PALCUS Podcast Channel

Senator Jessica de la Cruz is the State Senator for District 23. De la Cruz is a lifelong Rhode Island native and first-generation American born to Portuguese immigrants. She tells us what motivated her to run for State Senate and her hopes for the future.

Today’s guest is Representative Thomas E. Noret (D) who was elected in November 2018 to the seat in House District 25 in Coventry and West Warwick, Rhode Island. He talks about taking a DNA test in 2016 and discovering his Portuguese Ancestry and about the great Portuguese population in his district. He discusses the need for greater participation from the community and tells us his impressions on...

Christopher Hendricks is a State Representative currently serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives representing Acushnet and New Bedford as the 11th Bristol District. He is an attorney who was born and raised in New Bedford, MA which has a very high Portuguese-American population. His great-grandparents emigrated from the island of Flores, Azores around the 1900s. He talks about how h...

Councilwoman Sofia Pereira from the city of Arcada, CA is today's guest. She talks about how wanting to make a difference got her involved in local politics. She also talks about her vision for Arcata to become the 1st Zero Waste City in Humboldt County and how she thinks it's important to increase the city’s use of technology to improve resident engagement and to make vital information easily acc...

Join us as Massachusetts State Senator Marc R. Pacheco, the body’s longest continuously-serving member, talks about his start in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1988 and from there the Massachusetts Senate in 1992. He talks about the biggest changes he has seen throughout these years and the importance of the relationships developed between Portuguese-American elected leaders and the...

Today we talk to former Congressman Richard Pombo, who is a partner at Gavel Resources, a consulting and lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. He tells the story of going from a farming family in the Central Valley in California to City Council of Tracey and from there running for Congress. He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992 and represented California’s 11th district unt...

Join us as we speak to Nancy Andrade who is a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA. She is serving in the role of special assistant to the Director of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Nancy is also very involved with Toastmasters International, which is a world-wide non-profit organization that helps develop...

Our guest today is Jack DeOliveira, a 24-year-old first-generation Portuguese-American. He studied Political Science and became involved in politics by reaching out to fellow Portuguese-American Rep. Rosa Rebimbas. He is a Burgess in Naugatuck and works as a legislative aid at the Connecticut House of Republicans. He talks about the political world in the state of Connecticut and how to get younge...

Today we are speaking with Ana Martins Cavanaugh, the first elected official from Connecticut to be interviewed for PALITICUS. Ana is a Board of Education Member for the Canton Public Schools and has three children in this school district. She is now serving her second four year term on the Board of Education. She talks about how she got involved, the issues dealt by the Board and also about how i...

Today we have the pleasure of speaking to Joseph Lopes, a council member from the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, which has a strong Portuguese presence. His love of politics can be traced back to his father and grandfather. He was eight when he worked on his first campaign by accompanying his father while he campaigned for a friend who was running for mayor. His grandparents worked on preside...

Today’s podcast is with Dennis Brazil, former mayor of Gustine, California and open candidate for state senate, district 12. Born and raised in Los Banos, in 2005 he relocated to Gustine, CA and ran for mayor in 2009, winning with 78% of the votes. In 2014 the current senator asked him to consider running for senate in 2018, after 6 months of consideration he started working on the senate campaign...

Today we are talking to our youngest ever podcast guest, Representative Dylan Fernandes from the state of Massachusetts. He talks about how there is a misconception about the district he represents and how his family grew up in poverty and he was the first in his large Portuguese family to graduate from college. He got involved in politics right out of college and said his drive was always to give...

Today's Guest is Representative Tony Cabral, from the 13th Bristol District of Massachusetts, who is originally from the Azores and immigrated at the age of 14 with his parents. He was already politically involved in college, and from there he got involved in Michael Dukakis' campaign fro Governor of MA in 82, and then decided to get involved himself and run for office. His district in New Bedford...

Our guest today is Lee Neves, a Campaign Manager, or as in his own words: The guy behind the guy. Lee got his start in the political world in the office of Assembly member Keith Olberg of San Bernardino County. In this podcast he tells us a little about his job and how involved the Portuguese Community is in local politics. He talks about the importance of getting involved and not being afraid of...

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Senator Daniel da Ponte, who was born and raised in Rhode Island by parents who immigrated from the Azores. He grew up around politics and was elected for the Senate at the young age of 20 while still a student at the University of Rhode Island. He is proud to say his senate seat has been continuously represented by a Luso-American since 1959. In his com...

Today we talked to Paul Pereira from San Jose, California. He is the Director of Community, Neighborhoods, Quality of Life and Public Safety and works directly with the mayor Sam Liccardo and is the first non-elected guest on PALITICUS. He talks about Little Portugal and the importance of the Portuguese-American community being involved and how Little Portugal has changed throughout time, but ther...

Rep. Joseph Solomon from RI’s 22 district is today’s guest. He talks about how he worked at the RI General Assembly for 6 years before running for office in 2014 and that the economy was one of the main issues that drove him to run for office, because he wanted to bring new ideas to the table. He believes we need to get involved to change things and make a difference, and that everyone can get inv...

Today we’re talking to County Supervisor Craig Pedersen from Kings County, CA. As a third generation farmer who couldn’t get the answers he needed on issues that were important to him from the County Supervisor, he then decided to run for that same position. He’s very proud to serve his community and comments on the importance of his Portuguese heritage and the immensurable work ethic of the Portu...

Carol Dutra-Vernaci, Mayor of Union City, CA shares how she got involved with the student government in high school and the path she took from there on, including 13 years in the city council and 5 years as mayor. She became involved because of an issue that was important to her, and following that issue has guided her career in public service. She also talks about how the Portuguese community has...

Today’s guest is Councilman Scott Silveira from Los Banos, CA. He talks about how at the age of 8 he fell in love with community service after shaking hands with the city mayor at a fair. He recommends starting at the local level and getting involved, He is in his 6th year as councilman and will soon be running for county supervisor.

Today’s guest is professor Vasco Rato, President of FLAD (Luso-American Development Foundation), a private organization whose goal is to develop a good relationship between Portugal and the United States, working very closely with governments from both countries. Professor Rato encourages the involvement in the political process and being proud of your Portuguese Heritage. Learn more about FLAD he...

The first guest in the PALITICUS series is Steven Nascimento, Executive Director of CPAC - California Portuguese American Coalition, who talks about the importance of bringing individuals together and all the different ways to become involved and exercise your voice as a community. Learn more about CPAC here:https://www.caportuguesecoalition.org/

PALITICUS is a new bi-weekly podcast series, produced by PALCUS and hosted by Angela Simoes and Diniz Borges, which focuses on politics and public service from the Portuguese-American perspective. Each week we will bring together industry experts, lawmakers and political analysts to raise awareness about important issues and encourage more civic involvement and engagement by Portuguese-Americans.