A Tribute to Provincetown Women

Photo
Provincetown Women. One photo is missing and I don't know which one. The information board on McMillan Wharf describes the photos this way:

“They Also Faced The Sea”
The installation of five larger-than-life black and white photographs of Provincetown women of Portuguese descent, mounted on a building at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf in Provincetown Harbor, is conceived as a tribute to the Portuguese community and its fishing heritage.

Norma Holt’s beautiful photographs of Almeda Segura, Eva Silva, Mary Jason, Bea Cabral and Frances Raymond are meant to represent all of the women of Provincetown who over the years have been the back bone of this vital fishing village.

They came from a long line of hard-working people, immigrating mostly from the Azores and mainland Portugal. Their families fished the waters off Cape Cod for over 200 years, built a major fish packing and distribution industry and made an important contribution to the history of culture of Provincetown.

Portuguese women faced the sea in many ways: as mothers, wives, sisters, friends and family of fishermen, as cooks, laundresses, nurses, teachers and telephone operators. They kept the culture alive, sang the songs, danced the dances, buried the dead, gave birth, cooked the kale soup and the codfish and kept the church at the center of their lives. Above all, they were resilient through good times and bad, their strength and courage easily matching and supporting that of their male seafaring counterparts.

I have added a poem I wrote about Provincetown mothers and daughters.

Provincetown Mother’s Plea

daughters
look to me
as you set sail
on unknown
seas

let me be
your beacon
warning
of courses
best not charted
yet

trust me
to guide
as you seek
safe harbors

Beverly R. Titus
02/02/07