ethnic group into political office is not a recent phenomenon and that it has not been insignificant, even though in some Massachusetts cities, it did not reach its full potential. In the next section of this paper, I focus our attention on the history of Portuguese-American political incorporation in the city of New Bedford, analyzing how the political fortunes of the Portuguese in that city were influenced by factors such as the structure of the electoral system and population dynamics.

Portuguese-American Political Incorporation in New Bedford Until the beginning of the 19th century, New Bedford was populated primarily by people of English, Scottish, and Gaelic ancestry, but the time of arrival of other immigrants can be discerned by the date of construction of their parishes as well as data provided by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts decennial censuses, which began to be implemented in 1855 (see Table 4).

Table 4. New Bedford’s Foreign-Born Population by Country: Portugal, Canada, Ireland, and England % % % % Portugal Canada Ireland England change change change change 1855 196 —— 113* —— 1,937 —— 323 —— 1865 516 163.3 138* 22.1 1,667 -13.9% 330 2.2 1875 832 61.2 729 428.3 2,387 43.2% 1,128 241.8 1885 1,445 73.7 2,396 228.7 2,795 17.1% 2,180 93.3 1895 3,861 167.2 7,346 206.6 3,314 18.6% 5,315 143.8 1905 7,352 90.4% 9,174 24.9 2,841 -14.3% 7,192 35.3 1915 15,145 106.0 10,416 13.5 2,284 -19.6% 10,586 47.2 Source: Census of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts * Since Canada was established in 1867, these figures refer to British America, and would thus include New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. From 1875 on, the figures for Canada exclude these three regions.

Irish immigrants established in 1818 a Catholic mission that would give origin to their first parish and to the construction of Saint Mary’s Church in 1820. Portuguese immigrants founded their first parish, St. John’s the Baptist, in 1871, and their Church building was completed in 1875. French Canadians established the Church of the Sacred Heart in 1877 and the Polish created their church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in 1903. At the end of the 19th century, some Jewish

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families, who became involved in activities related to the whaling industry and later textiles and manufacturing, also settled in New Bedford (City of New Bedford; New Bedford Whaling Museum). The data in Table 4 show a rapid increase in the arrival of Canadian immigrants in the last quarter of the 19th century. While Portuguese immigration increased rapidly in the early 20th century, the arrival of immigrants from the other three major immigrant countries ebbed or began to experience rapid declines, as in the case of the Irish. As the latest group to arrive, the Portuguese of New Bedford, in their struggle for political incorporation, had to compete with members of older and more established immigrant populations. Portuguese Americans came to be concentrated in the Fifth and the Sixth Wards of New Bedford (Marinho & Cornwell, 1992), and historically it was in these Wards that the drama of their political incorporation at the city and state levels was played out.

Portuguese Political Incorporation Into New Bedford’s City Council The first Portuguese person to be elected to City Council, as mentioned above, was Antone Sylvia, who served from 1875 to 1877 (Scott, 2014a), but he was the exception rather than the rule. As such, we pick up the story of Portuguese political incorporation in the municipality of New Bedford in the 1890s. Although Portuguese Americans had been running for a City Council seat in the early 1890s, it is in a conflictive election in December of 1895 that Joseph Fernandes15 is successfully elected to represent the Sixth Ward in the Common Council (City of New Bedford, City Documents; The Morning Mercury; The Evening Standard). In the 1895 electoral campaign, Stephen Allen Brownell, from the Independent Citizen’s Party and the incumbent Mayor, David Parker, from the Citizen’s Party, were in contention for the highest city political office.16 As reported in the local media, in a speech to the Portuguese-American Political and Naturalization Club, incumbent Mayor Parker affirmed that his party’s ticket would include a Portuguese candidate from the Sixth Ward. To the great surprise and consternation of Club members, when the party lists of candidates were published in the city newspapers, (e.g., The Morning Mercury), they did not include a Portuguese-American candidate from the Sixth Ward. In an act of rebellion against the established political power, Joseph Fernandes entered the election as an Independent backed only by the Portuguese-American Political and Naturalization Club.17 Joseph Fernandes won the election, beating the candidates sponsored by the two major contending political parties. The main opposition party, the Independent Citizen’s Party, included a Portuguese, Manuel Estácio Costa, in its lists for the Sixth Ward, but he did not win the election. Parker was reelected as Mayor. The debacle with the 1895 election caused serious divisions within the Portuguese-American Political and Naturalization Club (see, for example, editions of the Morning Mercury for the month of November, 1896). Perhaps as a result of such divisions, only in 1902 would another Portuguese candidate, Manuel Andrews, be elected from the Sixth Ward to the Common Council.

