I've lived close to the eastern seaboard all of my life and it's only recently come to my attention that is a long-established Portuguese community there, going well back into the 17th century. I've had to do some digging around online but there're several organizations in the U.S., like the Portuguese-American Club, that exist to support the continuation of Portugal's underspoken heritage in the country. One can easily imagine, say, Irishmen in New England (i.e. the Kennedy family) but the presence of Portuguese in the English colonies predates the Irish diaspora by a while:
Portuguese people have had a very long history in the United States (from 1634), which may even be pre-Columbian, although there is lack of solid historical evidence. Navigators, like the Corte-Real family, may have visited the North American shores at the beginning of the 16th century.[2] There is a monumental landmark, the Dighton Rock, in southeastern Massachusetts, that testifies their presence in the area. During the Colonial period, there was limited Portuguese emigration to the present day U.S., especially on the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
And etc.
Portuguese American - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I'm assuming that these settlers from Portugal established some of the first Catholic parishes in North America?
Marcadores