Terceira is experiencing its Carnival, with around sixty dances and balls taking place in the island’s halls. These events give an account of what is going wrong or right—especially wrong, as it should be in this type of event—not only here on Earth but also around the world.

From what we have seen and heard, it is possible to conclude that these days, there is an impressive sense of reality, especially because it is not present for the rest of the year, at least in the public expression of what seems to be a clear collective conscience.

From late payments by public bodies that leave companies, families, and individuals with their pants down, to MPs who like other people’s bags (a shame for all Azoreans), to the price of transport to the Carnival events themselves, to the Raminho road that has been closed for over a year and where the people of the West could meet their deaths if the Santa Bárbara volcano doesn’t behave itself (it threatened again yesterday…) – all of this is part of our Carnival plots.

On the negative side – we like to make plots too… – we can point to the continuation of paying in halls to see dances and balls; the subsidies that in one way or another – see the relevant literature – can condition creativity and, above all, bad language, which if it isn’t free, our Carnival will become a dead man walking, and the new way of introducing advertising into the plots and scenic motifs, which will end up conditioning the flow of freedom. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Apart from these plots, our Carnival continues to be a beautiful spectacle, an obvious cultural act, and a remarkable moment of citizenship.

In Diário Insular-José Louenço, 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.