Casa da Saudade’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage must be protected
Letter to the editor: What is historical and cultural heritage? What do we choose to protect and cherish?
My heart sank when I read the news about the possible closure of New Bedford’s Casa da Saudade Branch Library, the only public Portuguese language library in the country, established in 1971 to service the needs of the local community. I understand that some tough budgetary decisions have to be made in difficult times, but this short-sighted blow to a large percentage of residents won’t solve or contribute to a solution. It will, however, diminish and impoverish New Bedford as a multicultural city, a destination for cultural heritage tourism.
The quote ‘If you bulldoze your heritage, you become just anywhere,’ by Sarah Delano, President of the Waterfront Historic Area League, 1966-1982, is well-known to locals who care about the historic harbor and fishing industry, who care about our whaling past so eloquently portrayed by Melville in Moby Dick, who care about the fine homes built by whaling captains and merchants, who care about our theaters, our legacy parks, gardens and centuries-old trees.
It took decades of hard work and determination by previous mayors like John Bullard, by members of the New Bedford Historical Preservation Society, and W.H.A.L.E. to foster the ideals of preservation, renovation, historical relevance of neighborhoods, mills and important figures in our past. It has made many New Bedford residents appreciate its unique history, worthy of attracting visitors, and others like me, who grew up here, to return and buy a historic home.
Many have written or will write about Casa’s beginnings, its five decades of service, its significance to the multicultural bilingual citizens it served and serves, including out-of-state users who pursued genealogical interests, sociology and anthropology researchers from multiple countries, local teachers and translators in search of support materials, and writers who have used its reference and poetry sections to inspire their works.
Instead, I want to focus on the idea or vision of New Bedford as being a hub for preservation and a destination for historical and cultural heritage tourism. I believe that Casa and its current location at 58 Crapo Street is an example of tangible and intangible cultural heritage combined, as defined by UNESCO. Not only for the Portuguese-American or Lusophone communities, but for the City of New Bedford, the Southcoast and beyond. It should be protected and supported, but not just as another branch that must justify its existence by circulation statistics only. Casa’s historical significance is unique, as are the special collections it houses, and the diverse cultural events it promotes. It’s more than current books, periodicals, and audio-visual materials. It includes out-of-print volumes donated by both private citizens and Portuguese governmental and cultural institutions like the Instituto Português do Livro of the Gulbenkian Foundation Book Fund (IPLB), the Azorean Regional Cultural Fund and others. It includes paintings, photographs, and crafts donated by various artists. It was the site of many historical visits by Portuguese Heads of State; writers and poets, like José Dias de Melo and Nobel laureate José Saramago. For more than five decades it has served the community in engaging and creative ways. Casa has a long history of collaboration with the Center for Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at Brown University, the Center for Portuguese Studies at UMass-Dartmouth, the University of the Azores, and other academic institutions. In the words of Casa’s first Library Assistant, Dineia M. Amaral Sylvia, quoted in a Standard Times article from 1997:
“…the library is unique in the country and perhaps the world. We are more than a public library, we house a few irreplaceable books,” Ms. Sylvia said. “We serve a cross section of the community Portuguese, Cape Verdean and Brazilian students who visit us from Boston, Brockton, Providence, Fall River and the Cape looking for material to complete their works. We are regularly visited by a lady from Western Massachusetts who flies in her twin-engine plane to pick up material.”
And it’s much more than the patrons it now serves or will serve if it remains open. We owe it to the people and community leaders who had the vision to make the dream of “Casa” a reality in 1971, and to keep it for future generations as a blueprint of what citizens with the help of local, state and federal governments can accomplish for the common good. If we dismantle it, we will never get it back. What an immeasurable loss of what is a source of pride and collective enrichment, a place that showcases the contributions of the Portuguese speaking communities of New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Acushnet and the surrounding areas.
Please do not transfer its reference and special collections to other sites. Don’t close this safe and welcoming place for the neighborhood’s retired community elders that meet there. When they finally have the leisure time to enjoy its materials and programs the City takes it all away? Why not find alternative measures to closing the library? Rearrange the schedule to fit patron’s needs and include Saturday hours to accommodate out-of-town students. Trim or freeze book or other materials budgets for a year or two. Engage library patrons and advocates, Portuguese-American business leaders and others to donate and sponsor books or programming. Send out a call for help to the community at large. Casa is a legacy that should be preserved. If not by the City, then by a multicultural coalition of cultural brokers and friends.
Elisabeth Figueiredo Kastin was a library assistant at the New Bedford Main Library and Casa da Saudade from 1983 to 1996. Now retired, she was also an acquisitions technician at SOU-Hannon Library in Oregon.
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