AZOREAN PORTUGUESE:

A STUDY OF THE PORTUGUESE DAIRYMEN

IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA

by

Alvin R. Graves //

A thesis

submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts in the Department of Geography

Fresno State College

October, 1969

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is deeply indebted to several persons

who contributed to the writing of this thesis. Special

thanks is extended to Professor George Nasse whose

guidance and thoughtful criticism permitted the success­

ful completion of this thesis. Also, the author owes a

debt of gratitude to Professors Merrill Stuart and

Clayton Pfleuger for having read the final draft of the

manuscript. In addition, the author wishes to express

his thanks to Mr. A. F. Mendes—a first generation

immigrant from the Azores Islands--whose situation best

exemplifies the term "Portuguese Dairyman."

A special expression of thanks is due the author's

wife—Joyce Ann Graves. Her thoughtfulness, understanding

and above all, patience, remains unexcelled.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION 1

Background 1

Purpose

Method 3

Study Area 4

II. THE AZORES ISLANDS BACKGROUND 7

The Azores Islands 7

Discovery and Settlement 8

Cultural Environment of the Azores Islands . 9

Allegiance to Family, Village, Island. . . 9

Pattern of Livelihood Activity .11

Level of Technology and Illiteracy .... 13

Religion 14

The Azorean Immigrant 15

III. FROM IMMIGRANT TO DAIRYMAN IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY .17

The Migration to California 17

Successive Waves of Migration 18

The Transition to Dairying 2 2

Growth of the Dairy Industry 23

Development of Portuguese Interest in Dairying 24

Milking and Tenant Farming 24

CHAPTER PAGE

Ownership of Dairy Farms 25

Factors Affecting the Transition to Dairying . 27

Factors Affecting the Initial Interest ... 27

Decline in the Wool Industry 28

Accelerated Dairy Activity 30

Factors Affecting Perpetuation in the Industry

Pattern of Settlement 31

The Family Unit 32

Old World Traditions . 33

Dairying Was a Profitable Business .... 34

Cultural Unity 34

IV. THE PORTUGUESE DAIRYMEN TODAY 36

Dairying in the San Joaquin Valley 36

The Portuguese Dairymen. 41

Number and Distribution 41

The Portuguese to non-Portuguese Ratio . . 41

Distribution of Grade A Dairymen 44

All Dairymen; A Generalized Pattern. ... 45

The Effect of the Portuguese Settlement P a t t e r n . . . . . . . . . . 4 5

Distribution by Island of Origin 48

A Cultural Index to Distribution 51

Farm and Herd Size 56

Marketing Pattern 58

The Kings County Creamery Association. . . 59

CHAPTER PAGE

Family and Ethnic Ties 60

In Ownership 6 0

In Labor 61

Visible Landscape 63

Changing Role of the Portuguese 6 5

V. CONCLUSION

The Role of Cultural Differences 70

The Effect of Cultural Assimilation 73

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX

LIST OF MAPS

MAP PAGE

1. The San Joaquin Valley of California 5

2. Areas of Intensive Dairy Activity 39

3. Distribution of Portuguese and Non-Portuguese Owned Grade A Dairies in the San Joaquin Valley 46

4. Generalized Distribution of All Portuguese Dairymen in the San Joaquin Valley . 47

5. Distribution by Island of Origin of the Portuguese Dairymen

6. Distribution of Portuguese Fraternal Halls ... 54

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

1. Area of the Azores Islands 8

2. The Portuguese Foreign-born Population in California

3. Sheep in the San Joaquin Valley, 1860 and 188 4 29

4. Estimated Number of Milk Cows and Heifers, 2 Years Old and Older, and Commercial Production of Milk, by District, California, 1968 39

5. Distribution of Dairies in the San Joaquin Valley . 40

6. Distribution of Portuguese and Non-Portuguese Dairymen in the San Joaquin Valley, by County 42

7. Distribution of Portuguese Dairymen Shipping Grade B Milk to Selected Creameries in the San Joaquin Valley 43

8. Island of Origin of the Portuguese Dairymen. . . 49

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE

1. Portuguese Immigration to the United States . . 20

2. Immigration of San Joaquin Valley Portuguese Dairymen to California by Island of Origin. . 21

3. Photo of the Stratford, Kings County, Portuguese Fraternal Hall 52

4. Photo of the Riverdale, Fresno County, Portuguese Fraternal Hall 52

5. Photo of the Kings County Creamery Association Plant in Lemoore 59

6. Photo of the A. F. Mendes and Sons Dairy of Riverdale 64

7. Photo of the RuAnn Dairy of Riverdale 64

8. Photo of the Frank M. Toste Dairy of Fresno . . 68

9. Photo of the Milking Barn of the Toste Dairy. . 69

10. Photo of the Corral and Feed Yard of the F. M. Toste Dairy 69

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The dairy industry of the San Joaquin Valley has

been dominated by Azorean Portuguese for over half of a

century, and the phenomenon of an ethnic group dominating

a particular industry in a setting thousands of miles from

their homeland is well deserving of geographic analysis.

Only brief and cursory works have been written about the

Portuguese Californians, and no detailed studies are

available that define the role of this group in dairying

in this valley.

Background

Prior to the rush for gold in California, few

Portuguese were recorded in the state. Even though the

discovery of California in 1542 is credited to the

Portuguese navigator John Rodrigues Cabrillo, the first

Portuguese did not settle in California until 1815

(Vaz, 1965). It was not until the Gold Rush of 1848 that

the first significant wave of Portuguese immigration to

California began, and since that time an indeterminable

number of Portuguese have migrated to California.

The Portuguese migration to California was fed

from three different sources: the Atlantic seaboard of

2

the United States, where many Portuguese had settled first

before moving to California; insular and continehtal

Portugal directly; and, at intervals, the Hawaiian Islands

(Pap, 1949). Today, California has substantial concentra­

tions of Portuguese in the counties adjacent to the East

Bay, all along the coast, and in the Sacramento and San

Joaquin Valleys.

After an early period of adjustment, the range of

economic activities of the Portuguese became narrowed to

three or four types. A small number of those who settled

in the East Bay area became engaged in urban-oriented

occupations, while many of those who settled on the coast

became fishermen. However, most preferred various types

of agricultural activities. A number of the Portuguese

in the Sacramento Valley became crop farmers and orchard-

ists, while those in the San Joaquin Valley displayed an

overwhelming predilection for dairying. As a result, the

Portuguese quickly gained control of the San Joaquin

Valley dairy industry and have held that position to the

present time.

Purpose

As geography is concerned with the description

and interpretation of natural and cultural patterns on

the land, it is well within the scope of geography to

investigate patterns of human activity. The Portuguese

dairymen of the San Joaquin Valley of California provide

3

the cultural geographer with a pattern of human activity

that must be considered unique, for so diminutive a group

seldom expresses such interest in one particular activity.

A geographical analysis of the Portuguese dairymen

of the San Joaquin Valley must focus on several points:

(1) the origin and migration of the Portuguese to

California, (2) their unique adjustment to the San Joaquin

Valley environment, (3) their patterns of settlement and

distribution, (4) the role and character of their dairy

operations and (5) the prime motivating forces which have

molded their particular pattern of activity in the San

Jo-aquin Valley.

Method

Considerable library research, both from public

libraries and private collections, has provided the his­

torical aspects of this study. The major portion of this

thesis, concerned with the distribution, role and

character of the Portuguese dairies, is the result of

several research techniques—namely, distribution mapping,

the field reconnaissance, the personal interview, and the

questionnaire.

There are more than 2,400 county and state

inspected dairies in the San Joaquin Valley, both Portu­

guese and non-Portuguese owned. Over three hundred of

these dairies were observed directly in the field to

discern regional differences in the dairy activity as well

4

as individual differences between Portuguese and non-

Portuguese dairies.1 Twenty-five persons were interviewed

Jiroughout the course of research serving primarily as

sources of qualitative information (see Appendix A) . In

addition, a questionnaire was sent to all of the Grade A

dairymen in the San Joaquin Valley—over 1,200 in number.2

Conclusions arrived at as a result of the questionnaire

are based on a fifty percent return, or approximately

one-fourth of the dairies of the San Joaquin Valley (see

Appendix B).

Study Area

The areal unit of investigation is the San Joaquin

Valley of California (see Map 1). This valley, lying

between the Coast Ranges on the west and the Sierra Nevada

on the east, encompasses the Great Valley portion of nine

counties: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Mariposa,

3 Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern. This is a region

of over eighteen million acres of land and more than 2,400

dairy farms.

1The field reconnaissance, a type of windshield survey, encompassed over seventy hours of driving time and covered more than 1,500 miles.

2Names and addresses of the Grade A producers were supplied courtesy of the Departments of Health of San Joaquin, San Francisco, Stanislaus, Fresno, Kern and Los Angeles Counties.

-i

There are no dairies m Mariposa County; there­fore, it will be omitted from all further consideration.

5

Map 1 - The San Joaquin Valley of California

6

The San Joaquin Valley study area was selected on

the basis of a number of considerations. First, the San

Joaquin Valley is a convenient geographic region, homo­

geneous with respect to several physical, cultural and

economic criteria. Second, this region is California's

most important dairy area, for it has the largest number

of dairy farms in the state and claims three of the five

leading dairy counties (Salitore, 1967). A final justifi­

cation for the selection of this region as the study area

is that the San Joaquin Valley is the stronghold of the

Portuguese dairymen in California.

CHAPTER II

THE AZORES ISLANDS BACKGROUND

In 1911, Emily Yates Mowry, a noted sociologist,

observed that the Portuguese1 immigrants in Alameda County

were, "... from the Azores Islands, not many coming from

the mainland ..." (Mowry, 1911, p. 114). In fact, it

has recently been estimated that the Azorean community may

constitute as much as ninety percent of the total Portu­

guese population in the state (Dr. Raul de Campos, per­

sonal communication, 1969) . Therefore, the overwhelming

majority of the California Portuguese are of Azorean

descent; very few are from continental Portugal, or the

Madeira or Cape Verde Islands.

The Azores Islands

At approximately thirty-eight degrees North lati­

tude, 875 miles West of Portugal, lie the Azores Islands.

Nine in number, they comprise a total area of 9 22 square

miles (see Table 1) . They are of volcanic origin, are

characterized by great vertical relief and are lacking in

abundant level land for agriculture. The climate of the

^The term "Portuguese" is used here to refer to all people of Portuguese descent, whether they are from mainland Portugal or from either of the groups of "Western Isles"—the Madeira, Cape Verde or Azores Islands.

Azores is essentially a marine one, modified greatly by

the warm Gulf Stream (Dervenn, 1955). Today, they have a

population somewhat in excess of 300,000 (Da Costa, 1967).

xhe Azores is a territory of Portugal; its direction and

administrative control is the ultimate responsibility of

the government in Lisbon.

TABLE 1

AREA OF THE AZORES ISLANDS

Island Area in Square Miles

San Miguel 29 7 Terceira 223 Pico 175 Fayal 64 Flores 57 Santa Maria 4 2 San Jorge 40 Graciosa 17 Corvo 7

The Azores 922

Source: Taft, 1923, p. 52.

