Giuseppe Formato
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May 2026
On May 15, 2026, I presented collaborative research co-authored with Graça Índias Cordeiro at the conference Voices and Visions: Lusophone Communities in the Global Landscape, organized by the International Lusophone Studies Association and hosted at University of British Columbia.
Our paper, “Urban Displacements: The Azorean Diaspora and the Rebranding of Portuguese Identity in Boston,” examines the shifting representation of Azorean identity in Portuguese American public culture over time. Focusing on a large-scale 1932 celebration organized by the Portuguese American Civic League in Inman Square, which drew over 75,000 participants and prominently featured Azorean culture, the study contrasts this moment with a 2014 youth conference that revealed a striking shift toward mainland-centered, nationalized, and often nostalgic representations of “Portuguese” identity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldnotes, photographs, media sources, and institutional materials, the research traces how community-based, Azorean-rooted expressions have increasingly been replaced by centralized, depoliticized, and tourism-oriented spectacles, particularly following the relocation of celebrations to Boston City Hall Plaza in 2018. By analyzing parades, folklore, and performative nationalism, the project highlights the tensions between local memory, diaspora identity, and the commodification of Portugueseness, showing how grassroots forms of belonging are reshaped by broader ideological and institutional forces.
In April 2026, our collaborative research was presented by Graça Índias Cordeiro at the ASPHS 2026 Annual Conference, held in Toronto. Our paper, “Between Tremont Street and the Island of Santa Maria: Belonging and Identity in the Azorean Diaspora of Cambridge and Somerville, MA,” explores the lived experiences of Azorean immigrants and their descendants through a multidisciplinary lens that brings together ethnography, history, and sociolinguistics. Centered on the Monteiro family, who emigrated from Santa Maria in the early 1960s during the Estado Novo, the study traces more than fifty years of life along Tremont Street, straddling the border between Cambridge and Somerville.
April 2026
The research highlights how identity and belonging are negotiated across two interconnected geographies: the enduring memory and heritage of Santa Maria, and the everyday realities of community life in the United States. Rather than centering displacement or urban change, the project foregrounds the roles of place, kinship, and memory in shaping a sense of home that is both transnational and deeply local. Methodologically, the work unfolds as a dialogic collaboration enriched by community voices and material artifacts such as photographs, diaries, clothing, recipes, and domestic objects, illuminating how identity is lived and sustained across generations.
February 2026
Dr. Formato's tutoring service LinguaVerso is named the 2026 best language school of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Program offerings include studies in both Italian and European Portuguese.