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In the 1896 election, the party of incumbent Mayor Parker included Joseph Dias as a candidate for the Common Council for the Fifth Ward, and he was elected. The main opposition party, now led by Charles Ashley, won the Mayoral elections, and included Dr. Manuel Sylvia who was elected as alderman from the Fifth Ward. Dr. Sylvia, whose father had been born in the Azores, served as Alderman for two years and, as president of the Board of Aldermen, acted as Mayor during Ashley’s absences due to illness (Borden, 1899, p. 342). After a dramatic entrance into city politics at the end of the 19th century, Portuguese-American political incorporation in this city would undergo several twists and turns, taking diametrically divergent paths in the Sixth and Fifth Wards. I start with a brief analysis of the elections in these Wards until 1938, and then move on to subsequent years. The Sixth Ward contained four major ethnic groups: Anglos, Irish, French- Canadians, and Portuguese. To win elections, political parties needed to include candidates from all four ethnic groups in their electoral tickets as a way of attracting the vote of each ethnic population. Marino and Cornwell (1992, p. 272) provide data showing that indeed the political party of Charles S. Ashley, who served as mayor intermittently and for several years from 1891 to 1936, balanced the Sixth Ward ticket along ethnic lines, nominating for each election a Portuguese, a French Canadian, one or two Irish, and one or two English. The opposition parties also included candidates of Portuguese origin in their tickets. As a result, as shown in Table 5, Portuguese candidates were successful in winning elections in the Sixth Ward until 1920. Although Portuguese candidates from this Ward were nominated into party tickets throughout most of the 1920s and early 1930s, they were not successful at winning elections, due perhaps to a political party structure that was increasingly weak in Massachusetts.18

Table 5. Portuguese Elected From New Bedford’s Sixth Ward Elected before 1938 Elected after 1938

Date in office Name Date in office Name

1896 Joseph H. Fernandes 1960–1963 Lino P. Torres* 1903–1904 Manuel Andrews 1996–2001 Victor Pinheiro 1908–1909 Antonio J. Raulino 2002–2007 Leo Pimentel 1911–1915 Joseph H. Fernandes 2008–2009 Wendy Pimentel 1918–1919 John Alexander Silva 2010–present Joseph P. Lopes 1920–1921 John Moniz 1937–1938 Jose Coelho deRita * Lino Torres served as President of the New Bedford City Council and as substitute Mayor during the absence of New Bedford’s Mayor, Edward F. Harrington.

In the Fifth Ward, the Portuguese experienced a different scenario altogether. They were entirely excluded from the main contending party tickets during the first 20 years of the twentieth century (Marino & Cornwell, 1992, p. 273). Different population dynamics in the Fifth Ward, where only three population groups were predominant (English, Irish, and Portuguese), made the

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inclusion of the Portuguese unnecessary. Marinho and Cornwell (1992) speculate that a tacit alliance between the more established Anglo and Irish Americans in this Ward—who together could obtain victories at the polls without having to make room for the Portuguese—led to the exclusion of the latter from the party tickets. As a result, despite running for office, the Portuguese, without the backing of a political party, were unable to win elections from this Ward from 1900 until 1924 (see Table 6).

Table 6. Portuguese Elected From New Bedford’s Fifth Ward Date in office Name Date in Name Office 1875–1877 Antone Sylvia 1950–1957 Frank Lemos*** 1897–1898 Manuel V. Sylvia (At large) 1957–1959 George G. Mendonça**** 1897–1899 Joseph Dias 1960–1963 John Gomes 1925–1928 William Martin 1964–1969 Anthony S. Catojo, Jr. 1929–1930 George Ponte* 1972–1977 Manuel Fernando Neto 1931–1936 William Martin 1978–1979 Rita Moniz 1937–1938 Leo Dias (At large) 1980–1991 Nelson Macedo 1939–1940 Charles Frates (Freitas) 1992–1993 Kenneth Ferreira 1943–1949 Joseph Sylvia Jr.** 1994–2013 Jane L. Gonçalves * Served as Alderman (1939−1942) and as state representative (1943–1944). ** Served as state representative (1949–1957). He was nominated through an internal election to replace Councilor Jack London who had resigned from his position after being integrated into the U.S. Military (“Novo Conselheiro,” 1943). *** Served as state representative (1957–1964). **** Served as state representative (1959–1964) and as state senator (1969–1974).

In 1936, the political system of New Bedford underwent several reforms, which were implemented with the elections of 1938. A nonpartisan, individualist electoral system was adopted, in which political parties did not play a role. As described by Marinho and Cornwell (1992):

With the change in the rules and municipal ordinances in 1936, the nomination system was substituted by another, the double election system, with the primaries serving as a playoff. Beginning in 1938, there started to be a “preliminary election” (as it was officially called) or “primary,” in which all candidates who had gathered a minimum number of signatures could compete. Then in the regular elections in November, the two candidates who attained the highest number of votes [in the preliminary election] would compete for the final vote. No party labels, or any other designations, could be affixed to the candidates’ names. (p. 91) [My translation]

Until the election of 1938, the New Bedford City Council was divided into two chambers, the highest chamber with six Aldermen, one from each Ward, and the Common Council, with 24 seats, four for each Ward. In 1938, the Council was reduced to a single chamber and from 30 to 11 councilors, five elected “at large,” in city-wide elections, and one from each of the six Wards.

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The reforms implemented in 1938 were prejudicial to the Portuguese of the Sixth Ward. In the vacuum left by the absence of political parties from the ballot, a French-Canadian family, the Saulniers, developed their own personal political machine. Starting in 1942, they achieved dominance over elections from the Sixth Ward to the City Council and eventually also to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Although Portuguese candidates continued to run for office in the Sixth Ward, with the exception of the elections of Lino Torres in 1959 and 1961, the Portuguese were unable to win the Sixth Ward’s council seat, from 1938 until 1995 (see Table 5 above). Despite the reduction in the number of seats in the City Council from 4 to 1 per Ward, a continuation of political party involvement in the electoral process—which undoubtedly would have moderated the influence of the Saulnier family political machine or even prevented its emergence—might have assured the continuation of an ethnically balanced representation from the Sixth Ward in city and state politics. The absence of political parties from the political process, however, seems to have been beneficial for the Portuguese from the Fifth Ward. From 1924 until the elections of 2011, Portuguese candidates held this Ward’s seat consistently, with the exception of 1941–1942 and 1970–1971. Various Portuguese Americans from the Fifth Ward were also successfully elected to the Massachusetts State House (see Table 6 above). The near-monopolistic control exercised by the Portuguese after 1925 in the representation of the Fifth Ward can, in part, be explained by population shifts, perhaps a reduction in the number of the Irish and an increase in the presence of the Portuguese. After 1924, according to data provided by Marinho and Cornwell (1992, p. 272), the Portuguese began to appear in the party’s electoral lists, together with Anglo Americans and others, but Irish Americans were not included. Once nonpartisan elections and political party labels were eliminated from the ballot, the population of the Fifth Ward, where the Portuguese became the main ethnic group, might have used ethnicity (i.e., a candidate’s Portuguese name) as the cue that informed their voting choices. As the largest population group in New Bedford, the Portuguese came to attain dominance in the City Council, but only in the late 1990s (see Table 7 and Chart 1). Table 7 contains a list of Portuguese Americans elected from other Wards in New Bedford as well as elected at-large (after 1938). The data show that particularly after the late 1930s, the Portuguese have been successful in winning at-large elections, and more recently in wards other than the Fifth and the Sixth. The Portuguese, however, with the exception of the election of George Rogers for mayor in 1969, have consistently been unable to attain control of the Mayor’s office. We may speculate that had New Bedford maintained a partisan electoral system, the Portuguese might have by now come to realize their full electoral potential in this city.

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Table 7. Portuguese Elected From Other Wards in New Bedford and At-large (after 1938) Date in Name Ward Date in office Name Ward office 1918–1922 George G. Sylvia Ward 4 1980–2003 George Rogers At-large 1931–1934 Ernest P. Ponte Ward 1 1990–1997 David Alves At-large 1937–1938 William Cabral Ward 1 2000–2003 Dennis Farias Ward 1 1939–1943 George Ponte At-large 2000–present David Alves At-large 1952–1953 Edmund Dinis At-large 2002–2007 Joe De Medeiros Ward 3 1962–1971 Lawrence Caton At-large 1998–2013 Denis Lawrence At-large Jr. 1972–1975 Ronald Perry At-large 2006–present Debra Coelho At-large 1974–1975 George At-large 2008–present Steven Martins Ward 2 Rogers** 1976–1979 Denis Lawrence At-large 2012–present James D. Ward 1 Oliveira * This Table does not include Cape-Verdean Americans who began to be elected to City Council in 1985. ** Was Mayor of New Bedford in 1970–1971.

