COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS WITH AN AZOREAN SOUL
The media play a fundamental role in building, preserving, and promoting a sense of belonging to a distinct community.
Through television, radio, and newspapers, we become conscious of our collective experience and, through the irreplaceable press, we preserve for future memory the defining moments of our identity and our geography.
First and foremost, community media outlets in North America make a decisive contribution to the much-needed resilience of the Portuguese language, both spoken and written.
Yet, however important audiovisual media and new forms of digital communication may be, nothing can replace the newspaper—and especially the printed newspaper, which we can leaf through and preserve, whether to feel the pulse of the local community or to find comfort for our longing for the homeland.
It therefore deserves proper congratulations and fitting praise when a newspaper printed conventionally on paper achieves longevity in a time and place of mounting digital pressure.
Here are two examples, among others that could be cited, from the Province of Quebec and the State of Massachusetts.
A VOZ DE PORTUGAL
MORE THAN 60 YEARS IN CANADA
A newspaper entitled A Voz de Portugal could not have chosen a more fitting date on which to celebrate its anniversary than April 25. It was on April 25, 1974, that Portugal raised its Voice to establish Democracy and affirm Freedom—the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press.
It so happens, however, by curious coincidence, that the newspaper’s founding predates the revolution. Almost prophetically, A Voz de Portugal was born thirteen years earlier, on April 25, 1961.
It has already completed 64 years of uninterrupted publication. After more than 3,300 weeks, it is the oldest Portuguese-language newspaper in Canada.
It honors the Portuguese community—predominantly Azorean—of the city of Montreal and the Province of Quebec.
A fitting tribute is therefore due, with gratitude and praise, to all those who have carried—and continue to carry—A Voz de Portugal ever farther, across both space and time.
First among them are its founders, Elísio de Oliveira and José Simões Silvestre, and its successive directors: Artur Ribeiro, Luís Filipe Costa, Dúlio Barreto Rosette, Armando Barqueiro, and António Vallacorba. Of all of them, Armando Barqueiro stands out, having directed the newspaper for 40 years, from 1965 until his death in 2005.
This tribute also embraces those serving it today: publisher Sylvio Martins, directors Jorge Matos and Francisca Reis, and, more broadly, its writers, contributors, advertisers, and readers.
Many Portuguese voices, past and present, come together to create A Voz de Portugal. One of them was the Azorean journalist Norberto Aguiar, a former and influential editor-in-chief of A Voz de Portugal, who founded and has directed the newspaper LusoPresse in Montreal since 1996.
In Ontario, among others, another noteworthy example is Correio da Manhã Canadá, published weekly in the city of Brampton since 2012 under the direction of Eduardo Vieira and Jorge Passarinho.
PORTUGUESE TIMES
MORE THAN 50 YEARS IN THE UNITED STATES
Having now celebrated 54 years since its founding in 1971, the Portuguese Times stands as a rare example of proud endurance, greatly honoring our community—not only in the city of New Bedford, but throughout the State of Massachusetts and all of New England.
It is among the oldest Portuguese newspapers still being published in the United States of America, sharing this remarkable distinction with other emblematic titles such as Luso-Americano of Newark, New Jersey, published since 1928; O Jornal of Fall River, Massachusetts, published since 1975; and Tribuna Portuguesa of Modesto, California, published since 1979.
It also honors the historic legacy of the Portuguese-American press, which reaches back to the nineteenth century, with A Voz Portuguesa of San Francisco, California, founded in 1870, and Jornal de Notícias of Erie, Pennsylvania, published in 1877.
For the longevity of the Portuguese Times, congratulations are due to its new owners and administrators, Henrique Arruda and Paulina Arruda; its director and editor, Francisco Resendes; its small but dedicated editorial staff, represented by the veteran reporter and photographer Augusto Pessoa; and also its contributors, advertisers, and readers, past and present. All have contributed to its longevity and, even more importantly, to its continued affirmation despite the growing difficulties of our times.
This newspaper is shaped by the past, consolidated in the present, and projected into the future, both as a cause and a consequence of the very identity of our New England community.
José Andrade is the current Regional Director for Azorean Communities for the Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores