Fondo F0573 - Domingos Marques fonds

Domingos de Oliveira Marques was born 20 January 1949 in Ribeiro, Murtosa, the son of Francisco Marques and Augusta da Purificacao Oliveira.

Married to Manuela Marujo.

His father was a cod fisher who had visited Saint John's Newfoundland while fishing the Grand Banks and Greeland. He attempted to immigrate in 1953 but was rejected due to his large family. The family eventually succeeded in 1957 when Marques' parents and siblings emigrated while he remained in Portugal in the seminary school at Aveiro. Domingos visited with his family in the summer of 1967. After graduating in 1968 and starting theological studies in Lisbon, Marques, having doubts about his future as a Catholic priest, returned to his family in Toronto in 1968. He worked in the tomato harvest in Chatham to repay his parents the cost of his travels. He worked several jobs, including as a journalist with "Jornal Portugues" and in the Promotions Department of the Toronto Star before quiting to persue a university degree full-time.

Marques taught Portuguese at the First Portuguese Community Schoola dn Harbord Collegiate Institute, as well as coordinating projects for the Portuguese Community from the West End YMCA. He edited and research a book on the history Portuguese immigration to Canada with Joao Medeiros "Emigrantes Portugeses: 25 anos no Canada", published in 1978.

In the late nineteen-seventies, Marques was self-employed and ran Marquis Printing and Publishing. In 1981 he joined the Workers Compensation Board as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, serving fifteen years. In 1992 he published with Manuela Marujo "With Hardened Hands", a more official history of Portuguese Immigration to Canada.

As a community activist, Marques was involved in the nineteen-sixties in the cultural and theatrical projects of the St.Mary's youth organization and the cable 10 television program Luso-Brasileiro. In the nineteen-seventies he reported and edited the community newspaper "Comunidade". A volunteer for CARP and PIN in the nineteen-eighties, Marques was elected Trustee of the Separate School Board Ward 3-4 in 1991.