Following Azores in the World (2017) and John Correia – From Plumbing Apprentice to President of the Senate (2019), we are pleased to present a third volume of our own authorship, devoted especially to our communities: Transatlantic – Migrations in the Azores, published in 2023 by the Azorean publishing house Letras Lavadas.
Comprising fifty carefully adapted and organized texts of information and reflection, this book captures the essence of migration in the Azores—past and present, outward and inward.
First, we have always been a harbor of departure.
For nearly six centuries we have inhabited these islands, and for more than four hundred years we have departed from them without ever truly leaving them behind, carrying the Azores within us to Brazil, Uruguay, and Hawai‘i; to the United States, Bermuda, and Canada. We are fewer than 250,000 islanders, yet more than one million natives and descendants spread across a tenth island of many geographies.
Today, we are also a harbor of refuge.
More than 8,000 foreign citizens representing over ninety different nationalities—from Brazilians, Germans, and Chinese to Russians and Ukrainians—have chosen to make the nine islands of the Azores their home, helping to shape a cosmopolitan and fraternal society.
This book makes Azorean identity rhyme with interculturality.
Its immediate inspiration lies in the texts written during my tenure as Regional Director for Communities of the Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores throughout 2021 and 2022.
Its greater purpose is to cultivate the awareness and pride of belonging to a transatlantic archipelago—one that projects its identity across the world while embracing entire continents within its islands.
We are neither at the end of Europe nor at the beginning of America.
We stand at the center of the world.
The President of the Government of the Azores, José Manuel Bolieiro, graciously wrote the preface to this volume, describing it as “recommended reading, both because it offers inspiring recognition of the accounts and reflections expressed herein, and because it deepens our understanding of the centuries-old phenomenon of migration in the Azores.”
He continues:
“Within this collection, we come to know the details and distinctive characteristics of our people’s migrations, something both important and fascinating in light of the dramatic daily reality of migration on a global scale, involving so many peoples and such diverse motivations.”
He concludes:
“We shall discover the migrations that have shaped the history of the Azorean people, the geographies where they came ashore, the realities of our present-day diaspora, and the ways in which those who departed to populate new territories and establish new towns and cities—Brazil being one such example—have preserved and reclaimed their ancestral roots.”
The book is organized into two principal sections: Harbor of Departure, dedicated to Azoreans living abroad, and Harbor of Refuge, devoted to foreign residents who have made the Azores their home.
The first section unfolds across forty-three chapters entitled:
A New Strategy; Economic Diaspora; Nemésio’s Azorean Identity; The Day of All Azoreans; The Emigrant’s Visit; A People of Faith; The Migrant Holy Spirit; The Pilgrim Lord Holy Christ; The Azorean Diaspora Council; Houses of the Azores and Brazil; Our Flag in the Holy Spirit; Azorean Viana; The World Council and the Winnipeg Community; Cabral’s Triangle; Volcanoes & Migrations; The (Tenth) Island of Santa Catarina; A Monument of Shared Bonds; An Archipelago of Roots; Alegrete, for Example; The Azoreans of San Carlos; The Azores in Rio; California and Hawai‘i; From Terceira to California; The New Diaspora; Communication Is Essential; Bellis Azorica; The Azoreans with a French Accent; The Portuguese Language; Azoreans in Bermuda; The Azorean Bermuda; Azores and Madeira Beyond the Islands; An Archipelago of Eleven Islands; Poetry Without Borders; Health and the Diaspora; Association of Azorean Emigrants; A Voz de Portugal; Portuguese Times; Women in the Diaspora; Being a Mother Here and There; Onésimo; Eduíno; Lélia; and From Harbor of Departure to Harbor of Refuge.
The second section comprises seven chapters:
The Diaspora in Reverse; The Mission of Immigration; Welcoming and Integrating; The World Here; Multicultural Pico; Immigrant Women; and The Association of Immigrants in the Azores.
The following year, in 2024, this work was complemented by a second volume entitled Transatlantic II – Azorean Identity & Interculturality, featuring prefaces by Professors Lélia Pereira Nunes (Brazil), Diniz Borges (United States of America), and José Carlos Teixeira (Canada).
José Andrade is the Regional Director for Communities
Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores