Mineola Portuguese Center celebrates 80 years
The Mineola Portuguese Center celebrated its 80th anniversary recently, an occasion that marked eight decades of the center’s rich past and shed light on its promising future.
Over the years, the center, also known as the Portuguese American Club, has been a safe haven and meeting place for hundreds of Portuguese people who have made New York their home. The large Portuguese community both in Mineola and surrounding communities come to the center for many reasons, including joining family for lunch, holding celebrations, meeting with like-minded people or to just feel a bit more connected to their Portuguese roots.
(Photo courtesy of Henrique Mano—Luso Americano Newspaper)
Gabriel Marques, a past board member who remains actively involved in the club, said it has a very special place in the hearts of many of the Portuguese on Long Island.
“I hold true to the belief that there’s always a little bit of Portugal left in Mineola if we have the center. It’s where you can go and meet people with unbelievable stories who immigrated here or raised families here,” Marques said. “It’s a nice, relaxing place to go and be with friends and family, and make new friends and family, and feel like you’re bigger than something than yourself.”
“There’s always a little bit of Portugal left in Mineola if we have the center.” -Gabriel Marques
The club started with a few dozen people in a house adjacent to the Davenport Press in 1936, and now at its current location at 306 Jericho Tpke. in Mineola, boasts more than 600 members from all over the state. In addition to a catering hall and restaurant, the center houses several fraternal groups, including two folklore dance groups, the Mineola Portuguese Soccer Club, Euro Stars Hockey Team, Daughters of Portugal, a motorcycle club and is the monthly meeting place for the Long Island Portuguese Lions Club.
Recently, the center has made a push to see younger generations involved, a move that is aided in large part by the soccer club and annual Portugal Day parade in June.
“We’re starting to see third and fourth generations becoming involved, and more youth involvement,” said Marques. “The efforts to reach out to the youth are working and we’re seeing the mentoring of the grandfathers and fathers, and now the grandsons and sons are starting to take leadership positions in the club.”
