The Boston Sunday Herald, November 20, 1994:

A Somerville house painter was weak but still dedicated as he entered the second week of a hunger strike aimed at forcing his cable company to carry a Portuguese channel in Cambridge and Somerville. "I'm tired and cold," Manuel Bonifacio said yesterday. "The doctor is going to check me to make sure everything is OK so far."

Bonifacio, 39, the host of "Here We Speak Portuguese" on local-access stations in Cambridge and Somerville, has subsisted on juice and water since he began his hunger strike. Four other hunger strikers are making the same demand in New Bedford and Fall River. So far, cable officials have only encouraged Bonifacio and the others to eat.

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