Discovery and Settlement.--On August 15, 1432,

Frei Goncalo Velho, then sailing under Prince Henry the

Navigator, first discovered the Azores Islands (Dervenn,

1955). At the time of their discovery by Velho in the

fifteenth century, the Azores were virtually uninhabited,

but in the sixteenth century serious attempts were made

to occupy the islands. Settlers for this first occupation

were primarily from three areas: the Minho, the Algarve

and Flanders (Epstein, 1966). The Minho and the Algarve

9

are regions of northern and southern Portugal, respec­

tively, and Flanders is a region of both France and

Belgium lying along the shore of the North Sea.

Cultural Environment of the Azores Islands

The Azorean who migrated to California in the

late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was molded

by a particular way of life. In the San Joaquin Valley,

the traits learned from this old cultural environment

helped to direct the Azorean immigrant into the dairy

industry and produced rather strict patterns of distribu­

tion. A review of this old environment is of much impor­

tance in understanding the actions of the Portuguese

immigrant group, and in analyzing the role and character

of the contemporary Portuguese dairymen in the San Joaquin

Valley.

Allegiance to Family, Village, Island.—Because

the Azorean was constantly faced with the challenge of

survival in a harsh environment, unusually strong emphasis

on the family as the primary social unit was developed

(Taft, 19 23) . The father was the head of the family, and

his direction was followed explicitly. All work was con­

sidered the responsibility of the entire family, and male

children were expected to work for the family until they

reached the age of twenty-one.1 As land and animals were

1Walter Terra of Los Banos, a first generation immigrant from Terceira, and several other interviewees told the author that in the Azores they had, in fact, had

10

the basis of survival, they were passed on from generation

to generation within the family.

The village occupied the second step in the

Azorean's hierarchy of allegiance. The typical Azorean

village was a very compact social unit, with the welfare

of one member of the community of great concern to other

family members of the same community. For example, if

an elderly woman was left widowed with no family to tend

her land and cattle, she could choose to become part of

what shall be referred to as a "half and half" operation.

With this type of set-up, a neighbor would till the soil

and tend the cattle belonging to the old woman, and, in

return, would receive half of the profit. Arrangements

such as this often meant survival to the aged. According

to A. F. Mendes, a first generation immigrant from

Terceira, "intra-village" allegiance of this type was, and

reportedly still is, commonplace in his home village of

Santa Barbara (A. F. Mendes, personal communication, 1969).

After family and village, the Azorean peasant felt

a strong sense of allegiance to his island. Poor patterns

of circulation resulted in a sort of "cliquishness" among

the people of the various islands, and a kind of "identity"

was established between the people and the island they

inhabited. For example, the people of each island

acquired a nickname by which they were known among the

people of the other islands. Bryans • mentions that the

people of ierceira were known by the nickname "rabos

tortos, which means literally "crooked tail," in refer­

ence to a particular gait of many of the people (Bryans,

1964) . This sort of name-giving was typical of the indi­

viduality and sense of "island identity" developed by the

people of each island.

Those connections which weighed most heavy in

terms of survival were most important to the peasant;

therefore, his allegiance was to family first, then

village and island. This important trait of the Azorean

culture was to receive particular expression among the

San Joaquin Valley Portuguese.

Pattern of Livelihood Activity.—The late nine­

teenth century pattern of livelihood in the Azores

Islands was based almost exclusively on two primary

activities—fishing and subsistence agriculture—and this

trait was brought to California by the Azorean immigrant.

Naturally, there was a strong reliance on the sea

among the Azorean people, but an even stronger one was

placed upon the land. The great majority of the people

were agriculturalists, and crops were, for the most part,

subsistence crops grown for home use (Taft, 1923). Crops

common to this economy were potatoes, beans and other

vegetables, maize, wheat, barley, millet and grapes.

Special emphasis was placed on livestock and dairy

products on the island of Terceira (.Taft, 1923) . Even

12

today, Dervenn remarks that "... the principal economic

wealth of the islands is derived from their two main

economic resources, cattle and whales" (Dervenn, 1955,

p. 19) .

In an attempt to describe the pattern of liveli-

nood activity of the nineteenth century Azores, the use of

an example proves most beneficial. A. P. Mendes of

Riverdale offers the following description of the pattern

<-5j- livelihood activity that was common to the island of

Terceira just after the turn of the century:^"

The typical family on the island of Terceira had from one to six cows and owned a small parcel of land, generally two to six acres. The land, most of which was located in the interior of the island, was used as pasture and grazing land. The family lived in one of the small villages or rural areas of the coastal plain. Each day the family would walk up into the hilly interior and milk the cows which were being pastured on the abundant grasses. Part of the milk was marketed commercially, but most was used for home consumption in the form of butter and cheese, or left whole. Food used in the home was grown in small garden plots located close to the village (A. F. Mendes, personal communication, 1969).

As evidenced by the Mendes* statement, the

economic pattern of the average Azorean family in the late

nineteenth century was characterized by four very impor­

tant attributes. First, the Azorean was thoroughly

familiar with animals. Second, the normal economic pat­

tern involved complete family cooperation. Third,

private ownership of land and animals was characteristic.

-'-Mendes lived on the island of Terceira from 1896 to 1911.

Each of these attributes, as shall be shown in later

chapters, helped to direct the Azorean immigrant into

dairying in the San Joaquin Valley.

Level of Technology and Illiteracy.--The subsis­

tence economy of the Azores Islands of the late 1800" s

allowed the peasant to survive with virtually no reliance

on technical skills or formal education. After migrating

to the San Joaquin Valley in the last part of the nine*-

teenth century, the Portuguese were excluded by these

deficiencies from occupations requiring any degree of

skill or training.

To the nineteenth century Azorean, the machine age

and modern means of communication were remote. Schools

and the vast bulk of formal education were not part of

the way of life during the nineteenth century in the

Azores (Pap, 1949). The common peasant had absolutely

no education, and the great majority were absolutely

illiterate. One author, speaking of nineteenth century

Azorean life, mentions that "... ignorance and illit­

eracy in the islands is noted by practically all observers"

(Taft, 1923, p. 83). This unfortunate state of illit­

eracy improved very little in the nineteenth century and

was a major characteristic of those Portuguese who

migrated to the United States after the turn of the

twentieth century. In speaking of Portuguese immigration

to the United States, Pap, an authority on the Portuguese,

14

mentions that:

1" U?hL° 1917f when the illiteracy test was intro-80 majority of arrivals from Portugal—60 to tODDina fll"i"~fere • totaiiy or almost totally illiterate, topping all foreign-born groups in this country in this respect (Pap, 1949, p. 15).

Although most of the Azorean iimnigrants to the San Joaquin

Valley were illiterate, they were quite capable of working

as dairy hands or milkers. To be sure, their general

state of illiteracy helped to channel them into agricul­

tural occupations.

Religion. Virtually all Azoreans were of the

Roman Catholic faith in the late 18001s, and religion

played a very important role in the life of the average

peasant. The church served as the center of much activity

around which the people's lives revolved. The church's

function was dual: (1) it fulfilled spiritual needs of

the people, and (2) it served as the focus of social

activity (Pap, 1949). The common practice was to con­

trive a celebration out of almost every religious occa­

sion. Annual religious festivals, called festas, were

common to every island. The occasion generally began with

a mass, was followed by a procession and ended with various

types of recreational activities. Taft, writing in 1923,

made reference to one of these festas:

The processions. . .still form an important part of the religious and recreational life of the people. In Ponta Delgada the Procession of Santo Christo is one of the most important, when, on the fifth Sunday after Easter, the Image is taken from the convent

and carried in procession through the streets while a crow o if teen thousand people participate or look on. . . . This and other processions form the chief amusements of the populace here as in Portugal proper. he peasants come from the rural districts far and""

wide and en route to the city they play their violas, sing and dance (Taft, 1923, p. 77).

This dual role played by the church in both the

spiritual and social life of the people has definite

significance. It served as the basic framework around

which the nineteenth century Azorean population developed

a strong sense of cultural unity, and this unity became

even more expressed as the Azorean community began to

congregate in the San Joaquin Valley.

The Azorean Immigrant.—The effect of this old

Azorean environment was to mold a particular type of

person. The nineteenth century Azores had produced a

person who, when he joined the throng of approximately

20,000 Azoreans who migrated to California from 1870 to

1900 , brought with him a particular set of deeply-

ingrained cultural characteristics. This set of charac­

teristics , when confronted with the circumstance of time

and place in the San Joaquin Valley, strongly suggested

that the Azorean immigrant become a dairyman.

The Azorean immigrant of the last century was a

person whose life centered around the family unit. He

was one who had developed a particularly strong feeling

1Estimated on the basis of statistics cited in Goncalves, 1968.

tor the welfare of others of his kind, and felt a strong

sense of "identity" with his particular island of origin.

Tne immigrant was one who had come from a predominantly

agricultural background—a background that had made him

thoroughly familiar with animals. He had learned to

appreciate, m fact, to value highly, private ownership

Ox land. The Azorean immigrant was one used to a standard

of living that provided only the barest of necessities

with few material comforts. He was a person totally un-

xamiliar with machinery and modern means of communication.

He knew almost nothing of American traditions, values or

ways of life. He spoke only Portuguese. He was capable;

he was ambitious; but he was illiterate. He was one of a

group that had a common cultural unity based on exclusive

membership in one church—a church which served as the

focus of the religious and social life of virtually every

Azorean. This product of the Azores environment migrated

to the San Joaquin Valley in the declining years of the

last century and brought with him every characteristic of

his old culture.

CHAPTER III

FROM IMMIGRANT TO DAIRYMAN IN THE

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

the last half of the nineteenth century, Por­

tuguese from the Azores Islands began to congregate in

California. The Portuguese immigrant was, from the out­

set, confronted with an unfamiliar physical and cultural

environment. However, this new environment did not pre­

vent him from engaging in dairying as a livelihood

activity; and what was to become California's primary

agricultural region, the San Joaquin Valley, became the

stronghold of the Portuguese dairymen.

The Migration to California

Material advancement in the Azores Islands of a

century ago was impeded by a static economy--an economy

which for centuries had made peasants of the majority of

the population. At about this time, however, it was

learned that the opportunity for economic betterment

existed in California. Strongly desirous of this oppor­

tunity to achieve materially, the nineteenth century

Azorean population began to migrate to California.

Most of the early Portuguese immigrants i.e.,

those coming before 1900—did not come to the San Joaquin

13

Valley witn the express intention of becoming dairymen.

However, arter dairying was initiated in the San Joaquin

Valley, the Portuguese migration to California increased

dramatically, as did their involvement in the industry.

The Portuguese migration to California came in several

successive waves, each differing in intensity and motiva­

tion .

Successive Waves of Migration.—The first Portu­

guese in California were probably sailors who jumped ship

while operating along the California coast. One writer

notes that, as early as the 1830's, ". . . it had become

the custom for whaling ships to fill out the crew by

recruiting Portuguese from the Azores" (Vaz, 1965, p. 41).

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the whales

were taken far from shore, and some of the processing was

done on board ship. However, "shore whaling" soon devel­

oped along the California coast and, after the Gold Rush,

became dominated by the Portuguese (Bohmen, 1956).

The first major wave of Portuguese migration to

California resulted from the rush for gold in 1848-49 .

Soares tells of an eighteen page booklet published in

Oporto, Portugal, in 1849 entitled, "Information and

suggestions extracted from legal documents concerning

California and her gold mines" (Soares, 1939). This

booklet encouraged Portuguese emigration to California

from both the Azores and mainland Portugal. Although

only 109 Portuguese were legally admitted to California

by 18 50, that number increased thirteen-fold by 1860 (see

Taole 2) . Of the 210 Portuguese dairymen answering the

questionnaire, only three stated that the earliest immi­

grant member of their family migrated to California before

1860 .

TABLE 2

THE PORTUGUESE FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION IN CALIFORNIA

Born in: 1850 1860 1870

Portugal 109 1,459 2,508 All Foreign-born 22, 358 146,528 209,831

Source: Wright, 1941, p. 340.

Extensive Portuguese migration to California

began with the decade of the 1870' s and increased steadily

through the 1890's (see Fig. 1). In the decade of the

1870's, more than fourteen thousand Portuguese were

legally admitted to the United States, while only 2,658

were admitted in the previous decade (see Fig. 1) .

California received its share of this figure, for the

Homestead Act of 186 2 had recently opened up a consider­

able amount of free land to "aliens who intended to

become citizens." While in 1870 only 2,508 Portuguese

were reported in California, it was estimated that the

number had risen to eight thousand by 1881 (Goncalves,

1968) .

20

±he Portuguese migration to California was

greatest between 1901 and 1920 (see Fig. 1). m these

two decades alone, almost 160,000 Portuguese were legally

admitted to the United States, and, by 1920 , California

had well over eighty thousand Portuguese (Goncalves,

19ot>) . Figure 2 shows that about sixty—seven percent of

the Portuguese dairymen questionned claimed to have early

relatives that migrated to California between 1901 and

1920--less than twenty-two percent coming before 1900.

About seventy-five percent of those coming between 1901

and 1920 were from the island of Terceira; those coming

before 1900 were mostly from Pico and San Jorge (see

Fig. 2). As Figure 2 demonstrates, the Portuguese from

Terceira came later than others, but in greater numbers

once the pattern of immigration had been set.

FIGURE 1

PORTUGUESE IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES

1861-1870 1871-1880 1881-1890 1891-1900 1901-1910 1911-1920 1921-1930 1931-1940

2,658 14 ,082 16 ,978 27,508 69 ,149 89,732 29,994 3, 329

(thousand) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Source: Pap, 1949, p. 9.

The decade of the 19 20's saw all Portuguese

migration to the United States decrease with the

21

initiation of new immigration laws. As Figure 1 points

out, almost ninety thousand Portuguese migrated to the

United States between 1911 and 1920, whereas, less than

thirty thousand did so in the next ten years. And, since

the twenties, "Portuguese immigration. . . has been

reduced to a trickle. . ." (Pap, 1949, p. 9).

FIGURE 2

IMMIGRATION OF SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY PORTUGUESE DAIRYMEN TO CALIFORNIA BY ISLAND OF ORIGIN

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 m (2®

15

(5) (5) 1.2)

(%) Before 1881 1881-1900

=Terceira; San Jorge; 0£

(50

(8) 1(5

1901-1920

-Pico; -%from all islands.

(7)

jKKNnlTruf i f " - — -

13

After 1920

=A11 Portuguese dairymen. (4)=%from given island. ( g

Source: Compiled from questionnaire returns

22

By the 1930' s the Portuguese migration to Califor­

nia was, for the most part, concluded, and by that time

the Portuguese claimed to control seventy-five percent of

the state's dairy industry (Jornal Portuques, 1938).

With the review of the Portuguese migration to California

as described abo.ve, the actual development of Portuguese

interest in the San Joaquin Valley dairy industry and the

eventual dominance of the Portuguese are more easily

perceived.

The Transition to Dairying

Prior to the inception of the dairy industry in

California, employment among the Portuguese was, for the

most part, restricted to unskilled laborers' jobs. This

is pointed out by Vaz, an expert on the Portuguese in

California, who notes that, after the Gold Rush, the

Portuguese "... tried their hand at the more familiar

pursuits of sheepherding, fishing and farming" (Vaz, 1965,

p. 36-37).

The Portuguese along the coast dominated the

California shore whaling industry, while those in the San

Joaquin Valley worked predominantly as shepherds (Bohme,

1956). The questionnaire returns show that about one-half

of all of the relatives of today's Portuguese dairymen, in

the San Joaquin Valley who came to California before 1900

were first employed as shepherds. The Portuguese news­

paper Jornal Portuques reports that by the 1860's and

1S70's the Portuguese were numerous in the Hanford area

of Tulare County, and that most, of them were employed as

shepherds (Jornal Portuques, 1938). Also, the 1901-1902

edition or the Transactions of the California State

Agricultural Society reports that the work of the wool

industry in the Fresno County area was . . done

largely, almost exclusively, by Portuguese, Mexicans,

French, Spanish and Italians. . ." (California State

Agricultural Society, Transactions, 1901-1902, p. 212).

By virtue of their concentration in whaling and

herding sheep, the Portuguese in these early years were

located mostly along the California coast and in the San

Joaquin Valley. An article in. a Portuguese journal

Comunidades Portuguesas notes that, in 1881, the Portu­

guese were "... especially in Hanford, San Leandro,

Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Benicia, Merced,

Fresno, Port Costa, Hayward, etc." (Goncalves, 1968).

At this time, however, the dairy industry in California

was just beginning to experience rapid growth.

Growth of the Dairy Industry.—As the population

of California increased, so did the demand for dairy

products. Most of the time, however, the supply of dairy

products outweighed consumption. According to Roske, it

was not until 1878 that local production of butter

equalled consumption, and as early as 18o6, the aairy

industry produced more cheese than California could

24

consume (Roske, 1968).

Aj-i_er _l880 many innovations were made in dairying.

Cream separators and refrigeration were introduced, and

the alfalfa cattle feed area was increased by the use of

irrigation (Copley, 1961). These innovations greatly

increased the production potential of California dairies.

Copley reports that, in the 1880's and 1890's, the

immigration of Italian-Swiss dairymen into California

helped to promote the activity (Copley, 1961) . Regions of

the California coast from Eureka in the north to San Luis

Obispo in the south soon became centers of dairy activity.

By 1895, California had 203 creameries producing over

thirty-one million pounds of butter (Roske, 1968) . The

industry was fully established by the turn of the century,

yet the Portuguese influence was hardly felt.

Development of Portuguese Interest in Dairying

Portuguese interest in the San Joaquin Valley

dairy industry developed slowly at first, but accelerated

in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The

Portuguese first entered the industry as milkhands or

tenant farmers; only later did they acquire actual owner­

ship of dairy farms in most instances.

Milking and Tenant Farming. In the formative

years of the San Joaquin valley dairy industry <1890-

1910), the Portuguese seldom served in the capacity of

dairy owner. Vaz, in his book The Portuguese in

California, notes that "Many [Portugese] began as milk

hanas or tenant farmers until the day when they could

establish themselves as independent dairymen" (Vaz, 1965,

p. 57). Also, according to Copley, "... the majority

of the Portuguese dairymen of the Newman area came there

as professional milkers and not as herd owners" (Copley,

1961). A Hanford dairyman, Sam Silva, capsulized the

situation in an interview with the author. Silva's

statement was as follows:

Most of the Porguguese people that I know were hired as milkers at first, saved ail they made, and started their own operations in later years. Now they are hiring recent immigrants from the "Islands" for their own dairies (Sam Silva, personal communication, 1969).

This situation existed throughout the San Joaquin Valley,

for, as the questionnaire revealed, almost eighty percent

of today's Portuguese dairymen first worked as dairy

hands.

Ownership of Dairy Farms. Although some specula­

tion is involved, it appears that the first Portuguese

dairy owners were those who saved enough money to invest

in a dairy at the earliest time. The Portuguese shepherds

in the Hanford area of Fresno County, or Portuguese who

had come to the valley from the coastal dairy districts

were probably among the first dairy owners. Indeed, the

first dairy owners among the Portuguese returning the

questionnaire were from the Hanford area. One dairyman,

Albert Andrada, reports that his father first began

dairying in the Hanford area in 189 0—this after working

onj_y uwo years as a shepherd (Albert Andrada, personal

communication, 1969).

After the turn of the twentieth century, the

Portuguese rapidly claimed ownership of dairy farms. Of

the Portuguese dairymen sampled by the questionnaire,

less than one percent stated that members of their family

had started dairying in the San Joaquin Valley before

1900 , as compared to four percent for the non-Portuguese.

However, almost sixty percent of today's Portuguese

dairymen started dairying in the valley before 1920, while

only twenty percent of the non-Portuguese dairymen

sampled started before 1920 . This indicates at least

two things: (1) the first dairies in the San Joaquin

Valley were, for the most part, non-Portuguese owned and

(2) except for isolated instances, Portuguese infiltration

of the dairy industry is a phenomenon of the first two

decades of this century.

By the 1930's, the Portuguese dairymen were well

established in the San Joaquin Valley. They no longer

worked exclusively as milkhands on non-Portuguese dairies

but were owners of dairy farms —in fact, they had become

the dominant group. This particular socio-economic

adjustment to the new environment resulted from an array

of interrelated phenomena.

27

r ac cors Affecting the Transition to Dairying

ihe Portuguese transition to dairying was

a-Lj-ected by a number of factors that were inherently

cultural, and others were matters of circumstance not

merely related to culture traits. In addition, some of

these factors served to initiate the interest in dairying,

while others served to perpetuate the first interest

demonstrated by the Portuguese.

Factors Affecting the Initial Interest

By virtue of their cultural background, the

Portuguese in the San Joaquin Valley were well suited for

the occupation of dairying. Dairying required familiarity

with livestock and the Azorean Portuguese had for cen­

turies depended on work with livestock for their economic

livelihood. In addition, one need not be educated or

skilled with tools and machinery to become a dairyman,

and the Portuguese immigrant was almost invariably

illiterate and knew nothing of machine tools. In the

Azores, the immigrant had learned to value most highly

private ownership of land, and dairying allowed for this

form of land tenure. Also, the immigrant could speak no

English and knew very little of the American ways of

business and commerce, yet he could manage quite well on

a dairy where the necessity of communication with the

American society was almost non-existent. To be.sure,

the values, traditions and ways of life which the

28

immigrant had experienced in the Azores Islands made him

well suited ior the occupation of dairying once the

opportanity arose. That opportunity for dairying came

with the locational shift and attendant decline in the

California wool industry at a time quite coincident with

the rapid growth of the San Joaquin Valley dairy industry.

Decline in the Wool Industry.—In I860, only two

counties in the San Joaquin Valley ranked in the state's

top twenty in number of sheep (see Table 3) . However, by

1884, five out of the six counties in the San Joaquin

Valley ranked within the top twenty in the state, and, as

Table 3 indicates, Fresno and Kern Counties ranked one

and two, respectively. Therefore, the greatest concentra­

tion of Portuguese sheepherders in the state at this time

was in the southern San Joaquin Valley.

