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Larry Cravalho stood outside a house that represents the past and dreamed of what he wants to build in the future.
“Is it a big dream? Yes it is,” he said.
Cravalho’s big dream is to build a Portuguese Cultural Center, a place where every Portuguese club in Hawaii (and there are quite a few, he says) can hold meetings, stage public events, offer classes and keep historical objects that are often donated by families. There’s the Japanese Cultural Center in Moiliili, the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu, the Hawaii Okinawa Center in Waipio, but nothing similar for the Portuguese community.
The nonprofit 501(c)(3) Portuguese Culture &Historical Center doesn’t have the land yet, but Cravalho, 77, is so committed to this goal that he’s been collecting money from recycled cans and bottles, holding garage sales, dipping into his own savings for the seed money so that someday, someday …
“What’s the saying, ‘You have to walk the walk?’ Well, I’m walking it,” Cravalho said.
The key, he realized, was to not walk alone. On Friday, representatives from several Hawaii Portuguese heritage groups came together for a blessing of the Portuguese house at the Hawaii Plantation Village in Waipahu. The groups “adopted” the structure, a replica of a 1920s house from Poamoho camp, and pledged to do repairs and maintenance, tend the surrounding gardens, and care for the antiques inside. It was a way to start working together and talking about how to take this reverence for the past into the future.
Bishop Larry Silva, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, was asked to bless the Portuguese house project, and used the moment to talk about pride of heritage “not to divide, but to unite, so that we may go forward to the future hand in hand with all races for the betterment of all.”
Cravalho listened to the Bishop’s message and nodded his head.
Daniel Pires, of the cultural group Nova Esperanza, is one of Cravalho’s allies. “There’s been talk of a center before, but nothing came about until Larry’s plan,” Pires said.
Part of the challenge is that, in contrast to other groups that immigrated to Hawaii to work in sugar, the Portuguese did not keep much of their culture intact. Portuguese immigration was from 1878 to roughly 1911. “In our family, there are nine generations after the first who came here,” said Willetta Centeio of the Hawaii Council of Portuguese Heritage.
If all the retirees in the various Portuguese clubs are there to hold on to the past, Tyler Dos Santos-Tam represents the future. Dos Santos-Tam, 31, is the new honorary consul of Portugal in Hawaii and head of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce. The Punahou grad has a degree in political science from Yale University, where he also got a second major in Portuguese.
He is fluent in the language, full of energy and busy planning events to share Portuguese culture in new ways, like hosting a Portuguese author of children’s books at public libraries and having a Portuguese wine-
tasting evening to appeal to millennials.
“My generation is super mixed,” he said, meaning most, like him, are part Portuguese and part a lot of other things. But like Dos Santos-Tam, many are interested in their roots. “Coming up in the 2020 Census, it will be the first time people will be able to write in their race and ethnicity rather than check a box,” he said. “We’re hoping more people who are Portuguese include that in their information.”
This all fits into Cravalho’s dream, this mix of
preserving, learning, connecting and including.
Cravalho knows his plan can’t work with just money from recycling cans and $10 donations from club members. He needs big donors and donations from large companies. “I’m not the kind to put on a tie and go talk to these people,” he said. “I’m a worker bee.”
But so far he hasn’t found anyone else to wear the tie, so he perseveres.
“I wish I had started this 20 years ago,” Cravalho said. “I would have built the center by now.”
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
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