Eula Mendes: Portuguese migrant labor activism and the criminalization of protest
Início: ⋅ Fim: ⋅ Países: Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Canadá, Estados Unidos, Galiza, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe, Timor
Em coordenação com o Centro de Estudos e Cultura Portugueses da Universidade de Massachusetts Dartmouth/Tagus Press, o Arquivo Luso-Americano Ferreira-Mendes vai receber uma palestra do Dr. Miguel Moniz, Professor Visitante da FLAD/Brown em Estudos Portugueses na Brown University. A palestra, intitulada "Eula Mendes: O activismo laboral migrante português e a criminalização do protesto", terá lugar no Arquivo Luso-Americano Ferreira-Mendes, no dia 30 de janeiro de 2020, das 11h00 às 12h30. Os convidados deverão utilizar o Parque de Estacionamento 13.
From Gouveia, Portugal, Eula was 18 years old at the time of the 1928 New Bedford Textile Workers Strike and had been doffing spindles in the carding room of the City Mill textile factory as her family’s primary wage earner since she was 14. At the outset of the strike, she began attending meetings run by regional and national labor organizers. Promoting Portuguese industrial migrant worker participation in the strike made Eula a leader in her mill and in the community and she would eventually become a member of the strike’s executive committee. During the strike she was arrested several times and her prominence as a leader left her blackballed from working in the mills after it was settled. Instead, she went to work for the labor movement as a textile worker union secretary, and as an organizer (along with her husband, Joe Figueredo) for the Communist Party in New Bedford and the region.
Hailing from Cape Cod but living in Lisbon since 2005, Miguel Moniz is a researcher at the Center for Anthropological Research (CRIA) at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. Moniz studies racialization and ethnic group formation. He examines the histories of migrant mobility, settlement, marginalization and efforts at civic inclusion among Portuguese-speaking geographies with a focus on New England.
Dr. Paula Celeste Gomes Noversa, Faculty Director of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives stated: “Eula Mendes sounds like an extraordinary individual. I look forward to hearing about her life and her role during the 1928 New Bedford strike.”
Dr. Victor K. Mendes, Director of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture/Tagus Press added: “Dr. Moniz’s scholarly visits to UMass Dartmouth are becoming a productive habit. He was here for a week in 2017 teaching, researching, community-networking, under the auspices of the Hélio and Amélia Pedroso/Luso-American Development Foundation Endowed Chair in Portuguese Studies at UMass Dartmouth, and his public lecture at the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture/Tagus Press was a huge success. My hope is that Dr. Moniz’s upcoming January 30th lecture will be an even bigger success in the company of our supporting friends.”
For further information, contact 508-910-6888 or email prioux@umassd.edu
