I am proud to be Portuguese
By ladylau - Posted on February 23rd, 2008
In today’s world, with the harshness of today’s society, it is extremely important for one to know their place, role, and goals. Therefore, I understand that it is important for me to get in touch with my identity, a sense of who I am, where I have been, and where I am going. In doing so, I know that I will have a clear understanding of exactly how I want to live my life, as well as what I plan to achieve during my life. So far in my 18 years of life, my identity is forming slowly but strongly. With each day, I experience new pains and new joys, learn new lessons and new morals, and discover a new piece to the puzzle that fits together exactly who I am. One of those main pieces that I am proud to call mine is my Portuguese heritage.
When I was a young girl, I used to hear my friends talk about how they were Italian, French, and Irish. When I asked my mom about this, she explained to me that I was Portuguese. I stared at her blankly and thought in my head, “What does being Portuguese mean?” Since I was one person out of the 3 people in my class of 50 kindergarten students who was Portuguese, I honestly didn’t get what was so important about it. My Irish classmates would get especially excited on St. Patrick’s Day and I didn’t understand what my heritage had to offer to me.
From kindergarten forward I became more and more curious about my background. Since my parents are divorced and I live with my mom, who is not of Portuguese descent, I would immediately fill my dad with tons questions during the weekends I spent with him. With each answer I received, my interest grew more and more. Through my dad, I discovered that when he was 18 there was an earthquake in Azores that destroyed his house. Due to this horrible tragedy, him and his family, this included my grandparents, aunt, and uncle, traveled to America.
As I got older I began to understand more and more about my heritage. In the 5th grade, I did a project in which I researched information about Portugal and interviewed my father about his life in Portugal before he came to America. He told me how he used to always go fishing with his brother and father, how my grandmother was constantly cooking, and how absolutely gorgeous it was there. After learning about my father’s life in Portugal, my Portuguese heritage has influenced me to learn more about my Portuguese background and to use those customs, morals, lessons, and traditions in my everyday life. My Portuguese heritage has also inspired me to incorporate my background into everything I pursue. Mostly importantly, it has influenced me to be proud of the person I am, flaws included. I now know to embrace the aspects of me, such as my heritage, that I do not have control of, and to better my talents which are the aspects that I do have control of.
The greatest way in which I am able to learn about my Portuguese heritage is through my time spent with my grandparents. Although I may not know important dates from Portugal’s history, or every word in the Portuguese language, I can say that I truly believe I know the importance of my Portuguese heritage. For example, I know what my grandmother’s kale soup on a Sunday afternoon tastes like. I know what it feels like to have my grandfather sing Happy Birthday to me at my 18th birthday party in Portuguese. I know what it is like to say your first Portuguese phrase to your grandparents and have their faces light up. And I especially know what it is like to be in a room full of Portuguese people who sound like they are so enthusiastically loud that although they sound like they are screaming, they are really just talking to one another.
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