BOOSTING THE DIASPORA

Developing the diaspora is a relay race with a baton pass, which calls for everyone to participate – those there and those here, the most experienced and the newest, public authorities and private entities.

On the part of the Government of the Azores, the new Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities, through the Regional Directorate for Communities, has sought to fulfill its mission —dedication and even passion —of bringing together and valuing the Azorean diaspora.

Here we share some representative examples currently being implemented throughout 2025, among other initiatives we have had in previous years and will have in the years to come.

In March, the first colloquium, Pensar a Diáspora (Thinking about the Diaspora), brought to the Azores two dozen Azorean personalities with strategic thinking and remarkable careers in our communities in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Bermuda, and Uruguay.

In April, the International Seminar of Social Service Organizations of the Azores and the Diaspora brought together, in São Miguel, the leaders of 12 solidarity support associations that serve our communities in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda.

In May, the first issue of the bilingual magazine “Açorianidade” was launched, which aims to be, among other things, a tool for strategic engagement with the new generations of the Azorean diaspora, in addition to the election of 19 advisors from the Azorean diaspora for the 2025-2029 term, through the digital platform Açorianos no Mundo.

In June, a visit by directors of the Azorean media to the media outlets serving the communities of Ontario and Quebec, in Toronto and Montreal, thus promoting in Canada, after São Miguel and New England, the III Meeting of the Media of the Azores and North America.

Also in June, as part of the 40th anniversary of FLAD – Luso-American Development Foundation, the joint organization of the Sister Cities Summit in Ponta Delgada, with sister cities from Portugal and the United States of America.

During the three summer months, the Global Forum of the Holy Spirit, with experts from the most representative popular devotion of the Azorean diaspora – in July, in the Azores, on the occasion of the Great Feasts of the Holy Spirit of Ponta Delgada; in August, in Fall River, on the occasion of the Great Feasts of the Holy Spirit of New England; and in September, in Florianópolis, on the occasion of the Cycle of the Divine of Santa Catarina.

Also in September, the experimental edition of the Community Games, bringing young athletes of Azorean descent from the Azorean communities of North and South America to the Azores.

In October, the general assembly of the World Council of Azorean Houses, this time on the east coast of the United States, under the presidency of the Azorean House of New England.

And in November, the III Migration Forum, on Terceira Island, a space for reflection and debate that looks at the Azores not only as a “departure point,” but also as a “safe haven.”

These are some of the initiatives for 2025 to bring the two sides of the Atlantic River, as Onésimo Teotónio Almeida puts it, ever closer together.

In this way, we are continuing and reinforcing five decades of work carried out by successive Azorean governments, within the scope of the now defunct Office of Emigration and Support for Azorean Communities and its successor, the Regional Directorate for Communities, with five consecutive heads – Duarte Mendes (1976-1996), Alzira Silva (1996-2008), Rita Dias (2008-2009), Graça Castanho (2009-2012), and Paulo Teves (2012-2020) – whom we now have the pleasure of succeeding.

After all, in the Directorate of Communities, as in the Azorean diaspora, we are all athletes in a relay race passing the baton.

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

Based on the opening speech of the colloquium, The Portuguese Community – A Vision of the Past, Present, and Future, promoted by the newspaper LusoPresse, on March 29, 2025, in Montreal, Canada.

Translated by Diniz Borges