This is the week of being Portugal here, on these nine small Atlantic islands, scattered across the ocean and caught in a slow but steady process of depopulation that largely escapes the attention of development programs.
Being Portugal here is not easy.
The country scarcely understands the constraints imposed by the smallness of our territory, nor does it fully accept that our people should enjoy the same rights as someone living in Lisbon or Porto. In those small metropolitan centers, protests and demands gain visibility through the numerous media outlets, especially television channels. Government officials are questioned directly, commitments are made, and problems are eventually resolved.
Here, in this tiny Portugal, our voices do not reach the heavens. They are forgotten by those who hold power. We do not matter when elections are won, and we rarely challenge political, economic, military, or even religious authorities.
Throughout our nearly six hundred years of history, we have always lived dependent upon the royal courts. Under republican, dictatorial, and democratic regimes alike, no one came to our aid when nature turned against us—whether through storms, volcanic eruptions, or earthquakes. During those times, largely unknown to Portuguese history textbooks, we became cannon fodder.
In the eighteenth century, when volcanoes devastated some islands and the land became a harsh stepmother, the King recruited Azorean young men—both willingly and unwillingly—to defend Brazil’s frontiers along the Río de la Plata. Yet when hundreds of poor families petitioned the Crown to pay for their passage to the Lands of Vera Cruz, the cost was enormous and the obstacles immense for those seeking that migratory destination.
Later, still carrying Portugal in their hearts and facing the incomprehensible indifference of those who governed from Lisbon, Azoreans fled hunger by boarding North American vessels, signing on to New Bedford whaling ships, venturing inland in search of California’s gold, and helping to build a new nation and the most prosperous society in the world.
Lisbon was always absent, always distant. Rarely did it understand what it meant to be Portugal here, to carry Portugal proudly beyond its borders, to preserve its language and culture, and to uphold the dignity of its people.
Being Portugal here today is even more difficult.
Over fifty years of regional autonomy, Portugal’s rulers have convinced themselves that we must look after ourselves as though we were independent. The state has withdrawn from its sovereign responsibilities and concerns itself primarily with safeguarding the vast territorial expanse the archipelago provides through the Exclusive Economic Zone—an additional million square kilometers in the North Atlantic.
For fifty years, we were improperly classified as “adjacent islands,” yet never have we felt so distant from the homeland in terms of development.
That is the syndrome we continue to carry in our daily lives: in transportation, in the economy, in education, in healthcare—in every sector of human activity.
We are Portugal here by choice and conviction. But the homeland must respond with solidarity, so that we do not feel like second-class Portuguese.
Portugal is our original matrix, but these islands baptized our identity and forged a history that ennobles the “illustrious Lusitanian breast,” as Camões wrote.
Celebrating Portugal Day in the Azores is a source of pride for Azoreans, and equally so for all our emigrants scattered across the four corners of the world.
May those responsible for governing this country change their ways and come to understand that the universality of the Portuguese homeland requires solidarity among all of us. That means equal opportunities and the fulfillment of rights.
Beginning with those who are less developed—a condition in which, unfortunately, the Azores still remain.
JJosé Gabriel Ávila, journalist, Professional License No. 239 A
http://escritemdia.blogspot.com
José Gabreil Ávila is a retired journalist with many years of experience at RTP-Açores-the regional public television service. He now maintains a very active blog and writes for several Azorean newspapers.
NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers in the Azores, giving the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the Azores a sense of the significant opinions on some of the archipelago’s 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).