Azorean emigration is being highlighted all over the islands with various events, including meetings of Azorean houses, plays, folklore events, book launches… These initiatives remind us that we are scattered almost all over the world and that the fundamental values that characterize us are present everywhere, even in the generations born in the host countries. Among these values, the ideology of the Holy Spirit seems to stand out, both in its religious and secular versions, which is mainly expressed through forms of solidarity that change from place to place but which always go back to the essence of devotion to the Third Person as we know it. It is not without reason that the Azores chose Pombinha (Holy Spirit) Day as their regional day. It’s because the ideals of the Holy Spirit unite all Azoreans, whether they are believers or not. If we were discerning enough to think about an Azorean soft power, desacralizing the values at stake would be essential.

This brief editorial has two purposes. The first is to point out the presence of many brothers and sisters scattered around the world and their manifestations and organizations that enrich our shared culture. The second is more complex because it has been our habit – until now, without success or reason, which is also possible – to question the Azorean policy on emigration. It has always seemed to us that what we call “the diplomacy of pork rinds, cornbread, and mulled wine” – which intends a perhaps excessive focus on manifestations of nostalgia, attachment to roots, etc. – should be replaced, at least as the primary investment, by the diplomacy of mutual interests at levels such as the economy, education, culture, sports, etc. And this on a large scale. Anyone who knows the Azorean dispersion around the world knows that at these and other levels, there are descendants of Azoreans who are making a name for themselves and who could be motivated – they and the organizations they belong to – to bring knowledge and technology (and money, by the way) within the scope of investments related to sectors in which we are strategic, such as the sea, space, teaching excellence rooted in these clusters, etc. Just look at the names on the credits of movies or TV series, go online, and search for Azorean roots… and there’s another cluster we could exploit. But we can’t. We have other priorities, promoting mediocrity and chicoespertismo (a word for opportunistic weakness), for example. Options!

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers from the Azores to give the diaspora and those interested in the current Azores a sense of the significant opinions on some of the archipelago’s issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL)