Diario de Noticias Newspaper

The Diário de Notícias, affectionately known as the Portuguese Daily News, began as the Alvorada (The Dawn) on January 25,1919 when Guilherme Luiz purchased a weekly Portuguese-language newspaper with the same name that had been published in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1927, the board changed its name to Diário de Notícias and began publishing a Fall River version of the paper. João R. Rocha acquired half ownership in 1940, and then bought out the paper, becoming publisher and sole owner in 1943. The paper enjoyed great success and a circulation that spanned the entire county. It ceased publication when Rocha retired in 1973. Its local successors are the Portuguese Times and O Jornal.

The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, a joint venture of the Claire T. Carney Library and the Center for Portuguese Studies, owns the only known run of the paper in its entirety, donated in 1975 by the last publisher, João R. Rocha. Available in the library on microfilm for many years, it is now accessible free of charge via this online version.

The Diário de Notícias is an invaluable resource for the study of the Portuguese-American community, as well as being a source of news from the homeland. It is a reflection of the daily lives of individuals and the communities and society in which they lived. Besides providing news from the community not available in other newspapers, with reporting on local clubs, religious organizations, societies and businesses, and allowing the reader to feel the political and social pulse of the community through its editorials and commentaries, the pages of the Diário also open a window to the personal and mundane aspects of daily life. Weddings, births, deaths and social gatherings, are reported, providing a valuable source for social historians and genealogists; the comings and goings and the cost of fares of passenger ships linking the U.S. to the homeland are listed; and in its advertisements and photographs one can glimpse the type and cost of the clothes worn, furniture purchased and foods eaten.

This project has been generously funded by the Autonomous Government of the Region of the Azores, Mark and Elisia Saab, and Luis Pedroso. Click on any of these names to learn more about the donors.

If you have or know of original issues of this paper that you do not see included here, please consider contributing them to the project. You will receive your originals back. Missing issues include Diário de Notícias July through December 1928 and January through February 1946.