Historian Carlos Enes returns with a new volume that invites the Azores to rediscover themselves through the quiet power of history
History is rarely confined to the past. It lives quietly beneath the surface of the present, shaping the conversations we have, the institutions we inherit, the traditions we celebrate, and even the questions we continue to ask ourselves. Every generation believes it is writing a new chapter, yet each page rests upon countless others that came before. The true task of the historian, therefore, is not merely to preserve memory, but to illuminate the invisible threads that connect yesterday to today. Few scholars have devoted themselves so consistently to that work in the Azores as historian Carlos Enes, whose latest publication, Temas de História Açoriana – Volume II, continues a lifetime dedicated to helping the islands better understand themselves.
The new volume, to be presented on July 2 at the Continente Hypermarket in Angra do Heroísmo, is much more than a collection of historical essays. It is another chapter in an intellectual journey that has sought, for decades, to enrich Azorean historiography by looking beyond familiar narratives and recovering subjects too often overlooked or insufficiently explored. Rather than merely recounting events, Carlos Enes once again invites readers to engage history as an active conversation, one capable of deepening both civic understanding and cultural identity. The publication also builds upon the success of the first volume, whose English translation, Azorean History Themes: Islands of Struggle and Resilience, translated by Diniz Borges and published jointly by Bruma Publications and Letras Lavadas, has introduced Enes’s scholarship to an international readership, making his thoughtful exploration of Azorean history accessible to English-speaking readers throughout the diaspora and beyond.
At the heart of the new work lies one of the defining themes of modern Azorean history: the long, often difficult, and sometimes contradictory path toward political autonomy. Published during the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, the volume arrives with particular significance. Enes reconstructs the successive stages of the autonomist movement, examining both its moments of progress and its setbacks before the democratic transformation of Portugal in 1974 finally made regional self-government possible. Rather than treating autonomy as an inevitable historical destination, he presents it as the product of decades of political debate, public mobilization, competing visions, and persistent determination. It is history that speaks directly to the present, reminding readers that democratic institutions are never gifts of circumstance but achievements patiently constructed over generations.
Among the most compelling contributions of the volume is the publication of a travel report by Marcelo Caetano, offering readers a revealing window into the centralized political mentality that characterized Portugal’s Estado Novo dictatorship. Read alongside Enes’s examination of Azorean resistance to Lisbon’s centralism—including the popular demonstrations in Ponta Delgada that resulted in injuries and deaths—the documents acquire renewed relevance. They reveal not only the tensions that shaped twentieth-century Portuguese politics but also the determination of island communities to defend their own voice within the national framework. In an era when discussions of regional identity continue to evolve, these historical perspectives provide valuable context for understanding both the achievements and the unfinished aspirations of autonomy.
Yet Carlos Enes has never limited himself to political history alone. One of the distinguishing characteristics of his scholarship has always been his conviction that the history of a people resides as much in its cultural practices as in its institutions. Accordingly, Temas de História Açoriana – Volume II returns to two of the defining pillars of Azorean identity: the Holy Spirit Festivities and the unique Carnaval traditions of Terceira Island. These are not treated merely as colorful customs preserved for future generations, but as complex social phenomena that reveal how communities organize themselves, transmit values, negotiate belonging, and preserve collective memory. Enes proposes interpretations that move beyond conventional descriptions, encouraging readers to see these traditions as living expressions of Azorean society itself—dynamic, evolving, and deeply intertwined with the islands’ historical experience.
Elsewhere, the volume fills important gaps within regional historiography. It explores the early foundation of the Socialist Party in the Azores between 1913 and 1915, tracing political developments simultaneously across the archipelago’s three principal cities. It examines the arrival and dissemination of early cinema, showing how the moving image transformed cultural life in communities often perceived as geographically distant from Europe’s major artistic currents. Particularly striking is Enes’s analysis of public reactions to the plague that struck Terceira in 1908, drawing thoughtful historical parallels that inevitably resonate with readers whose own memories remain marked by the global experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. History, in this sense, becomes not a catalogue of isolated events but a reservoir of human experience, reminding us that societies have repeatedly confronted uncertainty, fear, resilience, and recovery.
