Manuel da Costa
Businessmen & Philanthropist
Born in Castelo do Neiva.
Based in Toronto.
Gallery of the Portuguese Pioneers, 960 St. Clair Ave. West, Toronto
If there isn’t a voice… who says: “We can do better. We have better. We deserve better.” Nothing ever gets done. My thought was always, let’s do something different – Manuel da Costa.
Manuel da Costa is the owner of a successful roofing company for large structures that has employed several Portuguese emigrants since he founded it in 1984. Informed by his childhood memories of growing up in an impoverished family in a humble yet mutually supportive community of fishermen in northern mainland Portugal, Costa has dedicated much of his life to supporting various initiatives and organizations in Toronto’s Portuguese community. He also owns multiple non-profit cultural organizations and Portuguese-language media outlets.
Biography
Manuel da Costa was born in 1956 to an impoverished family in Castelo do Neiva, a fishing town in northern Portugal, where many men were part of the cod fishing White Fleet cod that traveled to the cold waters of the Grand Banks off the coast of Newfoundland every year. Costa grew up in a humble shack with no running water or electricity, on a small plot of land near the beach offered by the municipality. His mother left her home at age 11 to work as a domestic worker. After working in different towns, she settled in Castelo do Neiva where she met Costa’s father. Costa was the first of their children. For two years, his father joined the White Fleet. But after seeing so many of his co-workers die, he decided to quit and emigrated to France, where he lived for 11 years (the first five undocumented) away from his family, except for the many visits home.
Costa looked after his six younger siblings while his mother worked as a farmhand in the fields. He was also responsible for catching crabs, octopus, and other sea food during the low tide. His mother later rented a small plot of land on which they planted a few vegetables. Having no access to formal education, Costa, who started working in construction when he was 9-years-old, learned about the world from books borrowed from the mobile public library. Here he discovered his love for architecture, an interest he developed further upon observing how his mother made new additions to their house over the years. In 1967, Costa’s father decided to immigrate to Canada. He went first to Sudbury, where he lived for three years before calling for his family. At the last minute, he decided to move to Toronto, where Costa, his mother, and siblings settled after arriving on January 30, 1970. One of the reasons the Costa family left Portugal was to prevent the then 14-year-old Manuel from being drafted into the Colonial Wars.
Costa had never left his hometown or seen a city until they arrived in Lisbon for their flight to Canada. He was shocked by the size and life of the big city, including its hippies that gathered at the Brunswick House on Brunswick Ave. and Bloor St., about ten doors away from where the family settled. Costa, who did not speak English, enrolled at Central Technical High School, where he experienced discrimination from his teachers. The same year he arrived, Costa, the only child old enough to work for wages, found a job picking tomatoes in Wallaceburg (near Chatham) and tobacco. At night, he worked as a busboy and waiter in hotels or picked worms with his mother at night, contributing to the family’s savings towards buying a house, which they were able to do after two years.
At age 21, he got married, left his parent’s home, and went to work in construction. He also opened a business in Barrie, but it failed. Around 1976, already with a son, Costa found employment with an engineering company as a construction inspector in the roofing field. Five years into the job, the company offered to pay for Costa’s university studies, which he took advantage of. Costa enrolled in the architecture program at the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson), attending classes at night. In 1984, he opened his company, Viana Roofing & Sheet Metal Ltd., which focused on building rooftops in tall and complex buildings.
Costa is one of the most engaged philanthropists in Toronto’s Portuguese-Canadian community, supporting multiple educational and cultural initiatives and organizations, including the Portuguese Canadian History Project, Portuguese and Luso-Brazilian Studies Program at York University, Magellan Community Foundation; the Famous People Players theatre company is another major non-profit organization outside the Portuguese community that has counted on Costa’s generosity. Costa has also founded and led multiple non-profit cultural organizations and spaces in Toronto, including the Gallery of The Portuguese Pioneers – launched in 2013 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Portuguese mass immigration to Canada – Portuguese Canadian Walk of Fame, Camões Square, and Peach Gallery – the last three being in or around the First Portuguese Canadian Club’s Community Centre on 722 College Street. He also owns Manuel da Costa (MDC) Media Group Inc., which includes the Portuguese-language media outlets Milénio Stadium newspaper, Amar and Luso Life magazines, Camões Radio and TV, and the music label MDC Music.
