Oral History Interview with Renato Lima, September 17, 2016 Biographical Note: Born on the island of Faial in 1939; one of four children (three boys and one girl) of Joaquin and Antonieta deLima; Renato Lima was educated in the Faial schools and graduated from high school on Terceira island; began playing soccer as a boy and became one of Faial’s highly skilled players; moved to the island of Terceira after the devastating eruptions (1957-58) of Vulcão dos Capelinhos; after working in a governmental job for the water department on Terceira, and playing soccer for the successful Sport Clube Lusitânia, Mr. Lima immigrated to the United States in 1962, settling with Portuguese friends in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where his brothers and sister would also settle; Mr. Lima obtained a factory job in Malden Mills (in Lawrence); moved briefly to Taunton, Massachusetts, where he was paid to play on a Portuguese soccer team (Taunton Sports Soccer Club), but returned to Lawrence after one year and worked for a rubber and vinyl manufacturer; he married a Portuguese woman whom he had met on Terceira and who immigrated from Terceira to Lawrence to marry him; remained an avid soccer player and fan, and was also active in Lawrence’s Portuguese-American Club. Scope and Contents: Interview conducted by local historian Mehmed Ali, this interview covers the aftermath of the volcanic eruptions on the island of Faial and the effect on the largely agrarian population; much of the focus is on the Portuguese community in Lawrence, the various factories where Portuguese émigrés worked, the city’s small Portuguese Catholic parish (Saint Peter and Paul Catholic Church), and the relationship between Lowell’s Portuguese and those in Lawrence.
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