Rancho Folclorico Portugal Canta e Danca
Date1997
Mediumnegative film strips
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
DescriptionImages of the Danbury-based Portuguese dance group Rancho Folclorico Portugal Canta e Danca competing at a festival in Taunton, Massachusetts in 1997.
2015.196.336.1-.4: Images showing members of the dance group wearing traditional folk clothing
2015.196.336.1-.4: Images showing members of the dance group wearing traditional folk clothing
Object number2015.196.336.1-.4
CopyrightIn Copyright
NotesBiographical Note: Rancho Folclorico Portugal Canta e Danca is a dance group formed in 1997 and based at the Portuguese Cultural Center at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church on Deer Hill Ave. in Danbury. Members of this group wear costumes that are all the same (as different from other dance groups where the costumes vary among the dancers), and may be from the Minho region of Portugal. One special feature is the lace apron, it may be that this area specializes in lace, embroidery, and hand work (bordados). They competed at this festival in Taunton and won first place for dance (beating out Hartford’s Rancho who were also competing).Subject Note: Connecticut residents of Portuguese descent number close to 50,000; there is a Portuguese Consulate in Waterbury, signaling the importance of this ethnic group's presence throughout the state. Waterbury, Bridgeport, Hartford, Danbury and Stonington CT have sizeable Portuguese communities with different roots and cultural characters. Portuguese immigrants have come from mainland Portugal as well as the Azores and Madeira islands. Settling mainly in urban areas of Connecticut, they have established churches, shops, restaurants and bakeries, and social clubs. Many Hartford area Portuguese community members work in health care and hospitals, also construction. Immigrants from the Azores settled in coastal towns such as Stonington CT to pursue fishing and maritime occupations. Factories in inland cities such as Waterbury and Hartford attracted immigrants from rural areas of Portugal who sought available work. The population of entire towns in the northern farming and seafaring provinces of Minho, Tras-os-Montes, Douro and the Beiras came to settle here.
Several Portuguese dance groups exist, most based at Portuguese clubs or churches in different Connecticut cities such as Hartford, Waterbury, Danbury, and Bridgeport. In Danbury, The Sons of Portugal Club formed in 1924, on Liberty St. The community grew with new immigrants, and the Portuguese Club was also built on Liberty St. Other businesses followed to the downtown area, which became known as Portugal Square or Little Portugal. In the late 1990s, the community had grown to the point where the two clubs decided to merge and form the Portuguese Cultural Center, which was built on Sand Pit Rd. The Center also formed a dance group, the Sons of Portugal Rancho Folk Dance Group, and The Sons of Portugal Marching Band.
Biographical Note: Rancho Folclorico Portugal Canta e Danca is a dance group formed in 1997 and based at the Portuguese Cultural Center at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church on Deer Hill Ave. in Danbury. Members of this group wear costumes that are all the same (as different from other dance groups where the costumes vary among the dancers), and may be from the Minho region of Portugal. One special feature is the lace apron, it may be that this area specializes in lace, embroidery, and hand work (bordados) – see their facebook page for older procession photos suggesting this. They competed at a New England-wide Portuguese festival in Taunton MA and won first place for dance (beating out Hartford’s Rancho who were also competing)
https://www.facebook.com/Portugalcantaedanca/
Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this community and these events.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
On View
Not on view
Rancho Folclórico do Clube Português de Hartford
late 1990s-early 2000s
Lynne Williamson
1997 October 11
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1999
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2003-2004
