“Where Islands Speak Through Art – From the Heart of the Azores to the Diaspora”

João Dias Afonso was born in Angra do Heroísmo on August 27, 1923. He was a writer and journalist. Senior technician in libraries and archives. He was director of the Municipal Library of Angra do Heroísmo and then senior official at the Public Library and Archives of the same city. Meanwhile, he conducted historical studies on whaling and museology, with internships in the USA (New England and California) and the United Kingdom. He was responsible for organizing the ethno-historical museum of the Whalers of the Azores, in Lajes do Pico.

At the Angra library, with which he was associated for many years, as well as in other national and foreign archives, he has conducted extensive research on the history of the Azores (Açores em Novos Papéis Velhos, ed. Instituto Histórico da Ilha Terceira, 1980) and Azorean historical ethnography (O Traje nos Açores, id., 1978, 2nd ed. 1987) and compiled an exhaustive inventory of Azorean bibliography (Bibliografia Geral dos Açores, ed. Regional Secretariat for Education and Culture, in publication). His long career as a journalist is mainly linked to the Angra do Heroísmo newspapers Diário Insular and A União, in the former of which he coordinated a notable “Arts and Letters” page for 30 years, from 1946 to 1978, with only one interruption between 1959 and 1961, during which he was editor of the former National Information Agency in Lisbon. He has given lectures and participated in various conferences in Portugal and abroad. Some of his lectures were given at American universities, including Harvard, Brown, and others.

As a poet, he emerged in the context of mid-century insular modernism with poetry in which the Nemésio style is somewhat recognizable, but whose authenticity Nemésio himself was the first to emphasize, highlighting the “vague fluidity” of his expression, which “sometimes allows him to achieve admirable effects of simplicity and purity.” In some poems published in periodicals, he used the pseudonym Álvaro Orey.

He published three poetry pamphlets entitled Enotesco, Angra do Heroísmo, n.d. [1955], Pássaro Pedinte e Ruas Dispersas (with a preface by Vitorino Nemésio), Lisbon, 1960, and Cantigas do Terramoto para Ler e Passar, Angra do Heroísmo, 1980, as well as numerous essays and studies on topics related to the history, literature, and ethnography of the Azores, of which we highlight—in addition to those mentioned and many others scattered or published in pamphlets—Garrett e a Ilha Terceira, ed. by the Angra do Heroísmo City Council, 1954; Antero de Quental e o Pensamento da Revolução Nacional, Lisbon, 1967; Açores de Outrora na Ilha Terceira Daqueles Tempos (The Azores of Yesteryear on Terceira Island in Those Days), published by the Azorean Institute of Culture, 1978; Memoração Ribeiriana (on Luís da Silva Ribeiro), published by the Historical Institute of Terceira Island, 1982; Notabilidade de Dacosta (The Notability of Dacosta), Angra do Heroísmo, 1983; The Galleon of Malacca in the Port of Angra in 1659: A Judicial Process – Linschoten, ed. Inst. Histórico da Ilha Terceira, 1984; Whales and Whalers – Azoreans on the Seven Seas and Anchored in Their Islands, Angra do Heroísmo, 1988. Organized, annotated, and prefaced: Luís Ribeiro, Subsídios para Um Ensaio sobre a Açorianidade (Contributions to an Essay on Azoreanity), Angra do Heroísmo, “Ínsula” collection, 1964; id., Obras (Works), 3 vols., ed. Historical Institute of Terceira Island / Regional Secretariat of Education and Culture, 1982-1983. Eduíno de Jesus (1998)

Addendum

Volumes IV and V of the Bibliografia Geral dos Açores (General Bibliography of the Azores) were published posthumously in digital format on the Azores Culture Portal by the Azores Knowledge Center in 2021.

[(…) – died in Angra do Heroísmo on February 22, 2014]. Ranu Costa (2022)

João Dias Afonso had a close relationship with the Central Valley, especially the city of Tulare. He worked diligently to establish the Angra-Tulare sister city program, commemorating its 60th anniversary in 2026.

In Enciclopédia Açoriana

More information at: https://philangra.blogspot.com/2020/02/joao-afonso-1923-2014.html