History of the United Portuguese of Colorado, DES
The United Portuguese of Colorado Divino Espirito Santo (UPCDES) is celebrating its 31st year of bringing the Portuguese culture and traditions to Colorado. From 1993 to 2024, through hard work, vision, partnership, donations, family, and community involvement; the society has grown! We now look to the future, as a new generation begins to takes the community into the next 30 years. Keeping our traditions alive for all the residence of Colorado, the west and beyond.
In the beginning...
The first step to make the Portuguese traditions possible was to find a church willing to sponsor an event. They spoke with Father Paul F. Wicker of Holy Apostles Catholic Church. After explaining the Portuguese tradition and history to Father Paul, he asked for written letters from other priests to confirm the festivals history, as he was not familiar with it. Father Cabral of Toronto, Canada (originally from San Miguel, Azores) was happy to write a letter. Father Avilo of Chino, California was also happy to oblige. He is from the city where the Dias and Rodrigues families first migrated to. He also had baptized the first three of the seven Rodrigues children.
Once Father Paul received the letters confirming the history of the Holy Spirit Festival, he agreed to have the 1st Annual Holy Spirit Festival of Colorado Springs at his church. The Dias and Rodrigues families realized then that they had a lot of work to do. They needed more Portuguese families and money to make this dream of theirs a reality. At this point there was no turning back.
The first Portuguese families...
So where do you find more Portuguese families in Colorado Springs? Because Colorado Springs is largely a military town with Peterson Air Force Base, Fort Carson, Schriever Air Force Base, and the Air Force Academy the most logical place to start was the phonebook. Both families diligently took to the task of searching for Portuguese last names in the phonebook. In all, they yielded 25 families. Some spoke fluent Portuguese, but most spoke little to no Portuguese. The important thing was that they were all very familiar with the Holy Spirit Festivals. Most of them spoke of their childhood memories of growing up with the Portuguese festival(s) and other Portuguese traditions.
Raising money...
After finding more Portuguese families, came the much more difficult task of raising money. Money was needed for the cost of the hall and ingredients for the food. Since Colorado Springs has no major Portuguese businesses or dairies, funds would definitely have to be raised. So, the idea of having a garage sale to fund the Colorado Springs' 1st Annual Festa do Divino Espirito Santo was born. They contacted the Portuguese families of Colorado Springs, explained their plan and asked for them to donate any unwanted items to the fundraising garage sale. The garage sale was held at the Rodrigues home. The garage sale netted an additional $130 to add to their fund. Not enough but a start. The Rodrigues and Dias families donated the rest of the money they needed to get started.