In addition to this geographical shift in loca­

tion, the California wool industry suffered tremendous

decline in just two decades prior to the turn oi the

century. The 1901-1902 edition of the Transactions of

the California State Agricultural Society notes that "The

production of wool has decreased steadily since 1879. In

the last decade [1890-1900] the decrease was 2,678,052

pounds, or 16.4%" (California State Agricultural Society,

Transactions, 1901-1902, p. 143). The last days of the

nineteenth century, therefore, witnessed especial decline

in the wool industry and a geographical shift m location

TABLE 3

County

San Joaquin Stanislaus Merced Fresno Tulare Kernl

SHEEP IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, 1860 AND 1884

1860 1884

# of Sheep

15,821 11,280 14,181 30,885 16,521

Rank in State

21 25 23 9 20

San Joaquin Valley: 88,688 State: 1,088,002

^A part of Tulare County at this time. Source: 1860; U. S. Census of Agriculture

1884; California State Agricultural Society,

# of Sheep

42,798 96,519

199,119 383,716 176,955 345,688

1,244,795

Rank in State

28 13 8 1 9 2

Transactions,

to vo

30

to the southern San Joaquin Valley. As a result, many of

the San Joaquin Valley Portuguese were losing the means

Oj. employment which had best suited them up to this time.

However, a new type of agricultural employment was quickly

emerging, and its development was especially rapid in the

southern part of the San Joaquin Valley.

Accelerated Dairy Activity.—Almost precisely

coincident with the decline in the wool industry was the

accelerated growth of the dairy industry in California—

especially in the Fresno and Tulare County portion of the

San Joaquin Valley. The July 9, 1895, issue of the

Hanford Journal contains one article which reads as

follows:

The Hanford cheese factory, under the management of A. B. Crowe11, is doing a large and constantly increasing business. The product of the factory is all sold as soon as made, or before. The only trouble the factory has is procuring milk enough to meet the demand for cheese (Hanford journal, July 9, 1895).

Xt seems quite logical to assume that the Portuguese would

almost immediately turn to dairying in the southern part

of the San Joaquin Valley. This assumption is based on

three factors which the previous material demonstrates.

First of all, the Portuguese were rapidly being displaced

from employment as shepherds, which, from the outset, was

their major occupation in the San Joaquin Valley. Second,

the dairy industry was growing at a phenomenal rate in an

area in close proximity to where the .Portuguese shepherds

had been recently relocated. And, finally, the cultural

background of the Azorean Portuguese had molded a person

that had a particular predisposition for the type of work

involved in dairying. The initial interest in dairying

was, to be sure, the result of the proper combination of

the cultural attributes of the Azorean Portuguese and the

circumstance of time and place in the San Joaquin Valley.

Factors Affecting Perpetuation in the Industry

After the first foothold was set, the Portuguese

interest in the San Joaquin Valley dairy industry

increased both numerically and spatially. The perpetua­

tion and growth of Portuguese interest in dairying is, in

large measure, the result of several traits characteristic

of the Azorean culture.

Pattern of Settlement.—From the 1880' s on, the

Portuguese pattern of settlement in the San Joaquin Valley

was to gather in groups to make the task of social adjust­

ment less painful. The result, however, was that the

Portuguese community became both culturally and spatially

isolated from the rest of society. After the first

Azorean dairymen met with success, news of this accom­

plishment spread rapidly throughout the Portuguese

community and others, quite naturally, became interested

in dairying. Soon, the entire Portuguese group m

several areas of the San Joaquin Valley was almost

exclusively employed in some phase of the dairy industry.

And, as new immigrants arrived and followed the same

pattern or settlement, they were exposed to few occupa- /

tions other than dairying. The Portuguese pattern of

settlement, therefore, aided tremendously in perpetuating

the initial interest in dairying.

The Family Unit.--Emphasis on the family unit

among the Portuguese also helped to perpetuate their

interest in dairying. The Portuguese traditionally

preferred an occupation which allowed the entire family

to participate, and this preference was well suited by

dairying. The number of Portuguese involved in the

industry grew as dairies were handed down from first to

second generation within the family, or as sons estab­

lished dairy farms of their own. Also, it was common for

the Portuguese dairyman to send for other members of his

family once he had found the means to do so. And, almost

invariably, the new arrival was channeled into dairying.

The best example available to the author which

demonstrates this occurrence is offered by a Portuguese

dairyman from the San Joaquin County, Joaquin Amaral. In

a personal communication to the author, Amaral made the

following statement:

In my family's case, my grandfather was deceased, so the oldest boy was the head of the house. All money was saved to send the oldest boy to Amerxca--he, in turn worked and sent money for the second boy, my faSer to come to America, .then the third boy was sent for by the second boy. Then all thtee sent for their mother. The daughter was given all possesions and land in Portugal [the Azores Islands] where she

gained. All three boys milked cows on the same ranch m nillbrae when they arrived in this country. .logay, only the youngest boy is not a dairyman (Joaquin Amaral, personal communication, 1969).

Amaral s statement is in no way atypical of the type of

j_amxly unity displayed by the Azorean Portuguese in the

San Joaquin Valley, and in the effect it has had on the

perpetuation of Portuguese interest in dairying.

Old World Traditions.—Old World traditions were

fervently retained by the Portuguese community in

California. One of these traditions specifically helped

to perpetuate the Portuguese interest in dairying. This

was the annual celebration in honor of the Espirito

Santo which included not only a saying of the mass, but

a dance, a procession and a banquet. Each year the

various Portuguese communities would, and still do,^

sponsor this religious and recreational celebration which

was faithfully attended by virtually all Azoreans

especially the recent immigrants. The particular signif­

icance of this celebration was that all new immigrants

were exposed immediately to a large community of Portu­

guese that were employed almost exclusively as dairymen.

By following in the footsteps of other Azoreans like

himself, the new immigrant soon realized that economic

success was readily attainable.

XMr. Joe Avila, field representative for the East-

Kast Dairyman's Association^ of Annually for

Sf;pSI/Srtr^ars ar.d draws thousand people of both Portuguese and non Portuguese

descent.

34

Dairying Was a Profitable Business. —Although this

j_actor had no relation to the Azorean culture in particu-

*iid serve to stimulate interest in dairying after

the first group of Portuguese were established. In these

early days, dairying was a profitable business, . . the

actual investment might be comparatively small. One

history of Kings County gives the following account of

the annual earnings of a typical, small dairyman at the

turn of the century:

With thirteen cows fed on alfalfa, both as hay and pasture, a Poplar dairyman in a recent year got $1,554.54 gross from cream, calves and hogs. The net proceeds were $1,499 .54. The lowest month had returns of $59.69 and the highest $142.50 in cream checks, the average being above $100 (Menefee and Dodge, 1913).

The Azorean immigrant was accustomed to subsisting on far

less than this, and, with earnings such as this he was

able to live comfortably—in fact, to prosper. The desire

for economic betterment which fostered the initial emigra­

tion from the Azores could be more than adequately

fulfilled by dairying.

Cultural Unity.—If any one factor, more than any

other, explains the Portuguese growth in dairying m the

San Joaquin Valley, that factor is simply this: The

Azorean Portuguese in the San Joaquin Valley have

expressed the ultimate of cultural unity. Virtually all

of the Azorean Portuguese honor exactly the same tradi­

tions, values and ways of life, and, in an effort to

reuain these old cultural attributes, the early Portuguese

became isolaued both culturally and spatially in their new

California environment. Therefore, word traveled fast

through the early Portuguese community, and, as the first

group of Portuguese realized economic and social satis­

faction from dairying, they informed other Azoreans who

soon migrated to the San Joaquin Valley and became dairy­

men. After this group realized the advantages of dairy­

ing, they, in turn, informed their friends and relatives

of their accomplishments. In this way, the Portuguese

were able to gain complete numerical majority in the San

Joaquin Valley dairy industry only three decades after

they expressed their initial interest in the activity.

Today, the effect of this intense cultural unity

is evidenced in two ways: (1) the number of Azoreans and

their descendants living in California exceeds the total

population of the Azores Islands, and (2) Portuguese from

the Azores Islands are still the dominant group involved

in the San Joaquin Valley dairy industry.

CHAPTER IV

THE PORTUGUESE DAIRYMEN TODAY

In the San Joaquin Valley there are over 2,400

dairy sarins listed as both Grade A and Grade B. More

than half of these are owned and operated by Portuguese

from the Azores Islands, yet this anomalous socio-economic

phenomenon has been awarded only cursory attention in the

literature of the geographer.

Although particular consideration of the dairy

industry in general is not the major theme for investiga­

tion, significant material concerning the total aspect of

the industry is included as it pertains to the Portuguese

involvement. Therefore, consideration of the scope,

character and distribution of the San Joaquin Valley dairy

industry is prerequisite to a thorough analysis of the

Portuguese dairymen of the San Joaquin Valley.

Dairying in the San Joaquin Valley

California is a major United States producer or

dairy products. In 1968, the State Department of Agri­

culture reported that California ranked number three xn

the nation in terms of cash receipts from the sale of

milk and cream, and number four in terms of total

production of milk (Flaten, 1969). Dairy products are

37

tne second ranking agricultural commodity in the state,

ana one ban Joaquin Valley is California's leading dairy

region ootn in terms of numbers of dairy cattle and total

production of milk.

As Table 4 demonstrates, the San Joaquin Valley

accounts for about forty-five percent of all the state's

dairy cattle, and over forty-four percent of all milk

produced. Also revealed by this table is the fact that

in the San Joaquin Valley, Grade A milk produced is about

seven times the amount produced for the Grade B market.

The Grade A dairies are much more important in terms of

value and total production per dairy, and, therefore,

receive more attention in this thesis than do Grade B

dairies.

Dairying is, for the most part, on specialized

dairy farms, with crops grown being used for feed for the

milking stock. Most San Joaquin Valley dairies are

located in dispersed areas of intensive dairy activity

i.e., not in a continuous "dairy belt (see Map 2) . The

greatest concentration of dairy farms in the valley is in

the north, where three counties, Stanislaus, San Joaquin

and Merced, account for about eighty-five percent of all

Grade B dairies, and over fifty percent of all Grade A

dairies (see Table 5). In the southern part of the

valley, as several authors indicate, and the rield inves­

tigation confirms, dairying is found .more in conjunction

TABLE 4

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF MILK COWS AND HEIFERS, 2 YEARS OLD AND OLDER, AND COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF MILK, BY DISTRICT, CALIFORNIA, 1968

(milk in thousand pounds)

District Cows Market Milk Mnfg. Milk All Milk

North Coast 26,500 75,114 100,173 175,287 North Central 4,900 32,560 3,508 36,068 North East 1,000 3,455 156 3,611 Central Coast 114,100 1,070,676 37,829 1,108,505 Sacramento Valley 52,700 295,113 147,724 442,838 San Joaquin Valley 388,900 3,501,498 518,263 4,019,761 Sierra Mountain . . 4,000 18,596 3,387 21,983 Southern California 264,900 3, 005,040 4, 346 3,009,386

State 857,000 8,002,052 815,387 8,817,439

Source: Flaten, 1969.

