Bridges of Memory, Seeds of the Future (Novidades — the islands and the diaspora)

There are moments when generosity becomes a form of remembrance — when to give is to keep a story alive.

From the vineyards of Pico Island to the fields of California’s Central Valley, from the basalt shores of São Jorge to the streets of Tulare or Toronto, from the festivities on Terceira Island to the parades in Pismo Beach or any other town, every gesture of support keeps the bridge between islands and diaspora standing firm against the winds of forgetfulness.

Today, the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) at Fresno State invites you — readers, dreamers, descendants, and friends — to be part of its annual grassroots crowdfunding campaign, Expanding Horizons, Connecting Generations.
It is not merely a fundraiser; it is a collective act of continuity, a reaffirmation that what unites us is greater than what divides us.

crowdfunding.fresnostate.edu/project/48115

Each contribution, whether humble or grand, becomes a seed of culture, a light upon the ocean, a hand extended across generations. It sustains scholarships that allow students to breathe the air of the Azores for the first time; it prints the bilingual pages where memory is reborn in two languages; it preserves the voices of our elders before they vanish into the wind. It allows us to come together through technology to discuss and debate the diaspora today and forge new ideas.

PBBI is not merely an institute — it is a living archive of the Portuguese soul, a crossroads of memory and creation, a meeting place where our shared past shapes tomorrow’s imagination.
Through Bruma Publications, Novidades, Filamentos, and countless classrooms filled with both wonder and saudade, it brings together poets and students, scholars and storytellers, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Angra to Fresno, from Lisbon to the world.

crowdfunding.fresnostate.edu/project/48115

And here, within the luminous pages of Novidades, this mission lives every single day. We pride ourselves in weaving the fabric of connection — bringing the islands to the diaspora, and the diaspora back to the islands.
Daily, we post stories that breathe: stories of faith and festas, of politics and progress, of technology and tradition,
of the sea and the soil, of the anonymous lives that shape the Azores’ collective soul.
We tell the stories of fishermen and scientists, of poets and emigrants, of young dreamers and the elderly who still remember the scent of the fig tree by the door.
Each post, each article, each photograph is a wave — carrying the islands’ pulse to every corner of the world where an Azorean heart beats.

Novidades is our shared journal of belonging — a platform of presence, persistence, and poetry.
It is proof that even in a fractured world, our language and our memory still know how to hold hands across the sea.

To give is to become part of this luminous chain. To give is to say: we remember, we believe, we continue.

Join us in this November appeal — an offering open to all, with donations tailored to every heart and every budget.
Let us prove, once again, that our islands did not end where the ocean begins.

Now, more than ever, we are the keepers of a bridge — built not of stone, but of stories, of students, of shared faith in tomorrow.

Be part of this voyage. We are looking to reach $15,000 by the end of the month.
Give what you can, from wherever you are. Each gift becomes a tide that carries us all forward.

crowdfunding.fresnostate.edu/project/48115

Novidades — The Islands and the Diaspora
Bridges of memory. Seeds of the future.

crowdfunding.fresnostate.edu/project/48115