Hora dos Portugueses
Artifacts
António Costa’s Barber Tools
Owners: António Manuel de Faria Costa & Ermilinda Costa
Place of origin: Middleton, Wisconsin, United States
Description: Pearl and black cordless Remington Lektronic IV electric shaver & metal razor blade and pearl plastic box. White tape on shaver has inscription “António Manuel de Faria Costa [,] Ermlinda Costa [,] 1954”
António Sousa’s Cameras
See 3D version here.
Owner: António Sousa
Place of origin: Canada
Description: Three cameras, including a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye.
These cameras belonged to António Sousa (the father of Charles Sousa), an immigrant from the fishing town of Nazaré, in central mainland Portugal, who landed at Pier 21 in Halifax aboard the steamship Saturnia on May 13, 1953. He was part of the first group of workers who arrived under a “bulk order” labour migration agreement between the governments of Canada and Portugal. António would become one of the most prominent Portuguese immigrants in Canada, as a successful businessman and community organizer in Toronto.
Like António, many of the early Portuguese migrants who arrived in the 1950s (the “pioneers”) took photos of the places they worked and lived in, and the people they met along the way, so they could send them to their loved ones in Portugal. In their letters home, some migrants left out their difficult situations and harsh realities encountered in Canada so not to upset their families or tarnish their masculinity as resilient “breadwinners.” These photos and letters home helped construct the myth of emigrant fortune that prevailed in Portugal since the 19th century, which in turn prompted many to try their luck abroad.
Some of the “pioneers” photos were published in the first books written about the history of Portuguese immigrants in Canada, including David Higgs and Grace Anderson, A Future to Inherit: The Portuguese Communities of Canada (1976) and Domingos Marques and João Medeiros, Portuguese Immigrants: 25 Years in Canada (1978). But it was the book by Domingos Marques and Manuela Marujo, With Hardened Hands: A Pictorial History of Portuguese Immigration to Canada in the 1950s (1993) that most contributed to introducing and popularizing the “pioneers’” photos and stories.
In these publications, the “pioneers” testimonials tended to focus on their hard work, initial struggles, isolation, and sacrifices, but also the camaraderie and mutual help between them. Their photos, in turn, showed them smiling, playing musical instruments, socializing, and having fun. Many of Sousa’s and other photos from the immigrants who arrived in the 1950s were donated to the Gallery of the Portuguese Pioneers.
Emanuel and Fátima de Paiva’s Santo Cristo Shrine
See 3D version here.
Creators:
Emanuel de Paiva and Fátima de Paiva
Place of origin: Brampton, Ontario
Date: October 31, 2010
Description: Ornate wooden box shrine with a handle on the top, carved floral patterns along the front edges, and two painted pink roses and green leaves on the front. Inside, protected by glass, an image of Ecce Homo standing on top of six saintly figure heads, alongside a crimson and white Holy Christ of Miracles cape, and red and white roses on the bottom. Written on the back of the box are the names of the authors and the date (above), and the inscription “Artes regional (sic) de Paiva [,] Brampton [,] com amor de açoreano para o museu dos pioneiros” (Regional Arts of Paiva, Brampton, with Azorean love to the museum of the pioneers). Signed Maria de Paiva.
For on the devotion to the Senhor Santo Cristo among Azorean immigrants, see our profile on St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
Guilherme Lebre’s Tool box
Owner:
Guilherme Francisco Lebre
Place or origin:
Toronto, Ontario
Description:
Worn wooden crate with a collection of wrenches, vice grips, and manual drill and other tools.
See 3D version here.
Audio caption
Guilherme Francisco Lebre was born into a family of farmers on March 6, 1932, in Santa Catarina da Serra, near Fátima, in central mainland Portugal. In 1956, Lebre migrated to Canada, where he arrived by plane on November 29. In February of the following year, he found his first job in an uranium mine near Elliot Lake, close to the north shore of Lake Huron in Ontario. During his first four days there, Lebre and three co-workers slept in a rented car that they left running all night in order not to freeze to death.
After 18 months, Lebre went back to Portugal to marry Maria Adelaide da Fonseca, in 1958. The couple moved to Toronto shortly after, where Lebre began working as a bike mechanic. After working in three different repair shops, he opened his own, in 1994, which was called Queen’s Bike Shop, located on 1537-A Queen St. West. After he retired in 1998, Lebre dedicated himself to carving wooden statuettes.
Guilherme Lebre’s Salazar Wooden Carving
Short description: Salazar Wood Carving
Date: 1999
Creator: Guilherme Francisco Lebre
Place of origin: Toronto, Ontario
Description: Wood carving of Portuguese dictator António Oliveira Salazar. Carved around the base are Salazar’s name; his years of birth and death (1889 & 1970) – also inscribed on a metal chip tacked on the back; and the author’s signature and date “G. Lebre. 1999.”
