Azorean Journalism in the Nineteenth Century (2)

In the Azores of the nineteenth century, the press was restless, argumentative, and feverishly alive. Newspapers, bulletins, and magazines—political, literary, religious, and satirical—filled the public space, even if most did so briefly. Many lived short lives, printed in small runs, with only a handful of pages, yet their impact far exceeded their modest physical form. What they lacked in durability, they made up for in urgency.

Politics, above all, fueled this profusion. The islands witnessed a near-constant eruption of partisan newspapers, often created not simply to persuade but to attack—publicly and unapologetically—one another. Journalism was combat by other means.

In Ponta Delgada, for instance, the provocatively titled A Rebeca do Diabo, a progressive political paper, declared itself openly “created to combat the political excesses” of O Campeão Popular. Another local paper, A Verdade, positioned itself as an official voice “primarily intended to calm the partisan effervescence stirred up by O Cartista dos Açores.” Even moderation, it seems, required a newspaper of its own.

Elsewhere, new publications emerged in direct opposition to entrenched political and religious authorities. On Terceira Island alone, the Correio da Terceira announced its mission as nothing less than provoking the extinction of the Azores Court of Appeal. O Protesto defined itself as a paper opposing the Civil Governor, the Count of Praia da Vitória. A Trombeta Açoriana took aim at ecclesiastical power, presenting itself as an “ecclesiastical, political, and news journal” in opposition to Bishop D. Frei Estêvão de Jesus Maria.

Political parties quickly recognized the press as their most effective instrument. The Regenerator Party published official organs such as A Ilha, A Persuasão, and A Voz do Progresso in Ponta Delgada, alongside Ecco Liberal, A Regeneração, and A Sentinella in Horta. The Progressive Party countered with O Povo Açoriano in Ponta Delgada, O Angrense in Angra do Heroísmo, Jornal da Praia in Praia da Vitória, A União in Horta, and Ecco Jorgense in Velas, on São Jorge Island.

Other factions followed suit. The Reformist Party published O Liberal in Angra do Heroísmo. The Cartist Party founded A Ilha, O Noticiador, and O Cartista dos Açores in Ponta Delgada. The Liberal Party produced A Ideia Nova in Terceira. Republican voices emerged through papers such as A Evolução, linked to the Terceira Republican Party, and A República Federal, published by the Federal Republican Center of Ponta Delgada, alongside O Trabalhador in Lajes das Flores.

Additional titles further illustrate the density and diversity of this press landscape. In Ponta Delgada, O Correio Michaelense served first as the official organ of the Popular and Progressive Party and later of the Septemberist Party, while O Monitor represented the Conservative Party and O Repórter voiced socialist politics. Angra do Heroísmo saw the emergence of Independente da Terceira, a separatist republican paper, as well as Direito do Povo, O Futuro, and A Voz do Artista, all aligned with the working class.

Some cases were especially curious. On Faial, O Raio defended republican politics in its first issue, only to shift to progressive politics in its second. In Ponta Delgada, O Commercio Michaelense described itself as a “semi-religious newspaper, more or less aligned with Regenerator politics,” hedging its commitments with careful ambiguity.

The Terceira press, in particular, became the stage for fierce journalistic battles. As early as 1835, O Liberal, the voice of the Reformist Party, engaged in sustained polemic with Sentinella, representing Conservative politics. Decades later, in 1878, A Ronda, a progressive paper, launched a violent dispute with another Sentinella, this one aligned with the Regenerator Party and opposed to the Second Count of Praia da Vitória.

The conflicts were not merely rhetorical. The political ferocity of Azorean journalism reached a tragic extreme in 1836, when Captain José Rafael da Costa, chief editor of Sentinella Constitucional dos Açores, the first conservative political newspaper on Terceira Island, was assassinated—allegedly because of what he had written.

It is therefore telling that, in 1874, the newspaper O Observador was founded in Horta with the explicit aim of “exercising a mission of conciliation among parties tearing each other apart in the disastrous field of intrigue and personal hatred.” Even reconciliation, it seems, required its own headline.

(To be continued)

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

Based on the lecture “Toward a History of the Azorean Press,” delivered at the Public Library of Angra do Heroísmo on July 3, 2025.

Translated by Diniz Borges