It's Called Culture (ICC) #1: Introducing Melissa & Kelly

Culture is a way of life for an entire society. Melissa and Kelly met in Kindergarten 30 years ago. Our culture is from the Azores - a remote group of Portuguese islands. But we don't live there. We live in America as part of the millennial generational culture. This podcast is our experience at the intersection of these cultures.

In this episode, Mel & Kel discuss their heritage as Portuguese-American children of immigrants from the Azorean island of São Miguel (or "Hawaii of the Atlantic" as they describe it). Their families immigrated as late as the 1980s to Fall River, Massachusetts, a city now known for having a dramatic Portuguese influence and population. The distinctive and religious Portuguese island culture was wholly preserved in this new land.

Mel & Kel grew up completely immersed in their cultural customs, beliefs, and traditions while also attempting to navigate life as an American millennial in the 1990s and beyond. After Mel moved away as an adult, she wanted a way to reconnect with the culture and share that culture with her own daughter and thus created the company Folk and Fad. Her first order of business was to launch the It's Called Culture podcast and recruit her lifelong friend Kelly to co-host.

Below, Kelly showcases Melissa's 8th birthday gifts.

Listen to It's Called Culture (ICC) Episode 1 (trailer) here.

What makes us qualified to host this show?

We are bilingual, first-generation Portuguese-Americans. We attended the oldest Portuguese Catholic school in America. We grew up in the city with the nation's highest percentage of people of Portuguese descent (nearly 50%). We didn't meet a non-Portuguese person until we were in high school! Mel's DNA test results came back. Turns out, she's 100% that bitch. Just kidding. That's Lizzo. But Mel's DNA results did (somewhat surprisingly) come back at 100% Portuguese. Kel has been a hold out in the DNA world. Maybe because she's watched too much true crime. Or maybe because she would be devastated if it came back anything other than 100% Portuguese. So we don't "know" her results, but, I mean, we know...

Portuguese Ancestry

Accent Disclaimer

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Portuguese Ancestry

Nobody's Ancestry DNA Kit comes back 100% anything. There's always at the very least a few random ethnicities sprinkled in for the last few percent. Mel had always thought of herself as 100% Portuguese only because both sides of her family came from The Azores. However, there WAS an adopted grandfather on one side of the family that subsequently had offspring with features that were not traditionally Portuguese (e.g. red hair). So, doubt did creep in about what the results would show.

At the end of the day, the results did come back 100% Portuguese and the Ancestry app even drew a dotted circle around the easternmost tip of São Miguel encompassing the villages where both sides of her family were from. When Mel posted about this on her TikTok account (@melanncoley), a commenter pointed her to a clip of Conan O'Brien as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Conan took a DNA test that revealed he was 100% Irish which shocked his doctor. When Conan asked his doctor how rare it was and what it meant, he replied "it means you're inbred!". Well, shit...

Accent Disclaimer

Not all Tik Tok comments are created equal, so when another commenter expressed to Mel that he "could have gone his whole life without hearing your voice", we realized an accent disclaimer may be necessary. Our unique voices are the result of a combination of several factors. We are first generation Americans. We are directly descended from non-English speaking families. We grew up learning two languages at once. Kel grew up in a Portuguese-speaking household and had to learn English through the school system. At best, we grew up around an informal English-Portuguese hybrid. And our Portuguese was not even the proper European kind. It was a brute, slang-y version spoken in the most remote parts of the island of São Miguel. Pair all of that with being raised less than 60 miles from Boston and you've got yourself a real recipe for disastahhh.

We hope you find our voices and our show endearing, or you keep it to yourself if you don't!

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Classic Portuguese Songs that Bring Instant Nostalgia

And a few that bring horror when you learn what the lyrics mean.

Music has a way of tying itself to memories. Hearing a song can instantly transport you to specific places. For me, these songs transport me to childhood memories of dinner and dancing every Saturday night at the local Portuguese restaurants in my hometown.

Bate O Pé Pretty sure these are the only words in the whole song. At least the only ones I know and belt out. Just tap your foot. Over and over again. Just tap that foot.

Dá Cá, Dá Cá, Dá Cá It seems problematic that this guy wants a kiss but won't take no for an answer. She doesn't want to "give it", damnit. It doesn't matter that you say it's just a non-naughty one on the corner of the mouth.

A Garagem Da Vizinha I put the car in, I take the car out. What a tight garage. It's used but nobody uses it since her husband left. I'm getting the sense that he isn't singing about an actual garage but it didn't stop this from being an absolute bop that I would dance to as a kid.

O Bicho Growing up I always pictured this song being about a spider and I am going to leave it that way. Please don't tell me otherwise. I don't know how I first learned the dance moves to this song but I have never forgotten them. In fact, we had an entire bachelorette party doing the moves in a party bus to the vineyard last year.

É Uma Casa Portuguesa A green broth smoking in the tejela. Caldo Verde is my absolute favorite soup. It's a Portuguese house for sure.

Apita O Comboio Am I the only one that was singing Apita O Combo as "Happy Tacomboio" my whole life? Even though Tacomboio wasn't a word. Although I propose it to mean Taco Train. You would think that at some point I would have realized what they were saying since the phrase is repeated no less than 50 times and starts every single line of this song.

As Beatas Is this song about "fake butts?" Fake people I guess? That show up to church but sleep during devotion. Lot's of talk of the bazaar. He must like unrolling the papéis at the festa.