Chart 1. Number of Portuguese in New Bedford’s City Council (1896–2015)* 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1896 1899-00 1902-03 1904-07 1908-09 1912-13 1916-17 1920-21 1923-24 1927-28 1931-32 1935-36 1939-40 1943-44 1946-47 1950-51 1954-55 1958-59 1962-63 1966-67 1970-71 1974-75 1978-79 1982-83 1986-87 1990-91 1994-95 1998-99 2002-03 2006-07 2010-11 2014-15

* This chart does not include Cape-Verdean Americans who, as a result of population concentration in the Fourth Ward, have come to dominate elections to the City Council from that ward. The City Council was reduced from 30 to 11 members in 1938.

In conclusion, the experience of political incorporation at the municipal level in New Bedford lends support to the hypothesis that partisan electoral systems are more conducive than nonpartisan systems to the political integration and incorporation of members of newly arriving immigrant groups. This is so, however, only in situations where the vote of the newcomers is needed to assure

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the existing parties’ victory at the polls. On the other hand, nonpartisan electoral systems will favor ethnic populations who become a numerical majority in a given political unit, where the ethnicity of candidates may become the most relevant cue guiding voters’ electoral decisions. Nevertheless, without the benefit of the functions performed by political parties—i.e., in the nomination and support of political candidates, as well as grassroots mobilization, organization, unification, and channeling of the vote—it will be more difficult in nonpartisan electoral systems for members of new immigrant groups to oust incumbents from older and more established ethnic groups. If New Bedford had maintained a partisan electoral system, Portuguese community organizations, in association with political parties and labor unions, might have become more politicized and contributed to unifying and channeling the Portuguese vote on behalf of Portuguese American candidates, not only in elections at the municipal level, including the Mayor’s office, but also for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Legislature.19

Elections From New Bedford and Surrounding Areas to the Massachusetts State House By consulting the annual publications, Public Officers of Massachusetts, I was able to identify, since 1929 to the present (2013), a total of 17 Portuguese-American state representatives and five senators from New Bedford and surrounding areas. Together, not counting special elections, they won—from the 1928 to the 2012 elections—a total of 60 elections to the House and 12 to the Senate. The incorporation of Portuguese Americans from New Bedford into the Massachusetts Legislative Assembly—and in all of New England—began with the election of the very charismatic and highly popular Arthur Goulart (with parents born in Portugal) from the Eighth District of Bristol County (see Tables 8 and 9). Goulart held a seat in the House of Representatives from 1929 to 1932, dying suddenly in office on July 29, 1932. His premature death was received with great distress within the Portuguese communities (see articles in Diário de Notícias during the months of July and August, 1932) and resulted in a setback for the political integration and incorporation of the Portuguese. Goulart was a populist politician who was admired across ethnic lines. Had he not passed away, he might have built a political machine around his electoral campaigns, which could have maintained the Portuguese united and mobilized even after the 1938 electoral system reforms. After Goulart, the next Portuguese American to be elected from the New Bedford area to the Massachusetts Legislature was Senator Joseph Francis (see Table 9). Francis was born in New Bedford in 1893, while his father was born in Saint Michael, Azores and his mother was also of Portuguese descent (Pease, 1918b, Vol. 2, pp. 296−97). Francis was elected as a Republican in 1938 to represent the Third District of Bristol County, which included parts of New Bedford and some adjacent suburban areas. Francis was the first senator of Portuguese ancestry elected in New England. Dulce Maria Scott / The Political Incorporation of Portuguese Americans │ 209

