Portuguese Americans

Portuguese Americans (Portuguese: portugueses americanos), also known as Luso-Americans (luso-americanos), are citizens and residents of the United States who are connected to the country of Portugal by birth, ancestry, or citizenship.

Americans and others who are not native Europeans from Portugal but originate from countries that were former colonies of Portugal do not necessarily self-identify as "Portuguese American", but rather as their post-colonial nationalities, although many refugees (referred to as retornados) from former Portuguese colonies, as well as many white Brazilians, are ethnically or ancestrally Portuguese. In 2017, an estimated 48,158 Portuguese nationals were living in the United States.

History

Bilateral ties date from the earliest years of the United States. Some of the earliest European explorers to reach continental North America in the Age of Discovery were Portuguese explorers, such as João Fernandes Lavrador. Navigators, like the Miguel Corte-Real family, may have visited the North American shores at the beginning of the 16th century. João Rodrigues Cabrilho was a Portuguese navigator who became the first European to reach California in 1542.

Portuguese people have emigrated to the modern United States since 1634. The first documented Portuguese to live in colonial America was Mathias de Sousa, possibly a Sephardic Jew of mixed African background. The oldest synagogue in the country, the Touro Synagogue, is named after one of these early Portuguese Jews, Isaac Touro.