O dia a dia de uma mae imigrante brasileira: Junia Fonseca

Sumara Lopes, Pastor at the Brazilian Evangelical Church in Allston, Power of God International Ministry

A Wednesday evening mass in the life of Sumara Lopes, the pastor of an Evangelical Brazilian church in Allston, Massachusetts. The Power of God International Ministry in Allston is a place where Brazilian immigrants come together to release their emotions, talk about their fears and show their devotion. You can see the passion in these masses through the expression on Pastor Sumara's face.

Live Blog Veterans Day Parade

Check out the replay of our live blog we did on the Veterans Day Parade in Boston!

Click here!

Blog coverage provided by: Keith Colella and Marion Geiger.
Photos by: Caitlin Nordahl and Angela Carlos
Management and commentary by: Ina Chu and Jonathan Kim

Closer look at the wars in numbers

USAToday.com produced a graphic where readers can look up the number casualties in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. They can be searched through name, age, gender, race, state, city, branch, duty status, rank, date, cause of death and place of death.

There are two tabs at the top left where either Afghanistan or Iraq can be chosen. To the right of the search options is a graphic with many little squares, each one representing one death. If you scroll over them a bubble will pop up with the name, gender, rank and other information on the particular servicemember.

Screenshot of USAToday.com

It can be a little unsettling because on most of them a picture pops up of the person. It really puts a face to the numbers and brings the war home to Americans. Some people might find this too much, and unfair to the families or those who passed. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I do think it is important that it puts a face to these numbers we hear about every day. They also do it in a discrete way. It is the reader's choice to scroll over those dots, so it's not USAToday.com forcing it upon us.

The graphic was produced by USAToday.com's Paul Overberg, Lou Schilling, Chad Palmer, Ron Coddington and Joshua Hatch. The numbers, they note, come from the U.S. Defense Department, so they point out the numbers may not match what is in the media.

Allston, a Little Brazil

Allston, Massachusetts is one of the neighborhoods in the Boston area with the most dense Brazilian population, along with Framingham, Everett and Somerville.

(Em Português embaixo) Meet Junia Fonseca, one of the one million Portuguese speakers of Massachusetts, who works at a Brazilian bakery on Harvard Avenue in Allston.




Brazilian immigrants are estimated to be more than 250,000 in the Boston area, however according to Paulo Pinto, executive director of MAPS (Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers), the number of Brazilians is highly under-counted because of the number of undocumented immigrants.

Worldwide, Portuguese is spoken as a first language by 230million people. Portuguese is the second language of Massachusetts due to the high number of immigrants from Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde and other countries.Did you know there are double the number of Portuguese speakers than Spanish speakers in Massachusetts?

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Conheçam Junia Fonseca, uma dos milhões de Brasileiros em Massachusetts. Ela trabalha na Padaria Brazil Bakery em Allston e representa uma população transferida de varias partes do Brasil para os Estados Unidos. Uma população que trabalha muito para realizar sonhos, e enfrente muitas dificuldades.

A população brasileira está estimada a ser mais de 250,000 imigrantes em Boston e seus municipios. Paulo Pinto, diretor de MAPS (Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers), diz que o numero está muito abaixo a realidade por causa da grande quantidade de brasileiros não registrados.


Português está sendo falado entre 230 milhões de pessoas no mundo. Em Massachusetts, é a segunda lingua mais falada (depois do inglês, claro), devida ao numero de Brasileiros, Portuguêses e Cabo Verdeanos. Você sabia que falamos o dobro de português que espanhol em Massachusetts.