The Presidency of the Regional Government, through the Regional Directorate for the Communities, is promoting a virtual session to celebrate Azores Day, next Monday, May 29, with the participation of the President of the Regional Government, José Manuel Bolieiro, the heads of the Houses of the Azores and the Azorean Diaspora Councilors.
This session aims to celebrate Azores Day also with the direct involvement of Azorean communities. It will be broadcast worldwide on the official website of the Regional Directorate for the Communities on Facebook at 9 pm in the Azores, 10 pm in Mainland Portugal and Madeira, 5 pm on the east coast of the United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, 4 pm in Manitoba, 2 pm on the west coast of the United States and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, and at 6 pm in Bermuda, Brazil and Uruguay.
This unique broadcast brings together short messages from the heads of the 17 Houses of the Azores located in Portugal, Brazil, the United States, Canada, Uruguay and Bermuda, as well as those from the 19 Azorean Diaspora Councillors elected by the different geographical areas where the Azorean presence is most significant, with the aim of celebrating the Azorean identity without borders.
The session begins with speeches by the heads of the Houses of the Azores of Lisbon (Delfina Porto), Rio de Janeiro (Leonardo Soares), Hilmar (Tommy Vieira), Quebec (Paula Ferreira), North Region (Miguel Azevedo), São Paulo (Marcelo Guerra), New England (Francisco Viveiros) Ontario (Suzanne Cunha), Winnipeg (José Santos), Santa Catarina (Sérgio Luiz Ferreira), Rio Grande do Sul (Viviane Hunter), Uruguay (Alicia Quintana), Bermuda (Andrea Moniz-DeSouza), Maranhão (Raphael Guará), Madeira (Carlos Madruga da Costa) and Espírito Santo (Nino Serôdio).
The Azorean Diaspora Councillors will also take part in the event: Bermuda (Alexandre Moniz), Brazil (Regis Gomes – Rio Grande do Sul; Daniel Gonçalves – Rio de Janeiro; Willian Marques – Santa Catarina; José Jacob – São Paulo and Aristides Bittencourt – Remaining States), Canada (Eduardo Bettencourt Pinto – British Columbia; Paulo Cabral – Manitoba; Matthew Correia – Ontario; Victor Faria – Quebec and Carlos Eduardo de Almeida – Remaining Provinces and Territories), the United States of America (Zeto Carvalho – California; Rui Baptista – Massachusetts; Márcia da Ponte – Rhode Island, David Pimentel and Kahterine Soares – Remaining States), Mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Region of Madeira (Maria Meneses) and the Rest of the World (Eduardo Borba da Silva).
The session will be presented by the Regional Director for the Communities, José Andrade, and its closing speech will be delivered by the President of the Regional Government himself, José Manuel Bolieiro.
The Azores Day was established by the Azorean Parliament in 1980, through Regional Decree no. 13/80/A of August 21, to celebrate the Azorean identity and Autonomy. This year, the official celebrations will take place in the municipality of Lajes do Pico, a joint initiative of the Legislative Assembly and the Regional Government.
