Citations
1. Photo. Sisters Rosa and Leonor Pereira in font of their house on 110 Lisgar St., Toronto. 1956. Domingos Marques fonds, 2010-019/003 (4), Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections (CTASC), York University Libraries.
2. Photo. Sisters Pereira outside their family’s new house on 110 Lisgar St., Toronto. Photo by Carlos Pereira, 1957. Domingos Marques fonds, 2010-019/003 (4), CTASC.
3. Photo. The Pereiras in their living room. January 1957. Domingos Marques fonds, 2010-019/003 (4), CTASC.
4. Photo. The Pereira sisters playing in the snow. Photo by Carlos Pereira (?), February 1957. Domingos Marques fonds, 2010-019/003 (4), CTASC.
5. Photo. The Pereiras working on their farm in Orangeville. June 1958. Domingos Marques fonds, 2010-019/003 (4), CTASC.
6. Photo. The Pereiras harvesting their potato crop. October 1959. Domingos Marques fonds, 2010-019/003 (4), CTASC.
7. Photo. Portugal Day celebrations in Orangeville. June 1963. Domingos Marques fonds, 2010-019/003 (3), CTASC.
8. Transcript of interview with Carlos Pereira by Domingos Marques, c. 1975-77. Domingos Marques fonds, 2010-019/001 (10), CTASC.
Carlos Pereira was one of the first Portuguese workers to arrive aboard the steamship Saturnia, which landed in Halifax on May 13, 1953, as part of the “bulk order” labour migration agreement between the governments of Portugal and Canada. After working in a farm near Ottawa, laying railway tracks in Sept-Îsles, Quebec, and painting airplane hangars in Goose Bay, Labrador, Carlos moved to Toronto in April 1955, where he found a job in a bed-making factory. In December, he bought his first house at 110 Lisgar Street and called for his wife Odilia and daughters in Portugal. Odilia found a job at a local textile factory, while Teresa and Leonor found work at a bank shortly after arriving. Their house became a reference point for many Portuguese newcomers, who were given the Pereiras’ address by a travel agent in Lisbon without the family’s knowledge. Still, the Pereiras helped these newcomers find work and sheltered them in what became one of the first Portuguese boarding houses in Toronto.
In 1958, the Pereiras bought a farm near Orangeville and maintained two residences. Odilia and her two youngest daughters worked on the farm all week, while Carlos and their two eldest daughters visited on the weekends. Carlos sold the beans that his family grew on the farm, along with the sausages and the bread they made, out of his station wagon on the streets of Toronto, which earned him the nickname “the King of Beans.”
The first Portugal Day celebration and anniversary of the pioneiros of Portuguese mass migration to Canada was organized by a small group of Madeiran immigrants in June 1963 at the Pereiras’ farm in Orangeville. That year, the Pereiras sold their farm and opened a grocery store at 205 Augusta Ave. in Kensington Market.
Carlos Pereira was interviewed by Domingos Marques for his book (co-authored with João Medeiros) Portuguese Immigrants: 25 Years in Canada (1978).
Place of origin:
Toronto and Orangeville, Ontario
Dates: 1956-1977
Archived at:
Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries
Fonds: F0573
Finding aid here
