The city ofNewark,New Jersey, includes a largePortuguese-speaking population. Newark has been nicknamed "Little Portugal" due to its large number of Portuguese-speaking and Portuguese-descended people. Most Lusophone Americans in Newark live in the working-class neighborhood ofIronbound.[1]
In addition to immigrants fromPortugal, Newark also has a large population of immigrants fromBrazil andCape Verde and to a lesser extentAngola.
The first Portuguese immigrants to Newark came during the early 1900s and the greatest influx of Portuguese was during the 1950s.
Despite there being very little immigration fromPortugal in the 21st-century, there are still many Portuguese-speaking immigrants settling in the city and its surrounding area. Today, mostLusophone immigrants arrive fromBrazil andPortuguese-speaking Africa, especiallyCape Verde andMozambique. Another place of origin isGalicia, a region of Spain where Galician (also known asGallego) is the spokenlanguage. Gallego it is also known as old-Portuguese because it is the ancestor of modern Portuguese.[2]
In 1995, there were 30,000 Luso-Americans living in Newark.[3]
2022ACS data showed that Essex county had 13,729 residents ofPortuguese ancestry (1.62% of the population), while an additional 14,966 (1.76% of the total) were ofBrazilian ancestry and 787 were ofCape Verdean descent. In total, 3.47% of the population had its origins in these three Portuguese-speaking countries as of 2022. In the whole of New Jersey around 76,013 people were reported being of Portuguese descent, 1,166 of Cape Verdean and 51,266 of Brazilian ancestry. Of the 128,445 people (1.39% of the population) whose origins lied in the three aforementioned countries, 22.95% lived in Essex county.[4]
Augusto Amador, of Portuguese ancestry, was a member of theMunicipal Council of Newark representing East Ward for 24 years. He assumed office on July 1, 1998, and was consistently re-elected until he left office on June 30, 2022.[5]
Ferry Street is the major thorofare in theIronbound, which begins aPeter Francisco Park nearNewark Penn Station. ThePortugal Day Festival in Newark an annual event. TheBrazilian Press is based in neighborhood.
ThePortugal Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains theconsulate in the city.[6]
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