AZORES-BRAZIL

Brazil was the first destination for Azorean emigration, and Brazilians comprise the largest immigrant community in the Azores.
Before the United States, Bermuda, and Canada, our first emigration was to Brazil, the northeast of Brazil, and the state of Maranhão, from 1619.
In the 18th century, we went to the other extreme to help populate Brazil – in Santa Catarina 275 years ago and in Rio Grande do Sul 270 years ago – and then we dispersed to different states of the Brazilian nation.
There are fewer than 240,000 Azoreans on the nine islands, but there will be more than two million Azoreans in our sister country.
To give future to this past, we now have seven active Houses of the Azores (Casas dos Açores) in the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Baía, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Maranhão and Espírito Santo. The first was founded in 1952, and the last opened in 2022.
On a local level, the twinning and cooperation movement between the largest Azorean cities and the capitals of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul stands out.
Florianópolis is the sister city of Ponta Delgada, Angra do Heroísmo and Praia da Vitória.
Porto Alegre is the sister city of Horta and Ribeira Grande.
Other cities in Santa Catarina are twinned with Azorean municipalities: Içara with Lajes das Flores, Bombinhas with Lajes do Pico, São Francisco do Sul with São Roque do Pico, Governador Celso Ramos with Santa Cruz da Graciosa and São José with Praia da Vitória.
Other cities in Rio Grande do Sul are twinned with Azorean municipalities: Gramado is twinned with Angra do Heroísmo, Gravataí is twinned with Horta, and General Câmara is twinned with São Roque do Pico.
In addition, Angra do Heroísmo is a sister city of Salvador da Baía, Ribeira Grande is a sister city of Viana in Espírito Santo, and Vila do Porto is twinned with the city of Resende Costa in Minas Gerais.
But in their relationship with Brazil, the Azores have transformed from a port of departure to a port of refuge.
According to the latest report from the Aliens and Borders Service, for the year 2022, there are 5,123 foreign nationals officially residing in the Azores today.
They are on all nine islands, in all 19 municipalities, in 155 parishes, and come from 97 countries.
Around 20% of these foreign citizens come from Brazil, not counting the countless number of Brazilians who have already acquired Portuguese nationality.
Of the 1,021 Brazilian citizens officially resident in the Azores, 423 are on the island of São Miguel, 204 on Terceira, 145 on Faial, 131 on Pico, 65 on São Jorge, 17 on Graciosa, 16 on Flores, 14 on Santa Maria and 6 on the island of Corvo.
The municipalities with the highest number of Brazilians are Ponta Delgada, with 292; Praia da Vitória, with 204; Horta, with 145; and São Roque do Pico, with 131, representing 4% of the municipal population.
They are all welcome!
Azoreans and Brazilians are accomplices through history, friends through culture, brothers through blood.
The shared past is the best present for a promising future.
It was in this context that the Azores Brazil Meeting was established.
The first meeting was held on October 14, 2021, at the Palácio da Conceição, in the city of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, taking advantage of the general assembly of the World Council of Houses of the Azores, which was meeting on the island of Santa Maria.
The second meeting was held on March 14, 2022, at the Palácio dos Capitães-Generais, in the city of Angra do Heroísmo, on the island of Terceira, taking advantage of the first plenary session of the Azorean Diaspora Council, which was meeting on the island of São Miguel.
The third meeting was held on July 23, 2022, at the Casa dos Açores in Rio de Janeiro. It took advantage of the 70th anniversary of the first Casa dos Açores in Brazil in the marvelous city and preceded the inauguration of the most recent one in Espírito Santo.
The fourth meeting, with the same format and extended to the joint participation of the leaders of the Houses of the Azores and the advisors of the Azorean diaspora, will be held on December 3, 2023, in Florianópolis, taking advantage of the XXV General Assembly of the World Council of the Houses of the Azores.
The fifth meeting was held on May 8, 2024, in Ponta Delgada, parallel the 2nd Plenary Session of the Azorean Diaspora Council.
May others follow for our common benefit…

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