Although not established, genealogical research may link the ancestry of María Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Venezuela, to Portuguese ancestry.
Apparently, through Portuguese migrants to South America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, she descends from the Machado Zuloaga family, a prominent Venezuelan lineage. Her paternal ancestry can be traced through Henrique Machado Zuloaga (1930–2023), to Óscar Augusto Machado Hernández (1890–1966), Dr. Alfredo Machado Núñez (1848–1920), and Serapio Machado Contasti (1811–1885)—a direct line leading to Captain José Tomás Machado Afanador (1788–1862), born in Angostura (present-day Ciudad Bolívar).
However, additional records identify José Tomás’s father as Captain José Díaz (or Dias) Machado, described in Venezuelan archives as Portuguese, likely a merchant mariner active along the Orinoco River trade routes during the late colonial period. His wife, Petronila Afanador y Salas, was from Guayana, suggesting a union that helped establish one of Venezuela’s early Creole-Portuguese families.
While no conclusive documentation has yet confirmed the exact Portuguese region of origin of Captain José Díaz Machado, several family oral histories and online genealogical notes may reveal a possible connection of María Corina Machado to São Miguel Island, in the Azores, from where many seafarers departed for the Caribbean and northern South America in the late 18th century.
Madeira and the Azores, particularly Ponta Delgada and Vila Franca do Campo, were known hubs for transatlantic sailors in the late 1700s—a plausible link for a shipmaster bearing the surname “Dias Machado.”
If proven, this connection would place María Corina Machado among the many Latin American leaders with ancestral roots in Portuguese maritime migration, a reminder of Portugal’s enduring historical footprint in the Atlantic world.
Further research in Portuguese parish and maritime archives—notably the Diocese of Angra (São Miguel) and Lisbon’s Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino—could clarify the lineage and definitively establish whether the Dias Machado family originated from the Azores.
The Portuguese community in Venezuela, one of the largest in Latin America, is estimated to number between 300,000 and 1.3 million people, depending on whether only Portuguese-born citizens or all descendants are counted. Most originate from Madeira, particularly from the 1940s–1970s immigration waves. Consular data suggest around 180,000 registered Portuguese citizens, while broader estimates—including second and third generations—often cite about half a million people of Portuguese descent. Concentrated in regions such as Caracas, Valencia, and Maracay, the community remains active in commerce, culture, and religious life, despite a decline in recent emigration driven by Venezuela’s political and economic crisis.
PAJ/Staff