Another notable contribution is the examination of the correspondence between Vitorino Nemésio and António de Oliveira Salazar, a dialogue that reveals the celebrated Terceiran writer’s complex and often nuanced relationship with Portugal’s authoritarian regime. Such material resists simplistic historical judgments. Instead, it reflects the ambiguities, tensions, and moral complexities that frequently characterize intellectual life under authoritarian systems. By presenting these documents within their historical context, Enes once again demonstrates the historian’s responsibility not to simplify the past but to understand it in all its human complexity.
The publication also reflects the remarkable intellectual journey of its author. Born in Vila Nova, Terceira, in 1951, Carlos Enes has spent nearly five decades devoted to teaching, research, and public service. His academic career has extended from secondary education in the Azores to the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, from the Open University in Lisbon to pedagogical work at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon. His public life has likewise included service on the Regional Council of Culture, leadership within the Casa dos Açores in Lisbon, and a term in Portugal’s National Assembly. Throughout these varied roles, however, one constant has remained unchanged: a lifelong commitment to understanding and interpreting the historical experience of the Azorean people.
Over the years, Carlos Enes has authored dozens of books and scholarly articles that have significantly enriched the historiography of the islands. His work has consistently sought to bridge academic rigor with public accessibility, making history available not only to specialists but also to readers who simply wish to understand the communities from which they come. That contribution was fittingly recognized in 2019 with the award of the Medal of Professional Merit by the Regional Government and Legislative Assembly of the Azores.
The publication of the first volume in English represented an important milestone in that mission. Azorean History Themes: Islands of Struggle and Resilience carries Enes’s scholarship beyond the Portuguese-speaking world, inviting readers throughout North America and elsewhere to encounter the Azores not as isolated Atlantic islands, but as places where ordinary men and women repeatedly shaped extraordinary moments of courage, resilience, democratic aspiration, and cultural affirmation. From Terceira’s resistance to Spanish rule in the sixteenth century to the struggles against dictatorship and the eventual birth of modern autonomy, the volume reminds international readers that Azorean history has always been far richer and more influential than its geography alone might suggest. In doing so, it also strengthens one of the essential bridges between the islands and their global diaspora: a shared understanding of history.
Ultimately, Temas de História Açoriana – Volume II reminds us that history is never merely an archive of completed events. It is an ongoing dialogue between memory and identity, between inheritance and responsibility. The Azores continue to evolve, confronting new economic realities, demographic changes, environmental challenges, and global transformations. Yet understanding where the islands are going requires an equally careful understanding of where they have been. Books such as this serve not only as repositories of knowledge but as invitations—to question inherited narratives, to revisit forgotten episodes, and to appreciate the richness and complexity of the Azorean experience.
In the end, every island is sustained by two landscapes. One is the visible geography of mountains, harbors, villages, and seas. The other is the invisible landscape of memory, patiently assembled through centuries of lives, decisions, celebrations, conflicts, and dreams. Carlos Enes has devoted much of his life to mapping that second landscape. With this new volume, he once again reminds readers that the surest way to understand the future of the Azores is first to learn how to read the many histories that continue to live quietly beneath their shores.
For Readers in North America
Readers interested in exploring Carlos Enes’s work in English can obtain Azorean History Themes: Islands of Struggle and Resilience, the translated first volume of Temas de História Açoriana. Translated by Diniz Borges and published jointly by Bruma Publications and Letras Lavadas, the book is available through bookstores across the Azores, as well as through Bruma Publications for readers in the United States and Canada.
Price: US$20.00 (shipping and handling included)
Please make checks payable to:
Institute Azorean-American Studies
c/o Bruma Publications
Diniz Borges
1418 Clarete Avenue
Tulare, California 93274 USA
Please allow approximately three weeks from receipt of your order for processing and delivery.
Part of this piece is from a story published in Atlântico Expresso.