Letras Lavadas Bookstore, in Ponta Delgada, Azores, will host the launch of An Unending Bridge – The Azorean Islands of North America on Tuesday, August 4, at 6:00 p.m. The book is the latest work by José Andrade, author and Regional Director for the Communities of the Government of the Azores. The volume was translated into English and features a foreword by Diniz Borges, who will be present at the event to introduce Andrade’s newest publication.
According to information obtained by our publication, the book is “a collection of 35 chronicles devoted to the Azorean communities established throughout the United States, Canada, and Bermuda.”
The volume is jointly published by Bruma Publications, the publishing imprint of the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute at California State University, Fresno, and Letras Lavadas, the Azorean publishing house based in Ponta Delgada.
In the foreword, Diniz Borges writes that “the Azores and North America have become mirror archipelagos, each shaping the other, each discovering itself through the other’s reflection. At the heart of this work lies José Andrade’s mission—the tireless construction of bridges between the Azores and its diaspora.”
“As a writer, columnist, and cultural ambassador, Andrade has devoted much of his life’s work to affirming that the Azores do not end at their shores. Through his essays, lectures, and dialogues among communities, he has helped both sides of the Atlantic recognize one another not as distant relatives, but as parts of the same living body,” concludes the Azorean-American professor.
Written entirely in English, the book is especially dedicated to the younger generations of Azorean descendants in North America who no longer speak or understand Portuguese, yet remain eager to discover the essential elements of the cultural identity inherited from their parents and grandparents.
“This book is especially dedicated to the new generations of the Azorean diaspora in North America—the children and grandchildren of our emigrants in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda, who were born in those countries and, in many cases, neither speak nor understand the Portuguese language, yet possess a genuine desire to know and experience the cultural identity of their parents and grandparents, honoring the Azorean blood that flows through their veins in the name of an Azoreanness without borders,” said author José Andrade.
Although Andrade has served as Regional Director for the Communities of the Government of the Azores since December 2020, his commitment to the Azorean diaspora began much earlier, during his previous service as Councillor for Culture at the Municipality of Ponta Delgada and later as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores.
José Andrade is the author of nearly forty published books, several of them devoted directly to the Azorean diaspora and published by Letras Lavadas, including Diaspora Conversations – 50 Azoreans Around the World (2024), Transatlantic II – Azoreanness & Interculturality (2024), Transatlantic – Migration in the Azores (2023), John Correia – From Plumbing Apprentice to President of the Senate (2019), Azores Around the World (2017), and Lord Holy Christ of the Miracles – From Ponta Delgada to the World (2013).
Ígor Lopes