Portuguese Research & Education, Inc.


Queen Alyssa Madruga	Queen Loriana Madruga

In 1926, Joe and Adelina Rogers presided over the local Festa do Espirito Santo. Little could they know then that 80 years later their grandson Matthew would himself preside over the event. Matt Madruga and his wife Kelly had contemplated being Festeiros for many years, and at the 2005 Festa they put their name in the hat; and won!

When asked to describe how he first felt when his name was announced as the 2006 Festa President, Matt confessed, "It was a tremendous feeling..., There were a lot of nerves, just a big thrill. They announced our name and asked us to come up on stage. You have all the people in the hall and they cheer and go crazy! You get up there and thank people. It was emotional too because my nephew was the King, and of course my two daughters Alyssa and Loriana were the Queens. We thanked the Portuguese community and then announced that we were doing a dedication to my mother-in-law, the late Elsie Lira Cerny (1928 - 1997)."

The 2006 Festa parade was a large one. "We always said that if we did the Festa, we wanted several bands; a lot of music." recalled Matt. There were more bands than usual and the music could be heard from every corner of the parade route that year.

Preparing for a Festa is no easy feat. Matt described some of the duties that he and Kelly dealt with soon after the announcement that they would be new Festeiros. Said Matt, "You know you have to do a lot of work in the sense of getting people involved. You have to make a lot of contacts, a lot of computer work as far as keeping records. There's a lot of organizing to do. You have fund-raisers that you have to organize, designate your chairpersons for the fund-raisers, etc."

And it wasn’t long before they discovered that even those duties turned out to barely scratch the surface of all the additional responsibilities required; such as choosing the Royalty, finding volunteers to chair all of the parade groups such as the God Bless America group, Our Lady of Fatima group, the Queen's court, etc. Said Matt proudly, "Kelly's organization of the parade was incredible..., Kelly was relentless on asking kids to be in the parade and following through to make sure they signed up and showed up. She always dreamed that whenever she did the Festa, that she wanted a good-sized Festa. That was strictly for the reason of just because she wanted a lot of people involved. She enjoys bringing a lot of people together."

Matt also gratefully acknowledged that it is only through the coming together of the whole Portuguese-American community, the giving of their time, talent, and generous donations that this event still takes place every year. It really is amazing how many volunteers do come out to help in more ways than can even be counted. No one gets paid to put on the Festa, and everyone working to make it happen does so out of love for the community, the Holy Spirit and Queen Saint Isabel.

When asked if he would do it all over again knowing what he knows now, he declared, "I would say that it's a tremendous experience, and I would recommend it to anybody. But they have to be willing to sacrifice a lot of time.” But Matt spoke of no regrets. Instead he said, “You get that sense of pride in the community. You get that sense of pride of being Portuguese.” In closing, Matt emphasized, “I just think it's very important that we try to continue this and that we pass it on to generations to come. My feeling is this: if somebody goes in there with the mindset, the heart, for the right reasons, for the spirit of the Festa; then I think they will be blessed and they will be rewarded tremendously for it."