Frances Sylvia Gracia papers and Portuguese-American collection

As taken from The Portuguese Times, Frances Sylvia Gracia was born in Fall River, MA and raised in Little Compton, R.I. She is the granddaughter of Azorean immigrants with origins in Capelo, Faial on her paternal side and Ponta Delgada, Flores and Santa Barbara, Terceira, respectively, on her maternal side, all of which were proprietors of dairies in Little Compton. Growing up in a predominantly Yankee community and aware of the low self-esteem in which the Portuguese were held, Miss Gracia refused to be cowed or to maintain a respectful silence as she grew older. It was about 1972 that a Steering Committee was being established to celebrate the Little Compton Tercentenary (1675-1975). Miss Gracia knew a commemorative book would be published that the Portuguese might be recorded as workers on Yankee farms and in the Yankee households. She was determined that the Portuguese would be given their rightful place in the town’s history, for they had eventually acquired most of the Yankee farms, continuing to farm not as laborers but as proprietors. Being desirous of documenting the history of Little Compton’s Portuguese, she requested and was granted permission to serve on the Tercentenary Steering Committee. Miss Gracia wrote Early Portuguese Settlers in Little Compton, Rhode Island, published in 1974, and reprinted in the commemorative book. Asked to serve on the Little Compton Historical Society board, Miss Gracia established a Portuguese Room in 1983. After an early retirement as a secondary school teacher of secretarial studies, commercial mathematics, consumer economics and commercial law, Miss Gracia returned to her terra natal or place of birth, Fall River, and is the founder of what was the Portuguese American Historical Foundation of Fall River. Miss Gracia is holder of a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island and a Master of Education degree from the University of Hartford. The Portuguese American Federation honored her for her dedication.