Portal da Açorianidade

The Presidency of the Regional Government, through the Regional Directorate for the Communities, is promoting a session on “Autonomy and Diaspora – the Future,” which will be held next Friday, May 26, at 6 pm at the Manuel de Arriaga House Museum in the city of Horta, Faial Island. Chaired by the President of the Government of the Azores, José Manuel Bolieiro, the initiative is part of the commemorations of the Azores Day, this year celebrated on May 29. It takes place in the month marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Regional Directorate for the Communities. The session will be attended by the successive heads of the different services that have ensured the connection between the Regional Government and the Azorean Diaspora over the past 47 years, namely the directors of the former Emigration and Support Office for Azorean Communities, Duarte Mendes (1976-1996) and Alzira Silva (1996-1998), and the previous heads of the Regional Directorate for the Communities: Alzira Silva (1998-2009), Rita Dias (2009-2010), Graça Castanho (2010-2012) and Paulo Teves (2012-2020). The current Regional Director for the Communities, José Andrade, will also take part in this session, open to the general public. It will include the presentation of the messages from the heads of the 17 Houses of the Azores located in Portugal, Brazil, the United States of America, Canada, Uruguay and Bermuda as well as those from the 19 Azorean Diaspora Councilors, as part of the celebration of the Azores Day with the Azorean communities. The event will also include the opening of the itinerant exhibition “The Tenth Island,” produced in partnership with the Horta Museum, and will end with the premiere of the Chamarrita Group, a project promoted by the Migrations Support Centre of the Regional Directorate for the Communities.