Table 8. MA State House: Portuguese-American Representatives* Name Date in office District Political offices / Occupation Arthur Goulart 1929–1932, died 8th N.B. Chm. Board of Public Welfare. in office 29 July Bristol 1932 Jacinto Diniz 1943–1948 8th Deputy Sheriff/Notary. Furniture Bristol store/insurance. George Ponte 1943–1944 7th N.B. City Council, 1929−1942, Bristol Attorney, Associate Justice of the Mass. Supreme Court, 1963. Joseph A. Sylvia, Jr. 1949–1957 7th City Council, 1943–1949. Café Res. 1–10–57 Bristol owner. Edmund Dinis 1949–1950 8th City Council 1952−1953, Senator Bristol 1953–1956, District Attorney, 1959–1970 Antone L. Silva 1957–1959 7th Attorney. Res.8–11–59 Bristol Frank F. Lemos 1957–1964 7th City Council (president). Factory Bristol worker. Manuel V. Medeiros 1957–1960 9th Selectman 1942−57, Dept. of Public Bristol Welfare 1942−1957. Farmer. George G. Mendonça 1959–1964 7th Democratic City Committee. City Bristol Council, 1957–1959. Building contractor George Rogers 1965–1970 7th Democratic City Committee. Bristol Teacher. Raymond S. Peck 1965–1980 9th Selectman, 1962−1965, Dartmouth Bristol Town Meeting Member (15 yrs.). Ronald A. Pina 1971–1978 4th District Attorney, 1979–1990. Bristol Walter Silveira, Jr. 1981–1984 10th Legislator, Fairhaven. Bristol Dennis Lawrence 1979–1990 13th City Council, 1976–1979. Bristol John George, Jr. 1989–1992 9th Several local administration Bristol positions in Dartmouth and New Bedford. George Rogers 1999–2002 12th Teacher..Democratic City Bristol Committee. Mayor of New Bedford 1970–1971. City Council 1974−1975. 1980−2003. Antonio F. D. Cabral 1991–present 13th Fifth Ward Democratic City Bristol Committee. Teacher. * All Portuguese-American State Representatives are associated with the Democratic Party. In 2012, there were five Portuguese-American representatives and one of Cape-Verdean ancestry. I identified another representative of Cape-Verdean ancestry, Thomas D. Lopes, who held office between 1975 and 1978. Antone Silva replaced Joseph Sylvia after the latter retired, and George Mendonça replaced Antone Silva after the latter’s retirement. Returning to the House of Representatives, only in 1942 would the Eighth District elect another Portuguese American, Jacinto Diniz, born in Saint Michael, Azores, to the same seat that ten years earlier had been occupied by Arthur 210 │ InterDISCIPLINARY Journal of Portuguese Diaspora Studies Vol. 4.2 (2015)

Goulart. In the same year, George Ponte, until then a Councilor from the Fifth Ward, was also elected to represent the Seventh District of Bristol County, and thus the Portuguese of New Bedford were able to occupy simultaneously two House seats and a Senate seat. Of note is that after the election of Edmund Dinis to the Eighth District seat (1949−1950)—vacated by his father, Jacinto Diniz (1943–1948)—the seat came under the control of a member of the powerful Saulnier family, mentioned above, who would not be defeated until 1970. Had it not been for the political machine of the Saulniers in the Sixth District, the Portuguese, as they did in the Fifth District, might have been able to elect additional representatives and senators from the legislative districts that included the Sixth Ward.

Table 9. MA State House: Portuguese-American Senators From New Bedford and Surrounding Areas Name Date in office District Previous funcions/occupations Joseph Francis* 1939–1944 3rd Ward 4 Alderman. Fairhaven, Bristol Attorney. Edmund Dinis 1953–1956 3rd Representative, 1949–1950. City Born in St. Michael Bristol Council 1952−1953. District Attorney, 1959–1970. Antone L. Silva 1961–1964 3rd Attorney. Bristol George G. Mendonça 1969–1974 3rd Democratic City Committee, City Bristol Council, 1957−1959, House, 1959−1964. Building contractor. George Rogers 1975–1978 Br/Plymt Democratic City Committee. Grandfather, born- h House 1965−1970. Mayor of New Portugal Bedford 1970−1971. City Council 1974−1975.Teacher. * Francis was a Republican. All other senators were Democrats.

