Introduction

My name is Katie Alexander. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, so Bay Area history is very interesting to me, especially the specific local histories that you wouldn't know about unless you lived here.

I have a BA in European history from CSUEB, as well as a teaching credential in social science and English. the teaching profession being what it is, i haven't been able to find a job, and 2 years of subbing can really make a person jaded. so, now I am pursing my MA in history.

For this class, I went through several different topics before I chose one. First, I thought about researching Pleasanton's history, since that's where I live, but it just wasn't very appealing. Then, I really wanted to pursue Italian-American civil rights violations during WWII, and why that has been a forgotten history. Although there was a lot of information on this topic, most was not related to the bay area and I couldn't find any local sites that could give me more information. Finally, I arrived at my topic--Portuguese culture in the Bay Area. I want to look at how the culture changed from the Azores (most Portuguese people in the US are from the Azores Islands, owned by Portugal) to the bay area, and how the culture changed when areas like San Jose, Hayward, San Leandro, etc. changed from rural farm communities to large towns and metro areas. I ended up with this topic because I realized I have a lot of first hand sources in my relatives that I could interview and there are a lot of places I could visit, like Portuguese halls and Portuguese restaurants in San Jose.

(map from www.worldatlas.com)

This is a map of the 9 Azores islands on the left, and their relation to Europe and Africa on the right. The little tiny island on the top left, Flores, is where my family is from.