Portuguese Heritage Month Celebration

In honor of Portuguese Heritage Month in June, the Tulare City Historical Museum will hold a special Portuguese Heritage Month Celebration on Saturday.

The event will kick off with a presentation at 12:30pm by Diniz Borges, Portuguese Language-Lecturer at Fresno State, where he will speak about the Portuguese presence in California and the role of the FESTA in the community. The backdrop to his presentation will be the black-and- white photography of Jackson Nichols. His exhibit, FESTA – A Celebration of Portuguese Faith and Culture, features a collection of images that are part of a project spanning 30 years of photographing Portuguese festas (from 1990 to 2021) in Northern California.

A coordinating cultural exhibit, The Portuguese Holy Ghost Festa: A Tradition of Faith and Miracles, will be on display in the museum’s Depot Gallery. This tradition of the Festa began with the idea of making the poor "royalty for a day", where they were allowed to eat and dance and escape their lives of misery. A queen was selected, and a crown was placed on her head. She was then escorted through the streets to the local church, where Mass was celebrated. Afterwards, everyone indulged in a feast and dance that was free for anyone to attend. The original meal that was served consisted of bread and meat in a beef broth.

At 1:30pm attendees will enjoy live, traditional Azorean music while sampling Portuguese desserts, cheese, and wine that have been provided by the Tulare Angra de Heroismo Sister City Foundation.