With the Sanjoaninas festivities over, we are temporarily closing our space for daydreaming and bohemianism, returning to a reflection on what has been worsening in recent times, and which deserves to be properly portrayed here, in all its fragility. Culture is dead, and nobody warned her.

Let’s go back to those São João festivities. These lines were written at the end of a week of festivities and joy, when the most attentive observers noticed the presence of all the directors of external services from the Regional Directorate for Culture, visiting their heritage city amidst the summer festivities. You could see them everywhere, like traveling museums. And see them walking around, like wandering through libraries. An ecomuseum far from home and a traveling arts center.

To the most naive eyes, one might believe that this was a delegation that had come to praise the work of Álamo Meneses and his municipal technical team, giving due prominence to our timeless one-eyed poet. People might have thought that Culture was there in force to tell Angra that it respected its Heroism, and that it would march along its urban path, pouring out strategies and objectives to improve the protection and management of its heritage, as well as supporting the cultural agents who have their headquarters there, next to the city’s bay.

But Culture was gathered in force at the Sanjoaninas tavern for lunch and behind the closed doors of its increasingly less noble hall to collude. I won’t waste too much time questioning the relevance of choosing the Sanjoaninas festival to hold a general meeting of leaders. Travel is cheaper, and accommodation is almost free at this time of year, isn’t it? The stigma they want to attach to civil servants should perhaps be rethought and redirected inward, towards themselves. There is little doubt about the parasitic nature of all this.

However, I will take some time to analyze what is going on. What are the bosses meeting to plan? For years, we have seen no strategy other than that of the previous director, who worked intensively to promote his own work and that of no one else. For years, we have witnessed a steady drain of regional directors, who have ranged from incompetent to incapable, with their own agendas. A regional secretariat that has been passed from one apparatus to another, never properly valued, always the poor relation of a region on its way to death, which, even if not yet cerebral, will at least be cultural.

Last year, the Regional Director lived under a permanent shadow, which seemed to prevent her from taking any action or moving forward. This year, she appears more often, but speaks less and less, and when she does speak, it is as if she has nothing to say. Structural objectives, strategic lines, definitions, and regulations can only be found in the dictionary or if we go back to 2013, at least. Even intentions, which we so often see in similar hells, are unknown to us, other than responses to events that have already happened. Take the director’s insistence on talking about November 25 in her speeches in 2024, only to then publicly highlight an award won by her technicians, which makes it clear that November would be nothing without April. Take also the award that the Francisco Lacerda Museum received, through the work of its director, who was summarily removed from her position.

And then there is the case of underwater heritage. Since the leaders were in Angra, I wonder if they dived in the country’s first underwater archaeological park. Did distinguished directors visit the treasures distinguished by UNESCO and the European Commission? Or did they sign off on the total inaction of the Regional Government in responding to an affront that has been coming from Lisbon for a long time and persists?

Recently, an order issued by the former Minister of Culture of Montenegro delegated the management of this heritage to the Ministry of the Navy, including the archipelagos, which thus lost their status as autonomous regions and now have to obey the admiral of the day.

When this affront became public, first through the archaeologist Alexandre Monteiro, and then through Francisco César, José Manuel Bolieiro rushed to agree with the leader of the opposition. He stated that concrete action should be taken for the benefit of the Azorean nation and the importance of its autonomy. And then… then nothing was done, as is always the case. Inaction is the specialty of this regional administration, which consistently serves up a daily helping of inaction, sprinkled with a touch of inept management and properly marinated in the desire to extinguish culture. At least, any culture that does not belong to family cattle ranches and peripheral friendship groups.

Cultural organizations continue to await the new regulatory decree that will establish the legal framework to support their activities. Cultural heritage is sinking into an eternal sea of disasters, now exacerbated by a new division that prioritizes promotion over protection. With a competition for the top job underway since February, perhaps they are waiting for the arrival of a PhD in marketing to better promote the department’s complete inaction. The former restoration center, now transformed into a warehouse and reliquary for the diocese, sits in a corner, insignificant in the archipelagic reality.

In Culture, there are a few remaining desires that continue to whisper, ever more quietly, through the corridors and corners of this city. And the bills, to pay for lunches, hotels, and travel. Perhaps it is part of the model of injecting liquidity into SATA, but I have my doubts, because it seems to me that there are no strategies. What is certain is that, even at the end of last year, there was not enough money for paper in some departments. However, this year, there is a special lunch for bosses, held during the San Joaninas festivities. We have yet to see any work from these bosses.

I would like to acknowledge Álamo de Menezes, with whom I disagreed on several issues during his tenure as mayor of Angra do Heroísmo, recognizing his ability to manage the municipality effectively. We now look forward to the 2026 festivities, with Fátima Amorim demonstrating her capability and qualifications to foster empathy in municipal politics.

Alexandra Manes is from Flores Island but lives on the island of Terceira in the Azores. She is a regular contributing writer for several Azorean newspapers, a political and cultural activist, and has served in the Azorean Parliament.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers in the Azores, providing the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the Azores with insight into the diverse opinions on some of the archipelago’s key 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).