Resolution honors Azorean Refugee Act

By MICHAEL DOYLE
BEE WASHINGTON BUREAU

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WASHINGTON — John F. Kennedy helped populate the San Joaquin Valley with Azoreans. Now, valley lawmakers are offering a belated thanks.

In a commemoration that's also a rich political lesson, six House members are honoring long-ago congressional efforts on behalf of Azoreans displaced by a 1950s volcano. The volcano subsided, but the consequences of Kennedy's efforts can be felt today.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, has introduced a resolution commemorating the half-century-old Azorean Refugee Act. The legislation and its successors welcomed thousands of refugees fleeing the Capelhinos volcano, which boiled the island of Faial from September 1957 to October 1958.

"Everywhere within a four-mile radius the lava and ash spread fear and destruction," Kennedy declared on the Senate floor June 30, 1958.

Costa and his valley co-authors, Reps. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, and Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, represent sizable Portuguese-American constituencies. One of Costa's grandfathers emigrated from Portugal in 1899, and another came in 1904.

In a similar expression of all politics is local, the valley's Hmong refugees persuaded Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, to denounce the socialist Laotian government. And the valley's significant Sikh population persuaded former Rep. Gary Condit of Ceres to opine on internal Indian politics.

The 2000 census identified 1.1 million Portuguese-Americans living in the United States — 330,000 in California.

"There are still a lot of living immigrants who came as a result of that (1958) legislation," said Nunes' chief of staff, Johnny Amaral, whose grandparents emigrated from Faial.

Costa and his colleagues introduced the Azorean Refugee Act commemoration July 31. Shortly thereafter, Costa and Nunes departed for the Azores, a cluster of islands 900 miles west of Portugal, where they visited relatives and helped residents commemorate the volcanic eruption.

"The eruption of the Capelhinos volcano led to a wave of Portuguese immigration that brought more than 175,000 Azoreans to the United States between 1960 and 1980," the resolution states.

It glosses over politically instructive details.

The initial moving force behind the Azorean Refugee Act was Sen. John O. Pastore, a Rhode Island Democrat who introduced the measure June 4, 1958. The legislation authorized 1,500 visas for Azoreans affected by the volcano.

Kennedy, then a Massachusetts senator, came on board three weeks later. So did others.

"In the district which I represent in California are a great many families of Portuguese extraction," then-Rep. John McFall, a Democrat from Manteca, declared Aug. 22, 1958. "These people have earned the reputation as fine, hardworking, law-abiding citizens."

The 1958 political maneuvering took some familiar sounding turns.

Other senators said they wanted "comprehensive" immigration legislation. Senate leaders, though, warned the Azorean refugee bill would die if anyone hijacked it as a vehicle for broader immigration reform.

Bee Washington Bureau reporter Michael Doyle can be reached at mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com or 202-383-0006.