Conference Seeks Recognition Of Portuguese Minority Status

The first annual Congress of the Portuguese in America ended yesterday in Boylston Hall with the passage of a series of resolutions aimed at unifying Portuguese-Americans nationwide.

The Congress called for official government recognition--through equal opportunities, equal education and inclusion in affirmative action plans--of Portuguese-Americans as a minority group.

"We've always been included with all people with Spanish surnames," Russ Viveiros, assistant director of the Cambridge Organization of Portuguese-Americans (COPA) said yesterday. "We want separate minority status."

The group also voted for the publication and distribution of transcripts of the proceedings of the three-day Congress.

Organizers of the Congress had hoped that about 300 delegates would attend. However, Aurelio Torres, director of COPA--which organized the Congress--said yesterday that he was disappointed at the turnout of only 200.

The Congress featured a series of workshops on Saturday, a speech by State Rep. Ronald Pina (D-New Bedford), and folk-dances and music by the Grupo Folclorico of Fall River.

Most of the delegates to the Congress came from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and California, the four states with the heaviest concentration of Portuguese-Americans.

Torres said Thursday that officials at all levels of government, including President Nixon, had been invited to the Congress. Cambridge Mayor Barbara Ackermann and a representative from the office of Governor Francis W. Sargent came to the Congress.

"The Congress allows us to keep in contact with everybody interested in the problems of Portuguese-Americans," Torres said. "We'll be able to increase our numbers, and gain power. We're in high gear now."