00

39

Map 2 - Areas of Intensive Dairy Activity

40

with general farming the number of dairy farms not being

so densely spaced as in the north. Most of the dairies in

Lhe southern part of the San Joaquin Valley are large

Grace A dairies. As Table 5 reveals, there are only

eighty-one Grade B dairies in Kings, Tulare and Kern

Counties as compared to over four hundred Grade A dairies

in that area.

TABLE 5

DISTRIBUTION OF DAIRIES IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY (by county)

County Grade A Grade B

San Joaquin . . . . 1 6 2 280 Stanislaus . . . . 2 6 7 419 Merced . . . . 2 1 7 389 Madera . . . . 5 4 23 Fresno . . . . 1 3 1 61 Kings . . . . 1 2 5 64 Tulare . . . . 2 1 5 15 Kern . . . . 3 4 2

Total . . . . 1 , 2 0 5 1,253

Source: Grade A statistics; courtesy of the Depart­ments of Health of San Francisco, San Joaguin, Stanislaus, Fresno, Kern and Los Angeles Counties. Grade B statistics; Bureau of Dairy Service, 1967 data.

It is apparent that dairying in the San Joaquin

Valley is important not only as a competitor for land,

but as a major sector of the state's agricultural economy,

and the Portuguese play an important role in this

activity.

41

The Portuguese Dairymen

The Portuguese role in the San Joaquin Valley

dairy industry has several geographically significant

dimensions. This investigation is primarily concerned

with the number and. distribution, farm and herd size,

marketing pattern, family and ethnic ties, visible land­

scape and changing role of Portuguese dairies in the San

Joaquin Valley.

Number and Distribution

Of much significance to the cultural geographer is

the ratio of Portuguese to non-Portuguese dairymen, for in

several areas of the San Joaquin Valley, ownership of

dairy farms is almost exclusively Portuguese.

The Portuguese to non-Portuguese Ratio.--The

Portuguese account for no less than forty-eight percent

of all Grade A dairymen in the San Joaquin Valley (see

Table 6) . However, the Grade B phase of the dairy

industry has an even more impressive Portuguese to non-

Portuguese ratio than does the Grade A industry. A

review of selected creameries shows that about sixty-five

percent of all Grade B dairymen in the San Joaquin Valley

are of Portuguese descent (see Table 7) . As Table 7

indicates, only one of the five selected creameries had

fewer than sixty percent of its shippers of Portuguese

descent. This is Danish Creamery of Fresno and

Chowchilla, which has a total of only forty-five Grade B

42

shippers. Also indicated in Table 7 is the fact that

sixty to seventy-five percent of all Grade B dairymen

shipping to the larger creameries in Stanislaus and Merced

Counties are of Portuguese descent.

TABLE 6

DISTRIBUTION OF GRADE A DAIRYMEN IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

(by county)

County # Dairymen # Portuguese^ % Portuguese

San Joaquin . . . . 16 2 58 36 Stanislaus . . . . 267 95 34 Merced . . . . 217 126 58 Madera . . . . 54 11 20 Fresno . . . . 131 50 38 Kings . . . . 125 88 70 Tulare . . . . 215 146 68 Kern . . . . 34 2 _6_

Total . . . . 1,205 576 48

"^"Determined on the basis of last name.

Source: Compiled by author from information supplied by the Departments of Health of San Francisco, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Fresno, Kern and Los Angeles Counties .

The combined information presented in .abj.es 6

and 7 indicates that no less than 1,390 of the more than

2,400 dairies in the San Joaquin Valley, both Grade A and

Grade B, are owned and operated by Portuguese--!.e. , about

fifty-five to sixty percent of the total number or

dairymen.

TABLE 7

DISTRIBUTION OF PORTUGUESE DAIRYMEN SHIPPING GRADE B MILK TO SELECTED CREAMERIES IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

Creamery

Golden Valley East-West Dairyman's

Association Los Banos Dairyman's

Association Danish Creamery Kings County Creamery

Association

County

Stanislaus

Stanislaus

Merced Fresno

Kings

# Shippers

100

200

75 45

# Portuguese

75

126

53 18

% Portuguese

75

62

70 40

100

Total 426 27: 65

Source: Compiled by author from information supplied by the various creameries.

44

Distribution of Grade A Dairymen1.—The Portuguese

dairymen, especially those shipping Grade A milk, are not

evenly distributed over the San Joaquin Valley dairy

areas, dul are censely concentrated in certain rather

easily derined locations. As Map 3 reveals, the Portu­

guese dairymen are most densely concentrated in Kings,

Tulare, and western Merced Counties where they number

approximately seventy percent of the Grade A dairymen.

In a portion of eastern Merced County, they number between

sixty and seventy percent of the total (see Map 3) . As

shown on Map 3, the Portuguese dairymen are least numerous

in portions of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Madera, Fresno and

Kern Counties. Also demonstrated by this map is the fact

that the Portuguese in the three northern counties of San

Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced are most densely concen­

trated on the west side of the valley.

In the Kings and Tulare County areas, their dis­

tribution pattern is very tight knit. As portrayed on

Map 3, the regional concentration of Portuguese dairymen

in this area is quite striking. In this portion of the

San Joaquin Valley, the Portuguese virtually control the

dairy industry, for they account for at least seven out of

every ten Grade A dairymen (see Map 3) . In isolated

lEmphasis will be placed on the ade^dairy industry because of the availability o composition information concerning the location and ethnic composite

of those involved.

45

portions o_ the area, shown on Map 3 — e.g. , north —central

Kings County and west-central Tulare County—the Portu­

guese account for as much as ninety percent of all Grade A

dairymen. This portion of the San Joaquin Valley is the

most impressive stronghold of the Portuguese dairymen,

for, even though the number of Grade B dairies is roughly

equal to the number of Grade A dairies in the valley, the

latter accounts for over eighty percent of all milk

produced (Galway, 19 67) .

All Dairymen; A Generalized Pattern.—The distri­

bution of all Portuguese dairymen, both Grade A and

Grade B, is portrayed on Map 4 by way of generalized

patterns.^" This map emphasizes one point specifically:

In no major area of the San Joaquin Valley do the Portu­

guese account for less than forty percenL of the l.oi~al

number of dairymen. Their distribution in the San

Joaquin Valley, therefore, is characterized by two facts.

(1) they are involved in the dairy industry most inten­

sively in certain rather easily defined locations, yet

(2) they are the single most prominent ethnic group in

all of the major areas of dairy activity.

The Effect of thP. Portuguese Settlement_Pattern. -

One factor played the major role in determinii g

lThe lack of available data^oncerning^he^xact location and ethnic composition showing Grade B dairy industry requires a, •'vmen be generalized, the distribution of all Portuguese dairymen a

46

38°

36*

35"

37°

\

coo"1-

- % • S • .»4 ® FRESNO

V s \

\ J

r <*> I »••«&« ° * - -

rv 'V

v. r* iiit- - °.>c (

; 36°

L E G E N D

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

BORDER

COUNTY LINE

CITY

PORTUGUESE OWNED

DAIRY

NON "PORTUGUESE

OWNED DAIRY

\

( KINGS COUNTY. JL . { V" C0rVO o ) \ °

' '

X \ \ \

/

o o O °o ° °*° o°o \

o o \ O O }

BAKERSFIELD

">

\

35°

r~ 121°

COMPILED BY AUTHOR

T 120°

.-p a Dairies

Map c ai -i Portuguese Dairymen

4 - Generalized DiBtributron^

48

contemporary distribution of Portuguese dairymen in the

San Joaquin Valley. Although the decline ana relocation

of the California wool industry just prior to the turn of

the century explains in part the intense concentration of

Portuguese dairymen in the Kings and Tulare County area,

the Portuguese pattern of settlement was the major factor

involved. The Portuguese settlement pattern was to gather

in groups near family, if possible, or near friends they

had known in the Azores Islands. A. F. Mendes of River-

dale recalls that when he migrated to the San Joaquin

Valley, he first located in south-central Kings County,

where no less than fifteen families had gathered that were

from the village of Santa Barbara on the island of

Terceira—Mendes1 home (A. F. Mendes, personal communica­

tion, 1969). Mendes' example illustrates the settlement

pattern characteristic of most of the Portuguese immigrant

group which, in the end, has resulted in several of the

areas of intensive dairy activity being almost exclusively

Portuguese.

Distribution by Island of Origin. Besides serving

to concentrate the Portuguese community in several easily

defined locations, the Portuguese pattern of settlement

had other effects on the distribution of today's dairymen.

One such effect is that today's Portuguese dairymen are

distributed according to island of origin. This distribu­

tional pattern is significant in that the San Joaquin

49

Valley Portuguese were, quite unknowingly, reconstructing

their old distributional patterns from the Azores Islands.

Today's Portuguese dairymen who owe their origin

to me island or Terceira account for approximately

sixuy-three percent of the total (see Table 8) . There­

fore, in most of the areas of intensive dairy activity,

over fifty percent of all Portuguese dairymen are of

Terceiran descent. Their concentration is in Kings,

Tulare and western Merced Counties, especially, and in

Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties (see Map 5) . More

impressive to the cultural geographer, however, is the

distribution of the dairymen from the islands of San

Jorge and Pico.

TABLE 8

ISLAND OF ORIGIN OF THE PORTUGUESE DAIRYMEN

Island Percent

Terceira 63.0 San Jorge 15.0

. . . . . . . 1 1 . 0 3.5 2.5 2.0 1.0 1.0

. . . 0 . 0

Pico Fayal Flores San Miguel Santa Maria Graciosa Corvo

9 9 0 The Azores ",u

Source: Compiled from questionnaire returns.

Portuguese from the island of San Jorge account

for only fifteen percent of the total number of dairymen,

50

121* 120* 119°

_L

N O R T H

SCALE IN MILES

\

border of mca or •rre*isivc dairy

ACTIVITY

more than 50% OF ALL fort jgjcse da irymen fro* t crcc'ra

MORE THAN 50% OF ALL PORTUGUESE OAIRFMEN FROM SAN JORGE

MORE THAN 50% 0* ALL PORTUGUESE DAIRYMEN FROM PICO

"OT MORE THAN 5 0% OF AL L PORTUGUESE OA'RYMEN FROM ANY ONE ISLANO

'2I*

TgLA»e_ _ _cou»I"— COUNTY i

38*

yet in a portion of eastern Merced County their concentra­

tion is so intense that they number over fifty percent of

all Portuguese dairymen in that area (see Map 5) . Dairy­

men who owe their origin to the island of Pico are even

more densely concentrated in one location. Although they

account ^or only eleven percent of all Portuguese dairy­

men, they number over fifty percent of the total in the

Hanford area of Kings County (see Map 5) . To be sure,

their number may be as high as sixty-five to seventy

percent of all Portuguese dairymen in this area; however,

this percentage is difficult to document.

A Cultural Index to Distribution.—As the above

material demonstrates, the pattern of settlement charac­

teristic of the Portuguese served to distribute the

dairymen according to their island of origin, and to

isolate areas where the Portuguese dairymen greatly out

numbered their non-Portuguese counterparts. This type 01

concentration among the Portuguese group helped them to

retain their old world traditions, some of which served

to affect the landscape they inhabited. One such effect

observable on today's San Joaquin Valley landscape is the

Portuguese fraternal hall, shown on page 52, which is an

effective cultural index to the contemporary distribution

of Portuguese dairymen.

