Luso American

Luso American

Luso-Americans, or Lusitanic Americans are people living in the United States whose cultural background derives in part from countries with Portuguese speaking roots or traditions.
Luso-Americans include Portuguese Americans, whose roots are directly Portuguese; Brazilian-Americans; and those from other parts of the Lusophone world, such as Cape Verde, Angola or Mozambique. Because of the wide range of national origins of Luso-Americans, the group is considered a cultural one, rather than a homogeneous ethnic group. People of African, Macanese, Portuguese Jewish, and many other origins may be, under certain circumstances, considered Luso-Americans.
A Portuguese American, in contrast, denotes any person born in the United States whose family came to the USA from Portugal.

Luso-Americans can be found in all states and there are sizable Luso-American communities in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New York, Hawaii, Florida, Delaware and Virginia. In total, the members of this community may be more than 3.5 million Americans. Two United States counties, namely Bristol County, Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts, are home to pluralities of people of Portuguese ancestry. There was dense Portuguese settlement in the Salinas and San Joaquin Valleys in California, namely the cities of Los Banos and Hollister.

Portuguese has been spoken in the United States by small communities of immigrants, especially in (top 20 Luso-American communities in order of size)

Hartford, Connecticut
Fall River, Massachusetts
Miami and nearby Pompano Beach
Orlando
Ludlow, Massachusetts
New Bedford, Massachusetts
Framingham, Massachusetts
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bristol, Rhode Island
East Providence, Rhode Island
Los Banos, California
San Francisco, California
San Jose, California
Cranston, Rhode Island
Gustine, California
Mineola, New York
Tulare, California
Hollister, California
San Pedro, California
Redondo Beach, California

Luso-Americans are highly numerous in the metropolitan New York City area. The Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey is also called "Little Portugal", and 46th Street in Manhattan is also named "Little Brazil Street". Portuguese is also spoken by some Chinese and Macanese immigrants from Macau, especially in California.

Luso-Americans also include speakers of Portuguese-based creoles, such as Macanese (Patuá or Macaista Chapado) and Papiamento. Elements of the Portuguese language can also be found in other former colonies such as Goa and Timor.

*** It doesn't matter what country, part of the world or background, we are all God's children. Let's continue to lift up the name of the LORD and pray for all the Portuguese speaking people/nations***

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia