During the commemorations of the Day of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, João Mendonça delivered one of the most lyrical and emotionally resonant interventions of the ceremony, transforming political discourse into an evocation of memory, migration, spirituality, and Atlantic identity itself.

Speaking on the symbolic day that unites the celebrations of the Region with the traditions of the Divine Holy Spirit, Mendonça anchored his reflection in one of the most beloved cultural references of the Azorean imagination: the song “Ilhas de Bruma,” written by the unforgettable Manuel Medeiros Ferreira.

“Ainda sinto os pés no terreiro,
Que os meus avós bailavam o pezinho…”

Through those verses, João Mendonça invoked not merely nostalgia, but the emotional geography of an entire people shaped by volcanic earth, emigration, longing, resilience, and oceanic distance.

“For in our veins,” he recalled from the song, “runs black basalt.”

The speech emerged within the broader framework of the fiftieth anniversary of Azorean autonomy and the approaching six-hundredth anniversary of the discovery and settlement of the islands — two anniversaries that together force the archipelago to reflect not only on its political evolution, but on the deeper meaning of what it has meant, across centuries, to be Azorean.

According to Mendonça, the history of the islands is fundamentally the story of restless voyagers.

“We began as settlers of virgin land, raised from fire and sea,” he declared.

And from that beginning, he argued, Azoreans never ceased departing in search of horizons beyond the Atlantic.

“Our horizon has always been infinity,” he said. “It is in our blood. It inhabits our soul. It lives in our dreams.”

The intervention retraced centuries of Azorean migration, recalling how islanders became sailors, whalers, soldiers, laborers, emigrants, and settlers scattered across the world — from Brazil to the United States, from Canada to Bermuda, from Hawaii to countless other destinations.

Yet the speech insisted upon a paradox central to Azorean identity itself:
even when generations departed, the soul never truly left the islands.

“We reached the ends of the world,” Mendonça reflected, “but our soul never left these islands, even when the distance is counted across eight or nine generations.”

In many ways, the address became a meditation on the extraordinary continuity of Azorean identity throughout the diaspora — the persistence of traditions, language fragments, Holy Spirit devotion, culinary memory, family ritual, and emotional belonging across oceans and centuries.

For Mendonça, what ultimately defines Azoreans is not purity, but mixture.

He described the Azorean people as “the mestizagem of all the peoples of Portugal,” from north to south, including influences from Madeira itself.

“We are each of them,” he stated. “We are the sum of them.”

And perhaps, he suggested poetically, “the best of them.”

Yet above all, he defined Azoreans through the spiritual and communal culture of the Divine Holy Spirit — the great democratic and communal tradition that remains one of the most enduring foundations of Azorean identity both in the islands and throughout the diaspora.

“We are the people of the Holy Spirit,” he affirmed.

The speech repeatedly returned to the values symbolized by the Espírito Santo traditions:
fraternity,
sharing,
solidarity,
hope,
and communal dignity.

These were presented not simply as religious rituals, but as the moral architecture of Azorean civilization itself.

At a time when political discourse globally is often marked by polarization and fragmentation, Mendonça framed the Holy Spirit tradition as an ethical alternative rooted in inclusion and collective humanity.

“On this Day of the Holy Spirit,” he declared, “all can sit at this table.”

The intervention also addressed the fiftieth anniversary of autonomy directly, arguing that self-government requires unity and political stability if it is to continue serving the future of the islands.

“Autonomy was not merely an institutional conquest,” he said. “It was, and continues to be, an instrument at the service of our capacity to decide, to protect what is ours, and to build our future responsibly.”

Yet perhaps the most symbolic proposal of the speech came near its conclusion.

As the Azores approach the six-hundredth anniversary of their historical beginnings.

Translated and adapted from Press Release.