From 1939 to the present, there has always been at least one legislator of Portuguese background representing New Bedford and its surrounding towns of Fairhaven and Dartmouth, in the state legislature (see Chart 2). Between 1957 and 1962 and also between 1969 and 1978, there were three Portuguese American legislators from the New Bedford area. Additionally, in the election of 1956, a Portuguese American, Joseph Dupont, was elected to the Governor’s Councilor, where he served for one term. The perceptible decline in Portuguese representation from New Bedford after 1978 could in part be explained by structural reforms that reduced the number of seats in the House from 240 to 160. However, since 1978, the Portuguese of New Bedford have not been able to elect a senator from their own ethnic group, in contrast to the legislative districts that include Fall River and Taunton, which are currently respectively represented by senators Michael Rodrigues (2011–present) and Marc Pacheco (1992–present). From 1991 to the present António F. Cabral, born in the island of Pico in the Azores, has consistently been elected to the State House, as one of the three Representatives Dulce Maria Scott / The Political Incorporation of Portuguese Americans │ 211

from the legislative Districts that include, at least partially, the city of New Bedford.

Chart 2. Number of Portuguese-American State Representatives and Senators From New Bedford by Term 4

0 1929-30 1933-34 1937-38 1941-42 1945-46 1949-50 1953-54 1957-58 1961-62 1965-66 1969-70 1973-74 1977-78 1981-82 1985-86 1989-90 1993-94 1997-98 2001-02 2005-06 2009-10 2013-14

In New Bedford, even though the Portuguese in the late 1990s came to control the majority of the seats in the City Council, their full political potential, as the largest ethnic group in the city, has remained historically unfulfilled. While the Portuguese attained a considerable level of success in both municipal and state elections in the Fifth Ward, their incorporation in the Sixth Ward into both the City Council and the Massachusetts Legislature remained thwarted by the emergence—in the power vacuum left by the elimination of political parties from municipal elections—of the French-Canadian Saulnier political machine. Furthermore, with the exception of the election of George Rogers for a single term (1970–1971), the Portuguese have been unable to mobilize, unify, and channel their vote towards the election of Portuguese American mayors in New Bedford. We may speculate that had this city maintained a partisan electoral system, as neighboring Rhode Island did, the political incorporation of the Portuguese in New Bedford might have been more extensive, with this ethnic group gaining control of the City Council decades before the late 1990s, electing a number of Portuguese-American mayors, and attaining a more substantial level of representation by co-ethnics at the State House.

Conclusion This paper provided a brief historical comparison of the political incorporation of Portuguese Americans in New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton (in Massachusetts), and East Providence (in Rhode Island). The Portuguese immigrants of the second half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century created churches and self-help community organizations, assumed leadership positions in labor unions, and ran for office in the cities where they settled. They established a sociocultural infrastructure and a socioeconomic organizational density that would come to facilitate—in some cities more than others—the political integration and incorporation of the third wave, or post-1958, immigrants. Today Portuguese 212 │ InterDISCIPLINARY Journal of Portuguese Diaspora Studies Vol. 4.2 (2015)

Americans in the cities analyzed in this study occupy a share of elected offices more or less commensurate with their population percentages in these urban centers. Due to, among other factors, demographic dynamics and the adoption of nonpartisan electoral systems in Massachusetts cities, the incorporation of Portuguese Americans in the municipal and state political systems of this state took longer—and did not reach its full potential—as compared to a city, such as East Providence, Rhode Island where involvement of political parties (at least of the Democratic Party) remained strong well into the 1970s (Scott & Fraley, 2014). Notwithstanding the near-absence of political parties in the electoral processes in Massachusetts, with the passage of time and the increase in the size of the Portuguese population, in the three Massachusetts cities included in this study, the level of political incorporation of Portuguese Americans in this state has been increasing. Overall, Portuguese Americans have, at different times, assumed a majority of seats at the City Councils of the four cities included in this study; they hold at least one of the state representative seats from districts that include these cities (in part or in total) within their boundaries, and control three senate positions from the senatorial districts that encompass at least in part the cities of Fall River, Taunton, and East Providence. This paper also showed that the political integration and incorporation of the Portuguese is not a new phenomenon and that Portuguese Americans— although incorporated at a higher level in East Providence than in New Bedford—have generally achieved significant levels of political incorporation, occupying varying types of offices in different cities and states. Finally, this paper demonstrated that when studying the incorporation of immigrant groups in America, it is necessary to go beyond their cultural and socioeconomic attributes and take into account, among others, factors related to the structure of the electoral system as well as demographic characteristics of the population groups that inhabit a given electoral unit.

