He has two daughters. Since English was their first language, he sends them to Portuguese lessons at St. Anthony's. They enjoy it, he says, and use their Portuguese to communicate with their grandparents.

"You just can't lose the language," Cerqueira says.

Cerqueira owns a Portuguese restaurant, Atasca, which sits off Cambridge Street, slightly removed from the plethora of Portuguese restaurants that mark the approach into Inman Square.

The restaurant is spacious and well-decorated. It seems to speak to the mix of new and old in the life of the immigrants who came to Cambridge as children.

On one restaurant wall is a suit jacket with red ribbons. It is the costume that is used for a traditional folk dance in Northern Portugal, Cerqueira says.

He says that even after living in Cambridge for 20 years, these traditions are important to him.

"I consider myself Portuguese-American," he says. "Portuguese first. I've been in the U.S. longer than I was in Portugal, but it's still a very strong part of me."

The second and third generations of Portuguese immigrants will work to keep the culture alive in East Cambridge, Lobo says.