AZOREANS IN URUGUAY

It is admirable that emigrants born in the Azores passionately preserve their cultural identity in Ontario or Quebec, California or New England, Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo. It’s impressive to realize that the distant descendants of the Azorean settlers proudly recover their cultural heritage in Santa Catarina or Rio Grande do Sul. But it’s unbelievable to feel that a new generation of Uruguayans, remotely originating from the descendants of Azoreans who crossed the border from the former Brazil to present-day Uruguay, are committedly assuming their identity heritage as “Los Azoreños” of the House of the Azores in the city of San Carlos.

San Carlos was founded in 1763 by the Spanish general Pedro de Cevallos. Ironically, around 300 Azorean families were brought from Rio Grande, in the south of Brazil, to stop the Portuguese advance into Uruguay. The Azoreans shaped and dominated this city until the arrival of the Spanish from Asturias and Galicia in 1780.

Two hours by road from the Uruguayan capital and three from the Brazilian border, eight kilometers from the seat of the Department of Maldonado and 14 from the tourist center of Punta del Este, the city of San Carlos is a resilient symbol of Azorean settlement in South America, along with the coasts of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. The public affirmation of its Azorean origins, despite always prevailing in the subconscious of architecture or culture, has occurred above all since commemorating its bicentenary.

In 1963, the 200th anniversary of the founding of San Carlos by Azorean couples from Brazil was marked by the creation of the Uruguayan Folk Dance Group “Los Azoreños”, made up of teaching students. One of its main driving forces, Professor Ariel Edison Guadalupe Cabrera (1942-2010), was so dedicated to energizing the growing group and researching the inherent culture that in 2002, he managed to set up a civic association also called “Los Azoreños”.

The main objective of the new association – to historically recover and publicly value the Azorean legacy in the city of San Carlos – was best achieved with the construction of its headquarters in 2004, on land donated by the members, which brought together everyone’s help and respected the traditional Azorean-influenced architecture (stone walls, sash windows).

Half a century after the dance group was formed and a decade after it became an association, “Los Azoreños” gave way to the House of the Azores of Uruguay, officially recognized by the Uruguayan government since 2013, which has been a member of the World Council of Houses of the Azores since September 1, 2011.

In this Uruguayan city founded by Azoreans, we can today find the “Plaza Islas Azores”, a large public square specially designed for local youth sports, which was inaugurated in 2008 during the 7th Azorean-Carolina Festival, by the Municipality of San Carlos and by grace of the House of the Azores. Its toponymic plaque, in handmade blue and white tiles, shows the iconographic representation of the nine Azorean islands. Another summarizes municipal recognition: “Aqui termino el viajo y empezo la historia – Azorean Founders – 1763”.

The central square of San Carlos also boasts a monument that hints at the Azorean contribution to the city’s founding and even to the country’s independence. It pays homage to Colonel Leonardo Oliveira, of Azorean descent, who took the fortress of Santa Teresa, on the border with Brazil, from the Portuguese to the Spanish. It bears the following inscription: “To the heroic Carolinians who served in the wars of national independence.”

The monument is complemented by several Portuguese names, descendants of Azoreans, such as Leonardo Oliveira himself, who also has a street named after him in the center of San Carlos, or Araújo, Nunes, Correa, Ferreira, Dutra, and Silva. These and other names are common to the list of Azorean settlers on display in the nearby San Carlos Municipal Museum.

In fact, nine former Uruguayan presidents are of Azorean descent. For example, Julio Maria Sanguinetti (1985/90), who was the first post-dictatorship president, Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990/95), and José Mujica (2010/15), the latter a descendant of the Azorean Terra family. These three current senators are joined by interim president Manuel Bustamante Piris (1855/56), a descendant of the Pires family from the island of Pico.

Also of Azorean descent, like her predecessor Gregorio Quintana, is the former alcaldesa of the Municipality of San Carlos, Alba Rijo Garcia, who, as municipal director of Culture, visited the islands of S. Miguel and Terceira in 2013 to take part in a conference commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Azorean settlement in Uruguay, held at the University of the Azores. For her, “walking through the streets of the Azores is like walking through the streets of San Carlos”.

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

Based on an article in his book Açores no Mundo (2017)