Guilherme Francisco Lebre was born into a family of farmers on March 6, 1932, in Santa Catarina da Serra, near Fátima, in central mainland Portugal. In 1956, Lebre migrated to Canada, where he arrived by plane on November 29. In February of the following year, he found his first job in an uranium mine near Elliot Lake, close to the north shore of Lake Huron in Ontario. During his first four days there, Lebre and three co-workers slept in a rented car that they left running all night in order not to freeze to death.
After 18 months, Lebre went back to Portugal to marry Maria Adelaide da Fonseca, in 1958. The couple moved to Toronto shortly after, where Lebre began working as a bike mechanic. After working in three different repair shops, he opened his own, in 1994, which was called Queen’s Bike Shop, located on 1537-A Queen St. West. After he retired in 1998, Lebre dedicated himself to carving wooden statuettes.
Audio caption
Manuel Camacho’s Cardboard Suitcase
Owner:
Manuel Gomes Camacho
Place of origin:
Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
Description:
Worn black cardboard suitcase with multiple stickers, including: “Companhia Nacional de Navegacao, Funchal, Classe B;” “American Export Lines, Tourist Class C;” “Italian C.”
See 3D version here.
Audio caption
Manuel Camacho was born in São Roque, Funchal district, Madeira island, on January 6, 1919. Before moving to Canada in 1953, he worked as a grocery clerk, and as a shipping and receiving clerk at the Pontinha harbour in Funchal. Manuel was among the first groups of Portuguese workers to arrive in Canada under a bulk order labour migration agreement negotiated between the governments of Portugal and Canada, which started in 1953. Manuel and a group of other Madeirans arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax on June 2. From there he was sent to Vancouver to work on a cattle farm. After two years, he moved to Toronto, where he found a job at a restaurant washing dishes. Shortly after that, he started working as a longshoreman in the Toronto docks, from which he retired in 1988.
His wife, Maria Ângela Xavier Abreu, joined Manuel in Canada in September 1959.
After retirement, he became very ill and lost his left leg; he kept his partial mobility with the aid of a prosthetic leg. He passed away in 1992.
Manuel Camacho was one of the founding members of Madeira Park and the Canadian Madeira Club.
Manuel da Silva’s Spray Tank Pump
See 3D version here.
Owner:
Manuel da Silva
Creator:
Auto Metalúrgica
Place of origin:
Bombarral, Portugal
Description:
“Pulverizador Lusitano” metal tank pump for carrying liquids, like water and chemicals, and spraying them on farm crops. The heavy tank is designed to be carried like a backpack by wearing the leather straps over the shoulders.
Audio caption
Most Portuguese immigrants came from rural and fishing backgrounds where they were accustomed to growing and preparing their own food. A significant number settled in the countryside, especially in southwesterrn Ontario and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Some became farmers growing orchards, vegetables, tobacco, horses, pork, and other products. But even among the majority that settled in the cities, there were many who grew their own vegetables in their backyard gardens, pickled their own food, butchered and cured their own meat, and made their own wine in their basements or in the garages on laneways. Grapes, juice and wine-making supplies were available for purchase in specialty stores, some of them owned by Portuguese or other Southern Europeans.
One such immigrant was Manuel da Silva. Born in Sítio da Serra D’Água, Machico, Madeira island, on June 19, 1920, Manuel worked as a fish boat captain in the port of Funchal, as a landscaper, and as a customs agent before migrating to Canada.
In 1953, already married and with five children, he became one of the first Portuguese “bulk order” migrant workers to arrive at Pier 21 in Halifax, aboard the Nella Hellas, on June 1. He was sent to work in various dairy, vegetables, and fruit farms across Quebec. A month later, he moved to Toronto and found work as a busboy at El Mocambo. He later found employment at the Dr. Ballard animal food factory, where he worked until retiring in 1985.
Manuel was a founding member of the Portuguese United soccer team, First Portuguese Canadian Club, the Canadian Madeira Club, and director of the Madeira Park.
For more, see Gilberto Prioste’s series of photos for a story on Comunidade about homemade wine among Toronto’s Portuguese community.
Manuel da Silva’s Wine Keg
Owner:
Manuel da Silva
Description:
Wooden keg with the date “1955” seared on the top.
See 3D version here.
