When you walk into the Vasco da Gama Club on Reid Street one of the first things you notice is the row of presidents’ photographs over the door stretching back over seven decades.What stands out is that there aren’t any women up there. However, they will soon have some female company, as lawyer Andrea Moniz-DeSouza recently became the first woman in the club’s history to become president.She is one of a handful of women who are full members, although there are women who are members through their husbands. At 34 years old, she is also among the youngest members of the club.The club was first formed in 1935. During the early years its aim was to provide health and disability benefits to its members. The executive would organise social gatherings and promote cultural activities at their facility in Hamilton.Over the years the association has operated a bar, lounge, games room and hall from its premises at 51 Reid Street. It has offered its ground floor for rent and, for many years, housed the Portuguese consulate.According to Mrs Moniz-DeSouza there is now an ageing population at the Vasco da Gama Club.“Right now there is quite a disparity in terms of age in the club,” she said. “There are so many generations who are not involved. We have a lot of older members. In order to succeed we really have to get the Portuguese Bermudian community involved.“In the olden days, this club really functioned through work permit holders. More and more, with all the Immigration rules, we don’t really have that many new Portuguese people coming to the Island. People are constantly leaving. This place really has to focus on Bermudians who want to become members.”There are several tiers of membership at the club. Anyone of any background can become an associate member with the same rights as anyone else, except they cannot vote in executive meetings which are conducted entirely in Portuguese. A lot of people become an associate member to become involved with the Vasco Mariners, Vasco da Gama’s football team. For higher tiers of membership and voting rights, you must have some Portuguese heritage. There is also a family membership offered that allows people to take part in Vasco da Gama’s many family functions.The club itself was recently remodelled to include a marble staircase, wooden doors, a state-of-the-art kitchen, bar area and a large room often rented to the general public for wedding receptions or Christmas parties. An old bar that was downstairs was removed, and the ground floor area was turned into Portuguese language classrooms.“Portuguese school used to come under the Portuguese Cultural Association but they are no longer in existence, so we took over that function,” said Mrs Moniz-DeSouza. “At the moment, our teacher only has a work permit to teach children, but we would like to teach adults also. We always have requests from adults interested in taking Portuguese classes.”Mrs Moniz-DeSouza was born in the Azores, in the village of Arrifes in Sao Miguel. She and her mother, Ana, came to Bermuda when she was eight years old to join her father, Paulo, who was working at the Hamilton Princess. On her first day of school at Harrington Sound Primary she was very embarrassed to find that her mother had packed her off in a frilly dress while everyone else was wearing a school uniform.There was no specific English-as-a-second-language programme at the school at that time, so a teacher tutored her.“We thought we were going to come for a couple of years and then go home,” she said. ”After a couple of years it became home and we didn’t want to leave. We were lucky when the permanent residency legislation came in we were able to apply for that. Bermuda became home to us. Whenever I go to visit the Azores I feel like a foreigner.”Almost as soon as her family arrived in Bermuda, her father became involved in the Vasco da Gama Club. The family always took part in family functions, and eventually Mrs Moniz-DeSouza joined the Folkloric Dancers, learning traditional Portuguese dances. The dancing was one of the things that helped her stay in touch with her Portuguese heritage.“When I went to the university I stopped doing all that, and when I came back I decided to rejoin the dancers,” she said. “Because the dancers are under Vasco da Gama you had to become a member. So then I became a member on my own. That is how it started.”Two-and-a-half years ago she was asked by then-president Paul Fortuna to join the executive board at the club. Part of their function was awarding scholarships to member students. She herself had received one of these scholarships to attend Dalhousie University.“I always thought I would want to give back somehow someday,” she said. “So I said yes. I like being involved in things. When he was stepping down this year, I had to decide if I wanted to run. I decided it was something I wanted to do. At first I was a bit intimidated because I am female, and historically, this place has been known as a bit of a men’s club.“But I think more and more women are the backbone of this club. Women do a lot of the background work and I thought it would be great to have representation in the community. I think a lot of people just see it as still a men’s club. We are trying to move away from this, and more towards an identity as a cultural centre.”Vasco da Gama this year embarked on a membership drive to bring in more people to the club. As part of this drive, they have waived the initiation fee.Mrs Moniz-DeSouza said people today are a lot prouder of being Portuguese than they were when she was a child. Thirty years ago, having Portuguese heritage was seen as an embarrassment to a lot of people.“A lot of people pretended not to speak Portuguese,” she said. “If you didn’t speak it it made you a little bit better you weren’t really Portuguese if you didn’t speak it. In the last years it has definitely changed. In the World Cup a couple of years ago Portugal did really well, and all of these Portuguese people came out of the woodwork. All of a sudden you saw all these Portuguese flags on cars. I had a friend of mine from Harrington Sound Primary who never ever mentioned a thing to me about having Portuguese in her family. Then, after the World Cup, she said ‘oh, my great-great-grandmother was Portuguese’. All of a sudden it became a little cooler to be Portuguese. Generally, in [Bermuda] history being Portuguese [carried] a bit of a stigma.”Mrs Moniz-DeSouza said her goals as the new president of the Vasco da Gama club are pretty simple.“I want to have this place continue and succeed as a cultural centre for many future generations to come,” she said. “I want people to always be proud that they are Portuguese.”