Amaro de Matos, born on the island of Pico, specifically in the parish of Santo Amaro, has a solid background in shipbuilding.

Amaro de Matos, born on the island of Pico, specifically in the parish of Santo Amaro, has a solid background in shipbuilding. His father was one of the shipbuilders of Santo Amaro do Pico. This land had a shipbuilding industry for 300 years, especially during the 20th century, the primary shipbuilding industry in the Azores.
The parish of Santo Amaro has around 288 inhabitants when it once had more than half a thousand, but it had three shipyards, where more than 100 employees worked daily. This reality left a big impression on our interviewee. “I worked in shipbuilding from the time I was at school until I came to São Miguel when I was 16. I worked as a normal laborer in my father’s shipyard, I had a knack for it and I liked what I did, I learned how to draw and make boats, and it’s something I cultivate today in my spare time. I’ve been restoring many things from my father’s shipyard, from tools to the boat models that were used to make the new boats. I have an interesting collection of models in the language I learned, but I have a funny and decent collection of more than a dozen models and I have a bit of fun with that because I also like wood and carpentry.”

Vast collection of shipbuilding at risk of being lost

Another struggle our interlocutor has had for many years is that in Santo Amaro do Pico, there should be a branch of the Pico Museum linked to shipbuilding. “The Pico Museum has an industrial whaling center in São Roque, a maritime whaling center in Lajes, and a wine center in Madalena, and so, given the history of shipbuilding and the importance it has had, because I think and I always say this, of all the activities that make up the museum today, industrial whaling, maritime whaling and wine, none of them has been as important to the development of Pico and the Azores as shipbuilding. So it’s only right that another branch of the Pico Museum, linked to shipbuilding, should be built in Santo Amaro. And then, perhaps, my models and others would fit in there, as well as the vast collection from the shipbuilding era, which will be lost if it isn’t properly stored.”
Amaro de Matos has a lot of material saved from his father’s shipyard, but he knows that “other people” he knows “also have it, but in the meantime, time goes by and the memory of these things disappears. For at least 40 years, people have been talking about the Pico Shipbuilding Museum in Santo Amaro. At the moment, land has been acquired and a project has been rectified (and it hasn’t), but what is certain is that the center is not moving forward and with it memories are being lost, every day and everything else. Losing valuable stories and knowledge is a great waste,” he laments.

Júlio Nunes de Matos’ son

His father’s company was called Oficina de Construções e Reparações Marítimas Júlio Nunes de Matos. “While he was working, there were two other shipyards there, and at the time I was there, there were 100 workers working every day, in a parish that had more than half a thousand inhabitants, but there were also many people from outside who went to work there, who ended up settling in Santo Amaro. Even today, there are people who weren’t from there and went to work in shipbuilding and then settled, stayed and are now citizens of Santo Amaro like everyone else.” Although he has a busy life, because he also owns the Portas Amarelas reprographics center in Rua Doutor Victorino Nemésio, he returns to his hometown whenever he can. “Yes, I did an interesting account a few days ago. I came here in 1966, 58 years ago, and every year that I’ve been here, I’ve gone on vacation to Pico for a month. Sometimes I’ve even been more often, because I’ve had business there, but I’ve certainly spent a month in Pico every year, and that’s 58 months, four and a half years of vacation, that I’ve spent in Pico.” He’s been to Pico at least twice this year. “I no longer have my parents’ house, I have my youngest brother’s house, who was born on the day I turned 10, but my other three brothers unfortunately died very prematurely.”

The restored Santo Amaro boat by Amaro de Matos

Amaro de Matos likes to go to Pico at the time of the Holy Spirit Festival and his brother on Monday, but the festival is already a year old. Likewise, he likes to go to his hometown for the Senhora da Boa Viagem Festival, which is a celebration that comes from a vow made by a local sailor who had a boat, the Santo Amaro, and one day, during a voyage, things got complicated, and the master promised that if they managed to survive, they would hold a festival every year for Senhora da Boa Viagem. He offered an image and a small boat, which would serve as a platform for the image, and the festival began every year. This must have started in 1868, and for many years, the festival was held when the boats sailed away at the end of the summer, with a festival in the church and a procession to the port. This festival was interrupted for several years because the boat sank in Graciosa in the early 1980s, and from then on, the festival was discontinued. In 2010, the festival started again, with people from the parish. “There’s a procession to the port, and the fishermen offer fish. The feast is also held at the table, with fish broth and fried fish, and they socialize on the quay.”
The boat was in a bit of disrepair, and Amaro de Matos offered to restore it to the festival committee. The ship came to São Miguel, stayed in his garage, was restored, and became as good as it is today, with the image on board, and when the festival takes place, it goes in the procession as the image’s platform.”


Marco Sousa is a journalist for Correio dos Açores-Natalino Viveiros, director.

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) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.