Most Portuguese immigrants came from rural and fishing backgrounds where they were accustomed to growing and preparing their own food. A significant number settled in the countryside, especially in southwesterrn Ontario and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Some became farmers growing orchards, vegetables, tobacco, horses, pork, and other products. But even among the majority that settled in the cities, there were many who grew their own vegetables in their backyard gardens, pickled their own food, butchered and cured their own meat, and made their own wine in their basements or in the garages on laneways. Grapes, juice and wine-making supplies were available for purchase in specialty stores, some of them owned by Portuguese or other Southern Europeans.
One such immigrant was Manuel da Silva. Born in Sítio da Serra D’Água, Machico, Madeira island, on June 19, 1920, Manuel worked as a fish boat captain in the port of Funchal, as a landscaper, and as a customs agent before migrating to Canada.
In 1953, already married and with five children, he became one of the first Portuguese “bulk order” migrant workers to arrive at Pier 21 in Halifax, aboard the Nella Hellas, on June 1. He was sent to work in various dairy, vegetables, and fruit farms across Quebec. A month later, he moved to Toronto and found work as a busboy at El Mocambo. He later found employment at the Dr. Ballard animal food factory, where he worked until retiring in 1985.
Manuel was a founding member of the Portuguese United soccer team, First Portuguese Canadian Club, the Canadian Madeira Club, and director of the Madeira Park.
For more, see Gilberto Prioste’s series of photos for a story on Comunidade about homemade wine among Toronto’s Portuguese community.
Dr. Melba Costa’s Physician’s Bag
See 3D version here.
Owner:
Melba Dias Costa
Description:
Worn black leather bag with golden letters “M.J.E.” stitched on one side & a broken stethoscope.
Melba Dias Costa was born in Lourenço Marques (present-day Maputo), Mozambique, on May 26 (year unknown), into a family of Goan-Portuguese settlers. After completing her medical degree at the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Lisbon in 1940, she worked as an assistant to Professor Francisco Gentil, the founder of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology. Costa continued her studies at the Sorbonne University in Paris, where she specialized in gynaecology.
In 1950, Costa moved to Luanda, Angola, where she became the only practicing female doctor in the country. Five years later, she began working for the World Health Organization in India, until 1959, when she returned to Portugal.
A progressive woman, Dr. Costa became a person of interest to the PIDE, the dictatorship’s political police, which regularly surveilled and harassed her. This included denying her passage to Angola, and escorting her out of a train to Spain and a plane to the United Kingdom when she tried to travel abroad. In 1961, she was allowed to travel to the Roswell Park Memorial Institute of Buffalo to do oncological research with a Fulbright Foundation grant.
Sometime later, Dr. Costa decided to immigrate to Canada, settling in Toronto. In 1963, she opened up her own practice on College Street and Manning Avenue. Devoted to her work and patients – many of them Portuguese – it was common for Dr. Costa to take frequent trips to the hospital to visit her patients in the morning, then follow up with them in their homes in the evening. She retired in 1981.
In June of 1990, Dr. Costa was awarded the Order of Merit by the Government of Portugal. She passed away on May 12, 2007.
Dr. Costa was married to the engineer Fernando Barreto e Costa – president of the Portuguese Canadian Congress in 1970. The couple had two children, Fernando and Motilal.
Portuguese Passports
Audio caption
Forthcoming
Dates:
1952–1968
Creator:
Government of Portugal
Place of origin:
Portugal
Owners:
António F. Viola, Álvaro P. dos Reis, Arnaldo Figueira, Jordão I. de Freitas, Eduardo A. Mendonça, João Gonçalves, Joaquim de Gouveia, Joaquim G. Pereira, José Linhares de Sousa, José Nunes, José Garcês Teixeira, Manuel Camacho, Rui Ribeiro, Elias M. Gonçalves, José P. Nóbrega, Branca Amélia C. Proença, Maria Teresa Pereira, Rosa Maria Pereira, Maria Helena Pereira.
Description:
Portuguese passports from immigrants who arrived in Canada in the 1950s-60s.
Since 1947, the Emigration Junta (Junta da Emigração) was responsible for recruiting and transporting Portuguese emigrants, while the PIDE (the Estado Novo‘s political police) was in charge of issuing passports and repressing clandestine migration. A large number of Portuguese undocumented migrants were able to enter Canada clandestinely, arriving with “tourist” visas and later applying for landed status from within the country. Some of these undocumented migrants came from the United States, Brazil, Venezuela and other countries where it was easier to obtain a Portuguese passport and a Canadian tourist visa. The Colonial Wars in Africa, which lasted from 1961 to 1974, exacerbated this phenomenon, as many Portuguese war resisters and families with boys entering military age escaped conscription and left the country. Portugal saw its largest ever population exodus during this period, with emigrants leaving predominantly for other European countries (especially France), but also overseas destinations, including Canada.
