The Azorean Legacy in the Americas

Emigration is inseparable from the history of the Azores.
In just two years, in 2027, we will commemorate six centuries of Azorean settlement, marking the arrival of the first settlers to these Portuguese islands of the North Atlantic in 1427.

Two centuries later, Azoreans opened the migratory route to Brazil.
In 1621 they went to Maranhão; in 1747 to Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul; and by the late nineteenth century to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Meanwhile, beginning in 1767, they also set out—decisively—for the United States of America, from coast to coast, from California to Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
They reached Bermuda in 1849 and, by 1878, arrived as far as Hawaiʻi.
Finally, in 1953, a systematic migration to Canada began, stretching from Quebec and Ontario to Alberta and British Columbia.

Today, fewer than 250,000 people live across the nine islands of the Azores. Yet more than three million emigrants and descendants inhabit what we often call the “tenth Azorean island,” on the far side of the Atlantic.

Let us begin, chronologically, with South America.

During the first quarter of the seventeenth century and until the mid-eighteenth century, an estimated 4,300 Azoreans emigrated to the Brazilian territories of Grão-Pará and Maranhão.
Later, between 1748 and 1755, some 6,500 Azoreans were sent to populate southern Brazil on behalf of the Portuguese Crown, in what are now the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.

First drawn by gold, and later by opportunity following the abolition of slavery, Azoreans sought prosperity and secured work in the provinces of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais. As the Terceiran historian João Leal, professor at the University of Lisbon, has observed, Azorean blood—now ten generations deep—runs through Brazil’s veins: in smaller numbers in Bahia, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo; in medium concentrations in Amazonas, Pará, and Paraíba; and in large numbers in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.

In Santa Catarina, the Azorean-descendant genealogist Sérgio Luiz Ferreira estimates that the state—now home to eight million inhabitants—includes nearly two million descendants of the first Azoreans who arrived in Florianópolis, then known as Nossa Senhora do Desterro, some 275 years ago.
In Rio Grande do Sul, the state capital Porto Alegre—today nearing one and a half million residents—is the largest city in the world founded by Azoreans. Its original name, Porto dos Casais, recalls the arrival of Azorean couples more than 250 years ago.

Although Brazil was the primary destination of early Azorean emigration, at least three other Latin American countries also received Azorean migrants: Uruguay, the most recognized case, and the lesser-studied Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

Azorean presence in Uruguay dates back to 1763, when the Spanish general Pedro de Cevallos founded the city of San Carlos with 140 Azorean families who had originally settled in neighboring Rio Grande do Sul, amid territorial disputes between Portugal and Spain.
Two hundred and sixty years later, a significant number of Azorean descendants live in Uruguay, including nine presidents of the Republic.

Azorean emigration to Venezuela occurred mainly between 1935 and 1949, encouraged by the Instituto Técnico de Inmigración y Colonización, which sought Portuguese migrants—especially from Madeira and the Azores—known for their agricultural skills. Today, the Azorean-heritage community is concentrated in Punto Fijo, capital of the municipality of Carirubana, in the state of Falcón, where the annual Feast of the Holy Spirit continues to be celebrated.

Azoreans also reached the Caribbean. Around 1940, a group from São Miguel settled in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. In his book Azoreans in Santo Domingo – The Saga of São Miguel Migrants in the Dominican Republic, researcher Luiz Nilton Corrêa writes that these emigrants, lured and misled by Dominican authorities, “suffered the consequences of a poorly conceived population-development policy and, after months of hardship, returned poorer and sicker than when they had arrived.”

Azorean emigration begins in South America, but the great migratory movement of the archipelago toward the Americas ultimately concentrated in North America.

First in the United States and Hawaiʻi.
Then in Bermuda.
And finally in Canada.

Azoreans spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast so extensively that, in North America, as I often say, Portugal is spelled with the word Azores.

Systematic Azorean presence in the United States dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century, initially centered on Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and California.
A second wave of Portuguese emigration occurred between 1910 and 1920, involving roughly 150,000 emigrants—nearly all Azorean.
The third wave began after the 1957 eruption of the Capelinhos volcano and continued until the establishment of Azorean political autonomy in 1976.

This was the last and largest Azorean migration to the United States. An estimated 180,000 Azoreans from all nine islands followed the established pattern: islanders from the eastern group heading to the East Coast, and those from the central and western groups moving westward.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, approximately 1.5 million Portuguese and Portuguese-descended individuals live in the United States today, the majority of Azorean origin. They are present in all fifty states, but especially in six: California (350,000), Massachusetts (265,000), Hawaiʻi (91,000), Florida (84,000), Rhode Island (83,000), and New Jersey (82,000).

California alone has seventy cities with more than one thousand Portuguese residents, including San José (13,200), San Diego (9,900), Los Angeles (9,200), Modesto (6,600), Sacramento (6,300), and San Francisco (5,200).
Massachusetts counts thirty-five such cities, led by Fall River (30,000), New Bedford (26,000), Taunton (11,700), Somerset (6,700), and Boston (5,500).
Rhode Island has ten cities with over a thousand Portuguese residents, notably East Providence (11,600), Warwick (6,400), and Pawtucket (6,200).

But Azoreans crossed the continent and traveled even farther, reaching what were once called the Sandwich Islands. It is both striking and a source of pride to find Azorean identity still so vibrant in Hawaiʻi—12,000 kilometers away and more than a century after that migration ended. Between 1877 and 1913, 22,400 Portuguese emigrated to Hawaiʻi: 11,600 Azoreans, 7,300 Madeirans, and 3,500 from mainland Portugal. Today, the Pacific archipelago is home to more than 50,000 Azorean descendants, many sharing Madeiran ancestry, all proud of their roots—even when the Portuguese language itself has faded.

Very different has been the Azorean experience in Bermuda, the North Atlantic archipelago. Azoreans have emigrated there for 175 years, since 1849, mostly from São Miguel, and today they represent roughly 25 percent of Bermuda’s total population. Migration there occurred under pre-signed labor contracts, temporary and sector-specific, mainly in construction and landscaping. Between 1960 and 2020 alone, more than 9,700 Azoreans officially emigrated to Bermuda—402 in 1960 and 34 in 2020.

Finally, Canada—the last major North American destination of Portuguese emigration—has received roughly half a million Portuguese over the past seventy years. Here, too, the majority are of Azorean origin. According to Professor José Carlos Teixeira of the University of British Columbia, “between 60 and 70 percent of all Portuguese currently living in Canada either come from the Azores (first generation) or descend from Azoreans (second, third, and fourth generations), amounting to roughly 350,000 to 400,000 islanders, primarily from São Miguel and Terceira.”

Canadian metropolitan censuses in 2024 recorded more than 180,000 Portuguese in Toronto, 23,000 in Montreal, 22,000 in Vancouver, 10,000 in Winnipeg, 8,000 in Edmonton, and 6,000 in Calgary. The province of Ontario alone accounts for 300,000 Portuguese residents, including newer concentrations in cities such as Mississauga and Brampton.

In sum, Azorean blood is scattered across the geographies of the American continent.

José Andrade is the Regional Director for Communities, Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores
From the opening address of the international symposium Filaments of Atlantic Heritage, organized by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute at California State University, Fresno.
April–May 2025.