Notes

1 At an academic level, the experience of integration of Portuguese Americans has been generally interpreted through the lenses of classical assimilation theory. This theory came to view assimilation as a three-generational, straight-line process (Warner & Srole, 1945) characterized by increasing levels of socioeconomic integration and decreasing attachment to the ancestral culture. Through the lenses of this theoretical perspective, the Portuguese, due to their attachment to old-country cultural traditions as well as educational levels below those of the averages for the entire American population, have been deemed not to be well integrated into American society. However, through the lenses of other theoretical perspectives, including segmented-assimilation theory and “modes of incorporation” theory (see among others, Portes & Böröcz, 1989; Portes, Fernández-Kelly, & Haller, 2009; Portes & Rumbaut, 2006; Portes & Zhou, 1993; Zhou, 1997), the Portuguese could be considered as being well integrated in American society. 2 In this study, the concept of “political integration” denotes the involvement of a population group in political activities, including voting, and the term “political incorporation” refers only to the election and/or nomination of members of that group to political office. 3 Adrian (1959, p. 449) defines nonpartisan elections as “elections in which a ballot is used containing no party designations.” Dulce Maria Scott / The Political Incorporation of Portuguese Americans │ 213

4 While this analysis takes into account factors related to the structure of the political system as well as the ethnic composition of the population, I am well aware that other factors, not addressed in this study, such as the size of the city and of the political districts in each city; the socioeconomic, socio-organizational, and cultural characteristics of the Portuguese-American population in each city; and the local political culture, are also among the variables that have a determining effect on the level of political participation and incorporation of Portuguese Americans. 5 Wright (2008) provides a brief overview of existing studies concerning the consequences of the adoption of nonpartisan electoral systems, and concludes that the latter lead to lower levels of voter turnout and greater electoral advantage for incumbents. 6 A more extensive description of this study can be found in Scott & Fraley (2014). 7 I address this study in more detail in a section below. 8 Due to the Americanization of names and intermarriage, it is possible that some legislators of partial Portuguese ancestry have remained unidentified. 9 We may also speculate that with an economy focused on whaling and maritime activities, the early Portuguese American population might have fared well economically and, consequently, politically. 10 For a more complete description of Antone Sylvia and his life, see Scott (2014a). 11 This exception in East Providence runs counter to Dahl’s (1961) theory of the “stages of political assimilation,” according to which new immigrant populations are first incorporated into lower level positions and later conquer offices of more prominence as they gradually move from one stage of incorporation to the next. 12 In 1905, according to the Census of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Fall River had, among people of other foreign birth, 15,780 French Canadians, 11,394 English, 7,020 Portuguese, and 6,107 Irish. 13 Although by 1920, the Portuguese amounted to 18.6 percent of Fall River’s foreign-born population, only 7 percent of this population were naturalized citizens (Golberg, 1977a). 14 After the 1970s, party organizations in Rhode Island, as a result of electoral system reforms, among other factors, became peripheral in the political process across the state (Moakley & Cornwell, 2001, pp. 136, 138). By that time, the Portuguese Americans of East Providence were already well established in the political system, having created the socio-organizational infrastructure that would facilitate their continued victories at the polls. 15 As described by Borden (1899), Joseph Fernandes was born in New Bedford on July 17, 1860. Both of his parents were natives of the Western Islands of the Azores. For some time, he served as president of the Portuguese-American Political and Naturalization Club. Prior to the 1895 election, he had been nominated for election but had not won (pp. 83−84). 16 Although the Democratic and Republican Parties were active at the national and state levels, the law permitted the creation of municipal parties (Pease, 1918b, Vol. 2). A preponderant personality in city politics was Mayor Charles S. Ashley, who was elected to that office for the first time in 1891, continuing to run and winning the majority of elections until 1936. 17 For a more detailed description of the election of Joseph Fernandes, see Scott (2014b). 18 See Marinho and Cornwell (1992, in passim), for a discussion of how the relative weakness of the traditional Republican and Democratic Parties, their attitudes towards ethnic populations, and their role in the state and national election processes were also factors that might have affected negatively the political incorporation of the Portuguese from New Bedford. 19 While at the state and federal levels, elections continue to be partisan, reforms instituted in several Massachusetts cities, varying from open primaries in state and federal elections to nonpartisan ballots at the municipal level, led to a considerable weakening of political parties in this state.

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Dulce Maria Scott received a PhD in Sociology from Brown University. She is a full professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Anderson University, USA.