Cardanha & Pires

Some background on the Cardanha-Pires relationship- The men met in New Bedford and sometime later Pires’ sister Zulmira, Odie’s mother, came to the U.S. in New Bedford and after the two men decided to move to Valley Falls and open a grocery store in a neighborhood with factories and Portuguese immigrant families. The business prospered. Because of his fluency in English, Mr. Cardanha was often called to a factory as an interpreter, especially when someone was hurt. This is when he became friendly with Dr. Harry Triedman, and later the doctor’s brother George, who was a prominent lawyer.

Mr. Cardanha started a small loan agency in the store along with a travel agency. After WWI a period of prosperity led to the Portuguese visiting their families in Portugal. Later, during the Depression, Cardanha and Pires were able to acquire properties whose owners had defaulted on mortgages. When they split, Mr. Cardanha made two lists [of the properties they owned], which were about even in value, and offered the first choice to Pires. Pires refused but changed the list so as to have the better properties. I used to collect rents for Mr. Cardanha so I got to know his properties. Later Eddie showed me some of the properties his father had, and I realized that that Mr. Cardanha had let Pires get away with the better pieces rather than to have a family quarrel.

It was Mr. Cardanha who decided to go into the beer business distributing Narragansett Beer in the Blackstone Valley area. It was the bank with whom Mr. Cardanha saved and negotiated who recommended him to run the business. He did all the ground work while Pires ran the grocery business; he contacted and ran the beer business alone for a while until Pires joined him. Mr. Cardanha was the general manager; Pires was in charge of the loading and shipping of trucks. He was also the assistant treasurer so he could sign checks in the absence of Mr. Cardanha. As such he knew that Mr. Cardanha was getting a larger salary, but he was happy with what he earned and never complained.

Narragansett Beer at the same time was losing its popularity and its sales had been falling. When Odie’s parents returned, it was only a matter of time before the operation of the business, and their relationship fell apart.