AZOREANS IN RIO GRANDE DO SUL

The Azorean couples who settled in southern Brazil for the Portuguese crown in the mid-18th century entered through Santa Catarina, and some later moved to Rio Grande. Here they founded the city of Porto Alegre, then known as “Porto dos Casais” (Port of Couples), which is now the capital of Rio Grande do Sul—a state with more than 11 million inhabitants in over 280,000 square kilometers, distinguished by its “gaucho culture.” They also populated small communities in the surrounding area, such as Gravataí, the birthplace of the Casa dos Açores do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, which, since 2003, has formally symbolized the Azorean cultural heritage of the southernmost tip of Brazil.

In the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, 23 kilometers from the state capital, Gravataí has almost 300,000 inhabitants in 460 square kilometers. It was an agricultural region with one of the largest dairy basins in Rio Grande do Sul, and today it is the third most industrialized city in Brazil and South America. The city’s DNA has Azorean blood.

The first Azorean to come to Gravataí was João Garcia Dutra, from the island of Faial, in 1747. This was even before the organized arrival of Azorean couples in Rio Grande (1748) and Porto Alegre (1752). The gradual settlement of Azorean couples dominated Gravataí and absorbed the indigenous people and blacks from different backgrounds who had settled here in the meantime. They introduced mills to make manioc flour and hand looms to weave cotton, brought Azorean folk music and the Divino Espírito Santo festivals, and left their mark on the architecture and language.

Although discontinued, the cultural heritage of the first Azorean immigration was so strong that it lasted for more than two centuries and persisted beyond the significant arrival of Italians and Germans. Even so, public recognition of the Azorean contribution to the local population is relatively recent.

First, Santa Inéze, the first director of the Portuguese Cultural Institute, proposed the creation of “Azorean Rooms” in two dozen municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul, through partnerships with the respective city halls for the permanent exhibition of ethnographic collections received from the regional government of the Azores. Then, Régis Gomes founded and directed the “Association of Friends of the Azores” and, consequently, the House of the Azores of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, in his city of Gravataí.

Gravataí, Caçapava do Sul, Guaíba, Jaguarão, Canguçu, Osório, Pelotas, Piratini, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande, Rio Pardo, Santa Maria, Santo António da Patrulha, and Viamão are the Brazilian cities involved in the “Vestígios Açorianos” (Azorean Traces) project

that the State Secretariat of Culture, of the state government of Rio Grande do Sul, developed to “rescue the memory and value the heritage” of Azorean culture in the culture of Rio Grande do Sul. Santo António da Patrulha, for example, maintains an informal center for cultural revitalization with events such as the “Cavalhadas”

(apparently similar to the tradition of the Azorean city of Ribeira Grande), the “Moenda da Canção Nativa” (a traditional music festival with a preference for themes of Azorean origin) and the “Baile de Masquê” (a dance performed by men dressed as women that was developed here by the first Azoreans).

Another example is the city of Gravataí, which for more than thirty years has organized the “Carreteada” in October, involving more than 100 ox carts. This event has significantly impacted tourism and revived the Azorean tradition of using this means of transport for agricultural purposes and, now also, for family outings.

However, other small towns also witness the Azorean legacy of Rio Grande do Sul. This is the case of Mostardas, which has adopted the tourist slogan “Azorean City,” an agricultural community of 10,000 inhabitants 200 kilometers from Gravataí, as well as its similar municipality of Tavares, which is 30 kilometers away.

The Municipal Museum of Gravataí, the only one in the city, founded four decades ago, acknowledges the founding contribution of the Azoreans right at the entrance: “The Azorean settlers arrived in Rio Grande do Sul to initially occupy the region of the Jesuit Reductions. They settled in the then Aldeia dos Anjos from 1772, coming from the Azores archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. They arrived with countless dreams and promises in their luggage: they would receive land, tools, seeds, among other things. What they found was uncertainty and the unknown. They had to rebuild their lives and implement the Portuguese project of populating Rio Grande. Here they developed their culture, mixing with the indigenous people already established there. From the Guarani, they learned about cassava and began to make flour in the numerous mills scattered throughout the region. To weave cotton, they brought manual looms. They also left their mark on architecture and popular language. Being a very religious people, they brought with them the festivities of the Holy Spirit, which are still celebrated today.”

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José Andrade is the Regional Director of Communities of the Autonomous Region of the Azores

This article is from a writing included in his book Açores no Mundo (2017)