Facing an increase in clandestine departures, the Portuguese dictatorship stopped issuing ordinary passports to common workers wishing to visit Canada as “tourists” and introduced a special “emigration passport” in a futile attempt to control the growing exodus. The number of Portuguese entering Canada with a non-immigrant visa jumped from 650 in the period between 1958 and 1963 to over 3,000 in 1963-1964. By the end of 1965, less than 25 percent of them had left the country after their visas expired. This extensive clandestine movement is one of the major reasons why Portuguese mass migration to Canada remained high in the 1970s.
Tube Radio
Place of origin:
Toronto, Ontario
Creator:
Hallicrafters Canada Ltd.
Description:
Brown and golden Hallicrafters Canada “Continental” tube radio.
See 3D version here.
Audio caption
Radio has been one of the most popular media among the Portuguese communities in Canada, which have launched several stations and programs over the years. Radio was especially important for the immigrants that arrived in the 1950s-60s, among which there many illiterate who could not read newspapers.
The first Portuguese radio show in Canada, Vozes de Portugal, was launched in Toronto’s CKFH in 1958. Four years later, A Hora Portuguesa, produced by Manuel Teixeira, was launched in Montreal’s CFMB. Toronto’s multicultural CHIN radio, launched by the Italian-Canadian impresario Johnny Lombardi, has also hosted many Portuguese language programs since its founding in 1967. The following year, the brothers Luis and Amadeu Vaz launched the closed-circuit (for subscribers only) Rádio Clube Português in Toronto’s Kensington Market, the first Portuguese-owned radio station in Canada, which broadcast 15 hours of daily programming. Other stations appeared in Portuguese neighbourhoods in Montreal, including Ecos de Portugal in 1969 and Radio Centre-Ville (CINQ) in 1972, and in Toronto, including the Asas do Atlântico in 1976. In 1986, Frank Alvarez launched its multicultural radio station CIRV-FM in Toronto’s Little Portugal, in which the Portuguese programming was the most prominent.
In addition to these community-based broadcasts, listeners in Canada also tuned into international Portuguese-language radio shows, including Radio Voice of Freedom, broadcast biweekly since 1962 by Portuguese anti-fascist exiles in Algiers, who sometimes relayed messages from fellow democrats in Toronto and Montreal. Undoubtedly, the most popular radio broadcasts from Portugal were of the soccer matches from the national club league on the weekends and during UEFA club competitions mid-week. The many soccer fans among Portuguese immigrants tuned into these broadcasts in their own homes or joined fellow fans to listen in group in public spaces. For instance, on Sundays, a large number of men gathered outside the Portuguese Bookstore on Nassau Street and Bellevue Avenue in Kensington Market to listen to the soccer broadcasts blasted from the store’s speakers.
Some radio hosts had significant political power among their audience, like the Azorean travel and real estate agent and immigration consultant José Rafael, who twice mobilized his community to protest the murders of Ângelo Nóbrega in 1969 and Emanuel Jaques in 1977 at Nathan Phillips Square; or the Maoist Mário Resende, one of the founders of Radio Centre-Ville, who critiqued his conservative and communist adversaries on the airwaves; or the reactionary Fr. Alberto Cunha, who spread rumours and fears among his predominantly Azorean audience immediately after the Carnations Revolution in 1974, until Lombardi ended his program after pro-MFA supporters demonstrated outside CHIN radio; or Martin Silva, the longstanding radio announcer at CHIN, who became the first ever Portuguese Canadian to be elected to public office as city alderman in 1988.
In 2023, there are several Portuguese-Canadian programs and stations, including on CHIN and Radio Centre-Ville, but also newer ones like Camões Radio and Radio Azores Canada. While they still play an important role in their communities today, radio lost its centrality among the Portuguese-Canadian media landscape with the appearance of local and international TV shows and stations since the mid-1970s, like FPTV, OMNI, and the Portuguese international public broadcaster RTPi. In the 21st century, audiences in Canada were also able to subscribe to channels from Portugal offered by Canadian cable companies, like SIC, TVI, Benfica TV, among others. The internet and digital media also revolutionized community radio by simplifying and reducing the costs of production, allowing hosts to record and broadcast content from Portugal, and allowing it to reach audiences all over the world.
Virtual Tour
Click here for a virtual tour of the Gallery of the Portuguese Pioneers.