Born in Chaves, Portugal, he obtained his B.A. in Philosophy in 1955; he left for the United States in 1962, planning to pursue his studies in law. Having opted for languages, he obtained his M.A. in French, at Assumption College, Massachusetts, in 1965, and a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese, at the University of Wisconsin, in 1970, under the direction of Professors Lloyd Kasten and Jorge de Sena. While in Portugal, he taught Portuguese, Latin, and Classical Greek in High Schools; in the United States, he taught French, and Latin at Chester High School, Chester, Massachusetts; Spanish, and Latin at Worcester Academy, Worcester, Massachusetts; French, and Spanish at Fort Hays Kansas State College, Hays, Kansas; and Spanish, French, and Latin, at the University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada. In 1969 he was hired by the University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, and taught Spanish and Portuguese there until his retirement in 1999. He was given tenure in 1973 and was promoted to full professor in 1980. In 1983 and 1987, he taught Portuguese at the University of California, Santa Barbara, California, as a visiting professor.

In 1981 the President of Portugal bestowed upon him the Comendador da Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique, in appreciation for the promotion of the Portuguese language and the culture of the Portuguese-speaking world in the United States and abroad.

Besides participation in literary dictionaries and encyclopedias and in Portuguese, Brazilian, American and foreign journals, he is the author of several books on literature and literary criticism and the editor of several works by Portuguese writers.

He lives in Manchester, Connecticut and is a board of director of the Portuguese Foundation, Inc.