To the Editor;
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Rochester Democratic Town Committee would like to recognize Sister Aurora Avelar for her legacy of work with immigrants and the poor in Southeast MA. The true measure of any life is how it elevates the lives of others. By that standard, Sr. Aurora Avelar was a living treasure. Her loving hands quietly lent dignity to the lives of thousands of the less fortunate. She earned her reputation as the Mother Theresa of New Bedford.
Sr. Avelar was born in 1903 to US citizen parents on the remote Portuguese island of Corvo, Azores, which had a population of roughly 700 people. In 1923 she left this sheltered, secluded life to come to the United States at 20 years old, where she joined the Sisters of St. Dorothy and served as a teacher in New York City and Bristol, Rhode Island. In 1960, Sister Avelar arrived in New Bedford to teach at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School where she would devote the remainder of her life. She had wanted to do more for her community, and after Vatican II permitted nuns to work outside of the church, she took the opportunity to do so. Sr. Avelar continued teaching Portuguese at the parish school in the mornings but during the afternoons she ventured out into the neighborhoods of New Bedford to assist those who desperately needed help. Sr. Avelar then gave up any leisure time she had, including time to play her beloved piano. She later said, “I forgot everything… I left everything in order to help the poor.”
A typical day for Sr. Avelar could entail accompanying someone to an immigration hearing, medical appointment, or substance abuse treatment. She assisted with English translation, immigration hearings, employment services and benefits applications. She visited the sick and the incarcerated. She helped immigrants navigate the culture and customs of their new American home. She also ran a used clothing and furniture store out of the basement of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to aid the poor. Over the years, Sr. Avelar developed a network across local government agencies and charitable organizations to help those she took under her wing. She learned to navigate the maze of government bureaucracy and was recognized as an effective and determined advocate for those in need. Seven days a week, 365 days a year, she left those she touched in a better place than where she found them.
Sr. Avelar did things the old-fashioned way. Lacking a driver’s license, she walked or took the bus as she crisscrossed the city, through the heat, snow, and rain, well into her eighties. Her mission was simple. “I live in a convent” she said, “I have no house to take care of, no children to take care of. I use my time for my neighbors”. These “neighbors” were anyone who needed help, no matter if they were born here in Massachusetts or anywhere else on the globe. Sr. Avelar believed in helping people become self-sufficient, saying “I help them to help themselves”. She believed in the basic decency of people. “Real Americans are good people” she said, “They love to help”; but she also believed in striving to do better, “I believe we could love one another better than we do, we could care more for others than we do”. Sister Avelar said she considered those she assisted to be her “family” and was committed to helping them improve their condition.
Sr. Avelar was awarded “1987 Person of the Year Award” by Prince Henry Society of Massachusetts, New Bedford chapter; she also received citations from the City of New Bedford and Massachusetts Senate at that ceremony. In1996, the city of New Bedford honored her by naming the Crapo St. Community Center in her honor. This center also now also houses Casa da Saudade Library and Immigration Assistance Center. Sr. Avelar died in 1999, at the age of 96.
Damien McCann
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