Join researchers and archivists from the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Portuguese American Digital Archive, Nikki Tantum, Gray Fitzsimons, and Nicole Catarino on a walk around the Back Central neighborhood. In the late 1800s, increasing demands for cotton cloth production provided jobs and opportunity for the first Portuguese immigrants arriving in Lowell. In the decades that followed more Portuguese immigrants moved to the city and wove their lives and cultures into the neighborhood of Back Central, creating a new community that still exists today.

This walk will highlight these stories just as the photography exhibit “The Portuguese in Lowell: The Familiar and the New” does, but through a different lens. This exhibit highlighting photographs captured by Pedro Letria is on display at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum through February 2025.

Join us for this upcoming Lowell Walks event, a guided walking tour. Tours are about 90 minutes, are free, and include a moderate amount of walking. No reservations are necessary, and tours are conducted rain or shine.

Free parking is available where the tour meets: Portuguese American Civic League of Lowell, 512 Central Street.