THE AZOREAN PIONEERS IN CANADA

In the previous issue, we remembered the pioneers of official emigration from the Azores to Canada – 18 men from the island of São Miguel who disembarked from Satúrnia in the port of Halifax 70 years ago, on May 13, 1953.

The names of these men go down in history, but we can’t forget the anonymous women who followed.

That’s why, in this issue, we’re paying tribute to women—all women—especially Portuguese immigrant women, particularly the Azorean immigrant woman, who is especially representative of the Portuguese diaspora in Canadian society.

The woman who left the island’s comfort overcame the sea’s distance, faced the challenges of another land, another people, another language, worked against winds and tides to protect her children or affirm her career, aged in the calendar, but did not fade in geography.

She always kept her homeland close to her heart.

She passed on the culture of his parents to his children, imposed his mother tongue at home, hummed Chamarrita and Olhos Negros, celebrated a “dominga” of the Holy Spirit, and even made a record of Senhor Santo Cristo, fried malassadas at the Azorean association’s community festival and convinced the whole family to visit the island she missed, so much.

But she also left home to work, study, meet, and lead.

This woman from the Azores in the Diaspora communities – who is anonymous but could be named after anyone – deserves our respect, admiration, and homage.

Not just today, but always. Because for her, who lives in a nation different from hers, every day is International Women’s Day.

This woman—Azorean, Portuguese, Portuguese-Canadian—has a voice in celebrating the 70th anniversary of Portugal’s official emigration to Canada.

However, it is ironic that the Portuguese pioneers who disembarked from the Saturnia at the port of Halifax on May 13, 1953, the day of Our Lady of Fatima, were all exclusively male.

They were even obligatorily male.

The first selection criteria that emigrant candidates had to meet were that they must be male, between the ages of 22 and 35, medically proven to be physically robust, and preferably unmarried.

In the early years, the path opened up by the Portuguese pioneers was always primarily male, for challenging work in the agricultural fields, on the railroads, and in industry.

But in the 1950s, Portuguese workers in Canada began the family reunification process, with the famous “letters of call” bringing women from the islands and the mainland who were still economically dependent on their husbands.

The women who, after all, had taken over the management of the family in Portuguese homes with emigrant men.

In fact, the 1960s already showed a majority of women in transatlantic emigration to Canada if we take the Azores archipelago as a statistical example:

In 1961, 674 men, 888 women;
In 1963, 846 men, 1,043 women;
In 1965, 1,196 men, 1,585 women;
In 1967, 1,640 men, 2,019 women;
In 1969, 2,232 men, 2,452 women.

These figures reveal the consolidated novelty of the female majority and the growing trend of Azorean emigration, which would dominate the Portuguese diaspora in Canada and North America in general.

In the meantime, women have assumed the decisive importance they need and deserve in the different communities, often guaranteeing the dynamism of the associative movement that distinguishes and dignifies us in the host society.

Thanks to them, our diaspora today is more active, human, and qualified.

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José Andrade is the Regional Director for Communities in the XIII Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores.
This text was taken from his book Transatlântico – Açorianidade & Interculturalidade (2024).

Translated by Diniz Borges