52

Figure 3. Established in 1915, the Stratford, Kings County, Hall shown here is one of the oldest in the San Joaquin Valley.

•,.lp Hal1 in southern Fresno County is gure 4. The River-da * ^ the smaller communities, .lustrative of mos^ halls

53

According to Ernest Sondes, past state president

of'the I. D. E. S., a Portuguese fraternal hall can be

found i n virtually every community in California where the

Portuguese have settled. Today, there are at least

tVWty-nine of these halls in the San Joaquin Valley which

are in active use by the Portuguese as the meeting place

for both religious and social functions. These halls are

easily recognizable~-in fact, they are a very obvious part

of the landscape of the smaller communities of the San

ftnquin Valley. The two fraternal halls pictured in

figures 3 and 4 are illustrative of the majority of these

halls in the smaller communities of the valley. In many

Of the larger towns, however, they are more impressively

constructed.

These fraternal hall: serve as a cultural index to

the distribution of today's Portuguese dairymen once they |j

Their are plotted on a map of the San Joaquin Valley,

distribution is given added significance, however, when

it is compared to the distribution of dairying, for, as

Map 6 reveals, there is a high degree of coincidence

»the distribution of these fraternal halls and the areas

°« intensive deity ectivity. Of the twenty-nine halls

Plotted on Map «, twenty_six are well Within an area of

intensive deity activity. Two of the halls are in towns

onfof'Sfstlte's

frAtcrnSTorgSfts'txons •

53

According to Ernest Mendes, past state president

of the I. D. E. S.,~ a Portuguese fraternal hall can be

found in virtually every community in California where the

Portuguese have settled. Today, there are at least

twenty-nine of these halls in the San Joaquin Valley which

are in active use by the Portuguese as the meeting place

for both religious ana social functions. These halls are

easily recognizable--in fact, they are a very obvious part

of the landscape of the smaller communities of the San

Joaquin Valley. The two fraternal halls pictured in

Figures 3 and 4 are illustrative of the majority of these

halls in the smaller communities of the valley. in many

of the larger towns, however, they are more impressively

constructed.

These fraternal halls serve as a cultural index to

the distribution of today's Portuguese dairymen once they

are plotted on a map of the San Joaquin Valley. Their

distribution is given added significance, however, when

it is compared to the distribution of dairying, for, as

Map 6 reveals, there is a high degree or coincidence in

the distribution of these fraternal halls and the areas

of intensive dairy activity. Of the twenty-nine halls

plotted on Map 6, twenty-six are well within an area of

intensive dairy activity. Two of the halls are in towns

•^1 D E. S. is the common, abbreviated reference

to the Trmandade'do <* the state's largest PortugueimfSStgnil organrzatioas.

54

SCALE IN MILES

COUNTY_ TULARE_ COUNTY

COUNTY KERN

KINGS,

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

BORDER

COUNTY LINE

AREA OF INTENSIVE

DAIRY ACTIVITY

PORTUGUESE FRATERNAL

HALL > page for city names) AUTHOR COMPILED SOURCE

55

CITY NAMES

-1— u Stockton 2. Manteca 3 . Tracy 4 . Modesto 5. Hughson 6 . Patterson 7. Turlock 8. Delhi 9. Snelling 10 . Crows Landing 11. Newman 12. SteVinson 13. Livingston 14. Atwater 15. Gustine 15. Los Banos 17. Dos Palos 18. Chowchilla 19. Herman 20 . Fresno 21. Selma 22. Riverdale 23. Lemoore 24. Hanford 25. Visalia 26 . Stratford 27. Tulare 28. Tipton 29 . Bakersfield

56

that lie j us u o ^^siae of an area of intensive dairy

activity, but they are in areas which have in the recent

past been very important as dairy regions. Only one of

the halls is in a city that lies considerably beyond any

area of intensive dairy activity. That city is Bakers-

field, in Kern County, which has a population in excess

of 50,000 people.

In the rural areas of the San Joaquin Valley where

dairying is not a major activity, the Portuguese fraternal

halls are not found, yet, as several authors indicate, the

Portuguese from the Azores Islands are the most rural ox

all national groups in California (Bohme, 1956). There­

fore, by virtue of this coincident distribuuion or Po^ tu

guese fraternal halls and the areas of intensive da^.ry

activity, one can logically infer that most of the Portu­

guese in the San Joaquin Valley are involved in some phase

of the dairy industry.

The Portuguese fraternal hall is of interest ror

,-| -v _• j- ocsv- ves to divulge the distribution of two reasons: (1) it serves uo

Portuguese dairymen by its very presence on the landscape,

and (2) by inference, it demonstrates the intense interest

the Portuguese have displayed in dairying in the San

Joaquin Valley.

Farm and Herd Size

As the cultural geographer is interested in the

occurrence and distribution of the Portuguese dairymen, he

57

is also concerned with any differences which might exist

between the Portuguese and non-Portuguese dairymen in

terms or their role in the industry, or in the character

or their dairy operations. In terms of farm and herd

size, regional differences do exist between the Portuguese

and non-Portuguese dairies. Such regional differences are

the result of: (1) the uneven distribution of the Grade B

dairies in the San Joaquin Valley, and (2) the Portuguese

concentration in the Grade B industry.

Grade A dairies in the San Joaquin Valley are

approximately 300 acres and 250 cows in size, and are

evenly distributed throughout the areas of intensive dairy

activity (Dick Eide, personal communication, 1969). The

Grade B dairies are much smaller, averaging approximately

80 to 100 acres and 60 to 80 cows, and are found almost

exclusively in San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced Counties

(Walter Terra, personal communication, 1969). In this

area, therefore, the Portuguese are characterized by small

dairies, since about sixty-five percent of all Grade i>

dairies are Portuguese owned, while only about forty-two

percent of the Grade A dairies are Portuguese owned. How­

ever, in the three southernmost counties of Kings, Tulare

and Kern, where only six percent of the Grade B dairies are

located, the Portuguese are not characterized as being

owners of small dairies. When regional concentrations

'are not considered, the Portuguese dairies throughout

58

the valley average the same size, in both the Grade A and

Grace B industries, as the non-Portuguese dairies.

Marketing Pattern

One pnase or the San Joaquin Valley dairy industry

j-Or wh ich the Portuguese have shown considerable favorit­

ism is the cooperative pattern of marketing dairy products.

The Portuguese emphasized this pattern in the past, and,

it is still the preferred marketing pattern among the

Portuguese dairymen today. Of the Portuguese dairymen

returning the questionnaire, almost sixty percent claimed

to market their milk by cooperative, while only forty-five

percent of the non-Portuguese indicated a preference for

the cooperative pattern.

In the early 1900's the first attempt was made to

establish a cooperative among Portuguese dairymen (Vaz,

1965). That first cooperative, the Associated Milk

Producers, had its headquarters in San Francisco, and by

1920, eighty percent of its membership Portuguese (Vaz,

1965). In the San Joaquin Valley, several such coopera­

tives were established and controlled by the Portuguese

dairymen. One of these is the Kings Counvy Creamery

Association (see Fig. 5). This creamery offers, in fact,

the best example of a Portuguese-controlled cooperative,

for it was, and still is, known locally as "Os Creamery

Portugues"—"The Portuguese Creamery."

59

Figure 5. The Kings County Creamery Association in Lemoore; one of many such "Portuguese Creameries in the valley.

The Kings County Creamery Association.--The Kings

County Creamery Association began operation on May 8,

1916.1 The creamery v/as es tablished by a group of Portu­

guese dairymen who ". . . believed in the cooperative

type organization." The first board of directors and ail

of the first members were of Portuguese descent, and the

minutes and by-laws were written in Portuguese.

The creamery reached its peak in the 1930's, when

the membership numbered over six hundred. Today, the

•^"Information for this section was taken exclu­sively from an interview with Joe Bello, Manager, Kings County Creamery Association, Leraoore,

partnerships, however, tend to be between only two, or

maybe three, members of one family. It appears that the

Portuguese dairymen are involved in family partnerships

because of a strong cultural emphasis on the family unit,

and not merely for the business advantages offered by a

combination of the resources of two or more people.

Non-family partnerships are rather rare among the

dairymen of the San Joaquin Valley. Of the dairymen

returning the questionnaire, the Portuguese and the non-

Portuguese claimed only four and six percent respectively

as being involved in a non—family partnership. lhis is

significant, however, for a list of dairy ownership

supplied by the various county health departments reveals

that almost all Portuguese non-family partnerships are

with other Portuguese. Seldom does a Portuguese enter

into a non-family partnership with a non-Portuguese. On

the other hand, non-Portuguese dairymen appear to show no

preference for their own ethnic group when entering a

non-family partnership.

In Labor.—The Portuguese preference for hiring

workers of Portuguese descent is a major characteristic of

their dairy operations. More emphasis, in fact, is placed

on hiring other Portuguese than is placed on the family

partnership in ownership of the dairy. ine question

returns reveal that about eighty-two percent of all

workers on Portuguese dairies are of Portuguese descent.

The best example available to the author expressing this

point: was offered by John Victoria, a Portuguese dairyman

from Stanislaus County. In a personal communication to

i—iO Victoria mentioned that "All who work for us

now and who have ever worked for us are Portuguese" (John

Victoria, personal communication, 1969). Victoria's

statement does not represent the atypical situation on

Portuguese dairies—on the contrary, his is considered a

most common situation.

A much different situation exists on the non-

Portuguese dairies, for less than twenty percent of all

the workers hired on the non-Portuguese dairies repre­

sented by the questionnaire are of the same descent as the

dairymen by whom they were hired. On those same non-

Portuguese dairies, however, thirty-two percent of the

workers were Portuguese. Therefore, the indication is

that Portuguese dairymen hire other Portuguese almost

exclusively, while the non-Portuguese show no prererence

for workers of their own descent. In fact, the non

Portuguese dairymen have shown especial preference ^o^

workers of Portuguese descent.

The emphasis on family and ethnic ties in owner

ship and labor is certainly a major characteristic 01 the.

Portuguese dairymen and not of the non-Portuguese dairy­

men. Less distinguishing characteristics, however, are

found in the visible landscape of Portuguese dairies.

63

Visible Landscape

it is not possible to observe the visible land­

scape or the San Joaquin Valley dairies and determine

Portuguese or non-Portuguese ownership with any degree of

reliabi ir i_y. Although actual landscape differences may

exisi_ between most Portuguese and non—Portuguese dairies,

they are, for the most part, aesthetic differences

apparent only to one very familiar with the Portuguese,

and these differences are unmappable.

Figures 6 and 7 show two Grade A dairies in

southern Fresno County. One is Portuguese; one is not.

Nothing in particular serves to distinguish positively

between the two as to descent of owner. One familiar with

the Portuguese, however, would probably recognize Figure 6

as being a Portuguese owned dairy. This recognition would

be on the basis of such characteristics as the color

scheme, number, age, quality and spatial organization of

the houses, milking barn and other outbuildings. The

author's own attempt to map these features on sixty

randomly selected dairies proved futile, for they occcm in

almost every conceivable combination on both Portuguese

and non-Portuguese dairies.

