A community speaks up
By George P. Hassett

Nearly 40 Portuguese speakers lined up to voice their support for a liquor license for the International Soccer Club last week. The licensing commission hearing was called to determine if the club deserved the privilege of being allowed to serve alcohol.

    International Soccer Club owner Mario DaSilva bought the liquor license formerly used by the Genoa Restaurant for $65,000 in Dec. 2005. Since that time DaSilva has been denied a license by the city‚Äôs licensing commission but that decision was overruled by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission and a new local licensing commission hearing was scheduled for Oct. 30.
   At the hearing, with the vote to grant a license to International Soccer tied at one, and with Andrew Upton the deciding vote, Upton closed the meeting, delayed his vote until next month‚Äôs meeting and encouraged the club and the neighborhood to ‚Äúroll up your sleeves, get together, think good thoughts and come to a compromise on this issue.‚Äù
   Ward 4 Alderman Walter Pero asked Upton if the group opposed to the club — the Marshall Street Neighborhood Group — could consider ‚Äúnot compromising‚Äù as an option. Earlier in the night he told the board a compromise was impossible. Pero refused a Somerville News request to comment on the situation.
    DaSilva‚Äôs lawyer, Richard DiGirolamo said International Soccer caters to the Brazilian and Portuguese-born residents of Somerville.
   ‚ÄúThe members of the International Soccer Club would not feel comfortable attending a bar and restaurant in Davis Square or Teele Square,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúThey want to attend an establishment where the other members speak the same language. The International Soccer Club serves as a gathering point for a foreign speaking population, many of whom only recently arrived and are trying to assimilate. This is not a function served by the 70 other licensed establishments that serve alcohol in this city.‚Äù
   DiGirolamo estimated that 30% of Somerville‚Äôs population spoke Portuguese in their homes. He said Nucleo Sporting Vista and the Sporting Club, both on Somerville Ave., were the only social clubs catering to Brazilians and Portuguese in the entire city. He said each establishment charges dues, only admits men and do not accept new members. The International Soccer Club is a non-profit enterprise that could serve the social needs of the Portuguese and Brazilian communities in Winter Hill, he said.
   DiGirolamo said that in the Portuguese and Brazilian cultures it is almost an affront not to welcome a guest with alcohol and that the International Soccer Club‚Äôs future without a license is tenuous.
   37 Somerville residents, most from the surrounding neighborhood, spoke in favor of the International Soccer Club‚Äôs request for a liquor license. Most, but not all, speakers were either Portuguese or Brazilian and a translator was on hand to relay their messages to the licensing commission.
   Marcello Santos, of the Brazilian Times newspaper, said clubs such as International Soccer were integral to the community‚Äôs wellbeing.
  ‚ÄúPlaces like the International Soccer Club bring us closer to home but also closer to America,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúThe Portuguese-speaking community deserves a place to gather as a community.‚Äù Santos brought his daughter to the club for her first birthday party.
   Edward Accomando lives at 437 Broadway and said there had been no trouble with patrons of the club in the neighborhood. Accomando said his uncle was a founding member of the Sons of Italy and taught him to appreciate the process of assimilation.
   ‚ÄúMy uncle instilled in me the importance of holding on to our heritage but also to assimilate into the culture of the United States. It is important for all new immigrant groups to have a place to go to learn the modes and norms of the new culture,‚Äù he said.
   Acting Police Chief Robert R. Bradley spoke in opposition to the club‚Äôs request for a liquor license. He said the club had already racked up three alcohol-related violations in 13 months without a license.
   DiGirolamo said there was no evidence alcohol was ever served at the club and that DaSilva used wine for cooking.
   Officer Bruce Campbell, the city‚Äôs former licensing commission officer for the police department said there had not been a problem at the club since March.
   DiGirolamo said his clients were willing to meet with neighborhood residents to address concerns about the club and come to a compromise each party could be happy with. But Pero said compromise has become impossible.
   ‚ÄúWe can‚Äôt compromise. If the second and third violations had not occurred maybe. But it is such a fractured relationship at this point that there is no room for compromise,‚Äù he said.