Heiress to one of the most iconic Azorean companies, Madalena Motta, lives and applies her ancestors’ teachings in the factory’s day-to-day running.

What are your first memories of Gorreana?

It was very different when I was born. There were many ladies picking tea, more than a hundred, on the plantation, and my first memories are of seeing them arrive. Normally, the businessmen’s houses aren’t so close, but ours is next to the factory. My brothers and I grew up here. I remember ‘Tia Saca-Meia’ going to the front of the truck next to the driver because she was the oldest, and the other ladies sat at the back. Mr. João Criação, a very large man who wore a beret, rode with me, and I thought I was very powerful. The day he died, part of my childhood died.

What was everyday life like in the factory at that time?

I remember some trays and the ladies being going to wrap the tea. As a child, I remember being down here and feeling the leaves falling and the smell. I never really liked attending school because I lived in a free world. When I heard the reels in May, the time when picking began, I knew that summer was coming and school was ending. When I felt them stop around October, which is when the school used to start, I knew it was time to go back. To this day, Gorreana has always been my calendar, a constant.

How does the history of the factory inspire you?

When I’m kindly invited to speak at various places, I always say that Gorreana lived in the past but lived very much in its time. That’s what I learned from my ancestors. I have as an example the story of my great-grandfather, Commander Jaime Hintze, a republican man who was very free and brought a new world to the factory: electricity. He took advantage of a stream here, built a turbine, and the factory became mechanized. I still work today with this energy, which was made in 1926. If I didn’t have it, my door would be closed. It was all done without plans; he did it all with his money. There are many letters from him, begging the bank for money because he would put the whole thing out of business. Then, on top of that, he got involved in politics because he welcomed Raul Brandão into his home, something that Salazar had forbidden. He was exiled to Coimbra and grounded, and when he returned to Gorreana, he left politics but was always persecuted. He was even sued in court, claiming that this hydroelectric plant was polluting the waters. He had to spend more money in court, in what they called the famous Maia water case, to prove that his energy was clean. There’s a very interesting interview with him in which he confesses that he wasn’t doing well financially because of all these problems and was asked what kept him going. He replied that it’s because we fall in love with everything we create, which is very beautiful.

Why is this energy so important for maintaining the factory?

Tea needs a lot of labor, and there are countries where it’s very cheap. We live in Europe, and I love being European. There are basic values to being happy and balanced people. If we didn’t have this water supply, the price of tea would be so high because of the labor that it would be impossible for Gorreana to survive. It was really Jaime Hintze who took the big step into the future. Many people come here, mainly electrical engineers, for tea and to see a 1926 factory at work.

How have you experienced this new chapter for tourism in the region?

I was invited to speak at a meeting on tourism on the continent, and a man who talked about Gorreana said that we were in first place in Portugal to open its doors to tourism. Jaime Hintze wanted to bring people to Gorreana to try its tea and remember it. That’s what tea is, a memory. There may be better ones; you may be a sommelier and know a lot about the subject, but that tea you had with your grandmothers stays in your memory.


As well as tea, you also sell other products in the store. How did that start?

As I often go to fairs, my colleagues from here and on the other islands have also started challenging me to sell their products. In the meantime, colleagues from the mainland also started coming, including some soaps made especially here for Gorreana, and I introduced them there, too. Today, we are happy to sell our colleagues’ products and open the door to export. We all win. The Azores are too small for us to engage in guerrilla warfare and shut ourselves away from our companies. We should open them up and join hands with our colleagues. My father always said: don’t worry about what you give, but what you get. So many people come here daily; I think it would be selfish of us to keep everything to ourselves. If you keep everything to yourself, you end up losing everything.

What would you say is the secret to Gorreana’s longevity?

The secret to Gorreana’s longevity is to live in its time. The BBC came here to do a piece on the factory, and I thought it was because it was in Europe, but they said no. It was founded by a company that was not in Europe. It’s because it’s a company founded by a woman who, over all these years, has stayed in the same family and works with science. We’ve been through very serious economic problems, but we’ve always rebuilt and are in a new era that’s good for us. But we have to prepare and invest. The company’s life is like ours, with good times and bad. We have to accept the good times and work.

From Marca Açores-Made in the Azores, in Diário Insular-Paula Gouveia, 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.