That Portuguese dairies do not present obvious,

definable peculiarities which can be easily j_ecogni~^d on

the landscape is due to the fact that today's Portuguese

dairymen, unlike their immigrant parents, are being

64

- ''-"je "V ' <r,;. /-

•••PP

Figure 6. This photograph is of the A. F, Mendes and Sons dairy of Riverdale. It is illustrative of the majority of the Portuguese owned dairy farms in the San Joaquin Valley.

Figure 7. The above photograph is of the non-Portuguese owned dairy belonging to Rufus and Doug Maddox of Riverdale.

rapidly assimilated into the American society in every

way. The enect or this assimilation is to diminish all

aiiiS-ences which may have previously existed between

Portuguese and non-Portuguese dairies. In essence, the

cultural assimilation has effected a changing role among

today's Portuguese dairymen.

Changing Role of the Portuguese

The Portuguese are playing an ever-changing role

in the dairy industry of the San Joaquin Valley, and, for

the most part, this new role is one of increasing signifi­

cance and prestige. The first Portuguese in the San

Joaquin Valley dairy industry worked as milkers and dairy

hands until they could purchase dairy farms of their own.

By the 1920' s they were well established in the dairy

industry, and Portuguese controlled cooperatives were

being developed, yet, for the next thirty years, they

played a rather static role in the industry. In the past

two decades, however, the Portuguese role in the san

Joaquin Valley Dairy industry has been one of dynamic

alteration.

Portuguese participation in the management and

administration of predominantly non-Portuguese coopera­

tives is a phenomenon of the past two or three decades.

When the Danish Creamery of Fresno was organized just

after the turn of the century, only one of its shippers

was of Portuguese descent. Today, however, forty percent

66

of its Shippers are Portuguese as are four of the nine

members or the 3oard of Directors. The Portuguese dairy­

men, tnerefore, are attaining positions of importance in

predominantly non-Portuguese phases of the dairy industry.

ihe Portuguese role in marketing of dairy products

is no longer characterized by the one method of shipping

i_o predominantly Portuguese creameries. Many Portuguese

dairymen are demonstrating an interest in more sophisti­

cated methods of marketing. A good example is the

peculiar marketing system used by A. F. Mendes and sons

on their dairy in southern Fresno County. This system

includes a cash-and-carry outlet located in the San

Francisco bay area to which milk is shipped twice weekly.

The truck, tanker, and dairy outlet are all owned and

operated by members of the family. Marketing systems such

as this were formerly outside the realm of the Portuguese

dairymen; however, their changing role in the industry

includes many such sophisticated marketing systems.

The past twenty years has found the second and

third generation Portuguese dairymen taking advantage of

the offerings of technology and science which the fxrs^

generation was hesitant to accept. Dick Eide, dairy

advisor for the Fresno County Farm and Home Advisor's

Office, notes that the Portuguese participation in herd

improvement and quality is a relatively recenu occurrence.

Eide also mentions that, prior to the 1950 s, the

67

Portuguese seldom requested the aid of the advisor's

ofrice. an the past twenty years, however, the Portuguese

have taken a major part in such organizations as the Dairy

Herd Improvement Association and the American Dairy

Association, and they often claim the top producing herds

in the county (Dick Eide, personal communication, 1969).

One aesthetic aspect of the dairy industry in

which the Portuguese are playing a changing role is that

of quality or attractiveness of the dairy landscape. The

first generation Portuguese were often characterized by

their non-Portuguese counterparts as owning poor quality,

relatively unattractive dairies. Again, this aesthetic

aspect of dairying has changed for the Portuguese dairy­

men. Portuguese dairies today are as large, their herds

as fine in quality and their homes and barns as impres­

sively constructed as are those of the non-Portuguese.

Few dairies, in fact, are more impressively constructed

than the Portuguese dairy shown in Figures 8-10.

It is apparent to one exposed to the Portuguese

that their role in the San Joaquin Valley dairy industry

has changed considerably in the past two or three decades

in terms of importance, sophistication and even prestige.

Gene Scaramella, manager of the Fresno Branch oi the

Danish Creamery Association, sums up the changing role or

the Portuguese in the dairy industry in the following

statement:

68

?°^uguese] role in the industry is equivalent to uhe^number or Portuguese involved in dairy farming, rricir.xe u_:.g, m anagement, dairy herd improvement, sales, etc. v—e whoxe scope of the dairy industry in the San Joaquin Valley (Gene Scaramella, personal communi­cation, 1969) .

Ficmre 8 The Frank M. Toste dairy of central Fresno County is one of many such Portuguese dairies that boast an attractive, well preserved landscape.

—H

69

.sing barn on the Toste dairy is a --•it. The milker shown in the photo-niieration immigrant from Terceira; he

.and since his arrival in California has dairy hand.

•trialized landscape of the Toste "o" many of the.modern Grade A

~Joaquin Valley.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

More than a century ago, Portuguese from the

Azores Islands began to congregate in the San Joaquin

Valley of California. In time, most of these Azoreans

turned to dairying as their major livelihood activity. In

less than three decades, they had attained ownership of

the majority of the San Joaquin Valley dairy farms.

Today, they are still in the majority, and they are play­

ing an even more impressive role in virtually every phase

of the activity.

The Role of Cultural Differences

The very occurrence of Portuguese dairymen in the

San Joaquin Valley is a result of two distinct phenomena:

(1) the migration of one culture group to a completely

unfamiliar environment and (2) the circumstance of time

and place in San Joaquin Valley history. The pertinent

geographic aspects generated by the Portuguese involvement

in the dairy industry, however, are primarily the result

of cultural differences between the Azorean Portuguese and

their non-Portuguese counterparts.

The Azorean immigrant in the San Joaquin Valley

was thoroughly familiar with the type of work involved m

71

dairying, :or his whole economic background had centered

around livestock and subsistence farming. In addition,

ne was one or a group that expressed distinct cultural

unity, and in the new San Joaquin Valley environment,

isolated himself both culturally and spatially in order to

retain his old cultural characteristics. The direct

effect of the Azorean background, when combined with the

circumstance of time and place, was to produce a person

well suited for dairying in the San Joaquin Valley. Thus,

the striking number of Azorean dairymen in the San Joaquin

Valley today is, in this writer1s opinion, primarily the

result of traits peculiar to the Azorean immigrant and his

actions which resulted from those trails.

The distribution of today's Portuguese dairyman by

island of origin is essentially the result of culture

traits. The unusually strong emphasis placed on the

family unit and the "island identity" which was generated

by the poor patterns of circulation in the old environment

caused the Azorean dairymen to distribute themselves

according to their particular island of origin.

Emphasis on the family partnership among the

Portuguese dairymen stems from the Azorean's strong

regard for family unity. The emphasis on ethnic ties in

ownership and labor is the result or: (1) the strong

sense of cultural identity and unity characteristic of the

Azorean population and (2) the preference of the Azorean

72

iiuinigrant u.O WOK with or around, livestock.

Cultural di1ferences account for the special

incomes s shown by the Portuguese dairymen in the coopera­

tive marketing pattern. The Azorean immigrants in the

San Joaquin Valley spoke no English, were almost com­

pletely illiterate, and were unfamiliar with the American

way of life and business practices. Thus, a number of

cooperatives appeared in the San Joaquin Valley that were

exclusively Portuguese in membership, and in which ail

minutes, by-laws and other business matters were conducted

in the native language of the Azorean immigrant.

Complete cultural unity among the Azorean Portu­

guese has resulted in cultural indices which indicate the

distribution of Portuguese dairymen. The desire to cling

to old world traditions and ways of lij-e demanded the

celebration of certain religious and social customs, and,

therefore, the construction of Portuguese fraternal hails.

The very fact that the distribution of Portuguese dairymen

is apparent by the landscape they inhabit is the direct

result of cultural differences.

There is no doubt in this writer's mind that tne

circumstance of time and place, combined with cultural

differences, resulted in the occurrence 01 Portuguese

dairymen in the San Joaquin Valley. However, the

perpetuation and growth of Portuguese interest in the

dairy industry, and the distribution, role and oharaoter

73

of their dairy operations stems primarily from differences

in culture alone.

The Efface of Cultural Assimilation

The future will be characterized by many changes

in the major geographic dimensions of Portuguese dairying

in the San Joaquin Valley, and these changes will be

greatly affected by cultural assimilation. The number of

Portuguese dairymen will probably remain static, yet their

role in the industry will increase in importance. Dis­

tinctive patterns of distribution and cultural indices to

settlement will slowly disappear, as will the Portuguese

emphasis on family and ethnic ties. However, the present

Portuguese role in the dairy industry will become increas­

ingly meaningful in terms of relative importance, sophis­

tication, and even prestige.

As early as 1941, evidence of assimilation among

the Portuguese in California was noted in the literature

of sociologists, for one author made the following

observation:

there can be no doubt that assimilation is taking place in the California Portuguese group. I n d i c a t i o n s a r e v i s i b l e o n e v e r y s i d e . . . . will be merely a matter of time until the ol^er generation passes on, leaving the seeon Se tion with substantial backgrounds to carry on the American way of life (Estep, 1941, p. b9).

The process of assimilation is well underway, and when it

is complete, the Portuguese dairymen will no longer ne

distinctive in terms of their number, distribution, role

and character in the San Joaquin Valley dai.y industry

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Barnes, W. J. 19 50 Portugal: Gateway to Greatness. London: Edward Stanford, Limited.

Brown, Francis J. and Roucek, Joseph S. 1952 Our Racial and National Minorities. New York: Prentice-Hall.

Bryans, Robin. 1963 The Azores. London: -aber and Faber, Limited.

Cronise, Titus Fey. 186 8 The Natural Wealth of California. San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft and Company.

Da Costa, Francisco Carreiro. 1967 Acores. Lisboa: Editorial de Publicacoes Tunsticas.

Dervenn, Claude. 1955 The Azores. Paris: Horizons de

France.

Bpp-ein^dohn-

Mene£ee' Angeles: Historic Record Company.

"Mke.aU. Marvin and Wagner, Phillip- 19 62 Jea|iH|3_in Cultural Geography. Chicago. uuxv Chicago Press.

Pan, Leo. 19 49 Porhnauese-AmericanjEgech- New York: The MacMilla.n Company.

Thr D.rfwmiP.se Pioneers. London: Prestage, Edgar. 19 33

A. C. Black, Limited.

Roske, Ralph J. 19 6 8 New York: MacMillan Company.

75

Salitore, Edward V. and Salitore, Evelyn D. 1957 California Information Almanac. Garden City, New Yorx: Doubleday Company, Inc.

Smith, Wallace. 1939 Garden of the Sun. Fresno: Max Hardison--A-l PrintersT

Smith, William Carlson. 1939 Americans in the Making. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.

Soares, Celestino. 1939 California and the Portuguese. Lisbon: SPN Books.

Taft, Donald R. 1923 Two Portuguese Communities in New England. New York: Longmans, Green and Company.

Vaz, August Mark. 1965 The Portuguese in California. San Francisco: The Filmer Brothers Press, Taylor and Taylor.

Walker, Walter Frederick. 1386 The Azores' or Western Isles; a Political, Commercial and Geographical Account, London: Trubner and Company.

Periodicals

Adams, Harriet Chalmers. 1935 "European Outpost: The Azores." National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 57, 35-66.

Bohme, Frederick G. 19 56 "The Portuguese in Cali-tornia. California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 35, 233-252 .

Esteo Gerald A 1941 "Portuguese Assimilation in Hawaii and California." Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 26, 61-69.

Goncalves, J. J. 1968 "Os Portugueses No Continente Americano." Comunidades Portugueses, Vol. o, 59-88.

Gregor, Howard F. .1963 "Industrialized Drylot Dairying. An Overview." Economic Geography, Vol. j9, 299-318.

Hoffman, Frederic L. 1899 "The Portuguese Population in the United States." Journal or tng_Amerrcan Statistical Association, Vol. o, 32/-5Jfc>.

76

Mowry, Emily Yates. 1911 "Portuguese Colonies m California, A Problem in Race Amalgamation. Outwest, NS, Vol. 1, 114-117.

Reynolds, A. E. 1955 "California Type Dairy Buildings." California Department of Agriculture, Quarterly Bulletin, Vol. 44, 155-158.

ihickens, Virginia E. 1946 "Pioneer Agricultural Colonies of Fresno County." California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 25, 17-38 and 169-177.

Wright, Doris M. 1941 "The Making of a Cosmopolitan California—An Analysis of Immigration, 1848-1870.' California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 19, 323-343 and Vol. 20, 65-79.

Theses and Dissertations

Bannick, Christian John. 1917 "Portuguese Immigration to the United States; Its Distribution and Status." Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of California, Berkeley.

Copley, R. E. 1961 "An Historical Geography of the Dairy Industry of Stanislaus County, California." Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of California, Berkeley.

Hallinan, Tim. 1968 "The Portuguese in California." Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of California, Berkeley.

Public Documents

U. S. Census of Agriculture, 1860. U. S. Government Printing Office.

Transactions of the State Agricultural Society^ 1901-1902. Sacramento: State Printing Office.

Flaten, Duane E. 1969 "Manufactured Dairy Milk Production, Utilization and Price. Cjlif£|^_ Dairy Industry Statistics for 19o . Deoartment of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, California Crop and Livestock Report­

ing Service.

77

Newspapers

Hanford Journal. 1895 Article, July 9.

0 Jornal Portugues. 1938 "Os Portuguesas da California." Numero Especial, Oakland.

APPENDIX A

List of Persons Interviewed

Alameda County:

Ernest Mendes

Carlos Almeida

Fresno County:

Richard Eide

Ronald McGlaughlan

Gene Scaramella

A. F. Mendes

T. and J. Mendes

Douglas Maddox

Edwin Maddox

M. F. Lopes

F. M. Toste

Kings County:

S. Silva

Manuel Pareira

V. E. Macedo

J. Bello

Raul de Campos

Past State President, I.D.E.S.

Curator, Freitas Library

Dairy Advisor, UC Extension

Dairy Inspector, Health Department

Manager, Danish Creamery

Dairyman, Riverdale (Retired)

Dairymen, Riverdale

Dairyman, Riverdale

Agricultural Sales, San Joaquin

Dairyman, Riverdale

Dairyman, Fresno

Dairyman, Hanford

Dairyman, Hanford (Retired)

Dairyman, Hanford (Retired)

Manager, Kings County Creamery

Assn.

Physician-Historian, Hanford

Merced County:

Walter Terra

J. Dias

San Joaquin:

A. Mancebo

Stanislaus:

Joseph Avila

Howard Lassig

Edward Nunes

M. Fernandes

J. Farinha

Tulare County:

George de Madeiros

Joseph Soares

Manager, Los Banos Dairyman's

Assn.

Dairyman, Gustine

Dairyman, Manteca

Field Representative, E-W Dairy

man's Assn.

Manager, E-W Dairyman's Assn.

Field Representative, Golden

Valley Creamery

Dairyman, Newman

Dairyman, Crows Landing

Manager, Tulare Dairyman's Coop

Attorney, Tulare

APPENDIX B

The Questionnaire (Portuguese)

Place a check ( ) or fill-in the blanks as appropriate.

1. By descent, I am: Portuguese? Non-Portuguese?

2. My operation is: Family Partnership? Non-Family Partnership? Other? (specify)

3. I market by: Co-op? Independent? Other? (specify) _

4. I am an: Owner?_ Renter?

5. My farm is approximately acres in size.

6. In my milking herd, I have approximately_ cows.

7. I employ workers on my dairy. Of this number, are of Portuguese descent.

8. I am: 1st 2nd_ 3rd__ 4th_ 5th_ generation Portuguese.

9. My family is: Azorean? Continental Portuguese? Madeiran?

10. If from the Azores, which island? San Miguel? Terceira? Pico? Fayal? Flores? Corvo? Santa Maria? San Jorge? Graciosa?

11. The earliest immigrant member of my family came to California in the year r a nd lived near the town of .

12. That same immigrant ancestor first worked as

13. The earliest immigrant member of my family in the San Joaquin Valley began dairying in the year near the town of

81

14. Why, in your opinion riiri -t-K^ family choose dairyinq- in nrAf6^ members of your economic activities? Preference to other

A stamped, self-addressed envelope is enclosed for vour convenience. Thank you. eQ ror your

82

(Non-Portuguese Questionnaire)

DIRECTIONS: Questions 1-4; place a check in the appro­priate blank.

1. By descent, I am: Swiss? _ D utch? Portuguese? Italian? Other? (specify) ———

2. I am an: Owner? Renter?

3. My operation is: Family Partnership? Non-Family Partnership? Independent Operation? Other? (specify) __

4. I market by: Co-op? Independent? Other? (specify) "

DIRECTIONS: Questions 5-8; fill-in the appropriate response.

5. My farm is approximately acres in size.

6. In my milking herd, I have approximately cows

7. I employ workers on my dairy. Of this number, • are of Portuguese descent and

are of my own descent.

8. Members of my family have been dairying in the San Joaquin Valley since the year •

A stamped, self-addressed return envelope is enclosed for your convenience. Thank you.

APPENDIX C

Analysis of the Questionnaire Returns

Number of Questionnaires Sent: 1,205

Number Returned: 599 Percent Returned: 49.5

Number of Portuguese Questionnaires Returned: 210

Number of non-Portuguese Questionnaires Returned: 389

Results of the Portuguese Questionnaire:

Family Partnerships: 105 Percent of Total: 50

Non-Family Partnerships: 8 Percent of Total: 4

Independent: 97 Percent of Total: 46

Owners: 175 Percent of Total: 83.5

Renters: 35 Percent of Total: 16.5

Market by Cooperative: 124 Percent of Total: 59.4

Market by Independent: 85 Percent of Total: 40

Total Acreage: 72,998 Average per Farm: 347.6

Total Cows: 52,243 Average per Herd: 248.8

Total Number of Workers: 578

Average Workers per Farm: 2.75

Number of Portuguese Workers-: 476

Average Portuguese Workers per Farm: 2.26

Average Percent of Portuguese Workers per Farm: 69

Percent of Portuguese Workers on Portuguese Dairy

Farms: 82

Number of Portuguese Dairymen that are:

1st Generation - 59 or 28%

2nd Generation - 98 or 46.5%

3rd Generation - 34 or 16%

4th Generation - 10 or 5%

5th Generation - 9 or 4.3%

Number of Azoreans: 208 Percent Azoreans: 99

Number of Continental Portuguese: 2 Percent: 1

Island of Origin of Azorean Dairymen:

San Miguel: 3 Percent of Total: 1.4

Terceira: 133 Percent of Total: 63

Pico: 25 Percent of Total: 11.9

Fayal: 7 Percent of Total: 3.5

Flores: 5 Percent of Total: 2.4

Santa Maria: 2 Percent of Total: .95

San Jorge: 32 Percent of Total: 15

Graciosa: 1 Percent of Total: .47

Corvo: 0

nmigrants first located in:

San Joaquin Valley: 143 Percent of Total: 68

California Coast: 15 Percent of Total: 7

Bay Area: 39 Percent of Total: 18.5

Atlantic Seaboard: 6 Percent of Total: 2.9

Other: 6 Percent of Total: 2.9

85

Immigrants first worked as:

Dairy hand; milker: 166 Percent of Total: 79

Shepherds: 18 Percent of Total: 8.5

Industry : 5 Percent of Total: 2.4

Fishing and Whaling: 1 Percent of Total: .5

Mining: 4 Percent of Total: 2

Other: 17 Percent of Total: 8

:arted Dairying first in which county:

San Joaquin: 18 Percent of Total: 8.5

Stanislaus: 28 Percent of Total: 13

Merced: 39 Percent of Total: 18.5

Madera: 3 Percent of Total: 1.3

Fresno: 15 Percent of Total: 7.1

Kings: 45 Percent of Total: 21.4

Tulare: 61 Percent of Total: 29

Kern: 1 Percent of Total: .5

Why started dairying:

Familiarity with animals: 116 Percent of Total: 55

Lack of Education: 39

Family and Ethnic Ties: 15

Others: 40

Percent of Total: 18.5

Percent of Total: 7.5

Percent of Total: 19

(A combination of the first three generally was cited.)

Immigration to California:

Before 1881: 1% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

Terceira

2% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

San Jorge

86

1881-1900:

1901-1920:

After 1920

3% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

Pico

6% of all Portuguese dairymen came to

California

5% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

Terceira

5% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

San Jorge

2% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

Pico

15% of all Portuguese dairymen came to

California

50% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

Terceira

8% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

San Jorge

5% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

Pico

68% of all Portuguese dairymen came to

California

7% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

Terceira

.5% of all Portuguese dairymen came

from San Jorge

1% of all Portuguese dairymen came from

Pico

87

12-s of all Portuguese dairymen came to

California

Number of Portuguese dairymen from Terceira, San Jorge

and Pico; 190 Percent of Total: 89

133 or 63% of all Portuguese dairymen came to California

between 1901 and 1920 from only three islands:

Terceira, San Jorge and Pico.

Results of the non-Portuguese Questionnaire:

Descent of dairymen:

Swiss: 34

Italian: 25

Swedish: 18

Dutch: 100

German: 29

English: 19

Other: 164

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

(Other includes those not answering)

Owners: 311

Renters: 78

Family Partnerships: 158

Non-Family Partnerships: 20

Independent: 201

Other: 10

Market by cooperative: 176

Market by independent: 209

Other: 4 (corporations)

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

Percent of Total:

8.75

6.4

4.6

25.6

7.6

5

5

80

20

40.5

5.15

51.5

2.5

45

54

'I

88

Total acreage: 136.150 * Jb,±50 Average per farm: 350

Total cows: 99,513 , Average per herd: 256

Total number of workers: 1305

Total number of Portuguese workers: 407 Percent: 32

Number of dairymans' own descent: 223 Percent: 19

Number of a descent other than that of

dairyman questionned: 630 Percent: 49

Started Dairying before 1900: 16 Percent of Total: 4

Started Dairying before 1920: 78 Percent of Total: 20

Started Dairying after 1920: 311 Percent of Total: 80