Portuguese American Journal

Portuguese American Journal

Featured Stories
100 years ago | Devastating earthquake shook Faial Island Sports | Fernando Pimenta world canoeing champion Community | 20th Anniversary of Portas da Cidade Celebration Community | The Holy Ghost Festival of New England returns Community | Judge Luis Matos nominated to Rhode Island Supreme Court
 

100 years ago | Devastating earthquake shook Faial Island – Azores

One hundred years ago today, on the morning of August 31, 1926, the island of Faial was violently shaken by one of the most destructive earthquakes in the modern history of the Azores.  A century later, the Museu da Horta is commemorating the disaster with historical photographs, educational activities and an earthquake-preparedness exercise involving about […]

Sports | Fernando Pimenta world canoeing champion – Poznan, Poland

Portuguese canoeing star Fernando Pimenta was crowned world champion in the K1 1000 meters, winning a dramatic final at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Poznan, Poland, on August 29, 2026.  The achievement adds another historic chapter to the career of the athlete from Ponte de Lima, widely regarded as Portugal’s greatest canoeist. Pimenta currently […]

Community | 20th Anniversary of Portas da Cidade Celebration – Fall River, MA

Mayor Paul Coogan, in conjunction with the Portas da Cidade Advisory Committee and the Prince Henry Society, will host a special ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Portas da Cidade (City Gates), one of Fall River’s most recognizable symbols of its Azorean heritage.  The celebration will take place Monday, August 31, at 10:30 am […]

Community | The Holy Ghost Festival of New England returns – Fall River, MA

The Holy Ghost Festival of New England will be held in Kennedy Park in Fall River, Massachusetts, from August 26–30. Former Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is expected to visit Fall River as a guest of honor for the 40th-anniversary festival celebration, according to reports. The President of the Regional Government of the Azores, […]

Community | Judge Luis Matos nominated to Rhode Island Supreme Court – Providence, RI

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee has nominated Superior Court Associate Justice Luis M. Matos, a Portuguese-born jurist with extensive state and federal experience, to serve on the Rhode Island Supreme Court.  Governor McKee said his responsibility was to select someone with “unquestionable qualifications, an impeccable reputation and a strong record in strong and fair judging.” […]

Crime: The Madeleine McCann case and the media – By Len Port

01 May 2017

By Len Port, Contributor (*) The most reported and discussed missing person case ever recorded is still not only a highly contentious mystery, but also a personal tragedy that has been turned into a public farce by elements of the media. In the entirely predictable press frenzy surrounding the imminent 10th anniversary of the disappearance, […]

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Posted in Featured, Organizations, People, Portugal, World

Book: ‘Ualalapi: Fragments from the End of Empire’ by Esaú Cossa- Editor’s Note

25 April 2017

Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa first published Ualalapi: Fragments from the End of Empire in Portuguese in 1987. Named one of Africa’s hundred best books of the twentieth century, it reflects on Mozambique’s past and present through interconnected narratives related to the last ruler of the Gaza Empire, Ngungunhane. Defeated by the Portuguese in 1895, Ngungunhane […]

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Posted in Arts&Culture, Books, Featured, Heritage, Mozambique, People, Politics, Portugal, World

Today in History: Portuguese celebrate 43 years of constitutional democracy – Portugal

25 April 2017

Since 1974 “Freedom Day” is celebrated in Portugal — April 25 – as a national holiday to mark the bloodless military coup, supported by the civilian population, bringing democracy and civil liberties to the Portuguese people. After almost five decades of dictatorship (1937-1974), the Carnation Revolution, ended the Estado Novo regime, the longest dictatorship in Europe, […]

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Posted in Angola, Azores, Cape Verde, Community, East Timor, Faial, Featured, Guiné-Bissau, Heritage, Madeira, Mozambique, Organizations, People, Politics, Portugal, World

Santa Maria: Aerospace Airbus to build base to launch satellites into orbit – Azores

20 April 2017

The island of Santa Maria in the Azores is being considered by the aerospace company Airbus as a well-positioned place to build a space base from which rockets will launch small earth satellites into orbit, the Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, revealed […]

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Posted in Azores, Featured, Heritage, Organizations, People, Portugal, Santa Maria, Terceira

Book: ‘The Paras: Portugal’s First Elite Force in Africa,1961-1974’ – Editor’s Note

18 April 2017

Portuguese paratroopers or “paras” began as a stepchild of the army and found a home in the Portuguese Air Force in 1955. Initially, the post-World War Two Portuguese Army seemed to have had mixed emotions about the need for elite, special-purpose forces that operated in small units with the attendant flexibility and elevated lethality. Shock […]

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Posted in Angola, Arts&Culture, Books, Featured, Heritage, Portugal

Ciganos: Portuguese Roma in major German photo project – By Len Port

16 April 2017

By Len Port, Contributor (*) Romani families in Portugal recently welcomed into their homes a professional German photographer, Florian Schwarz, to take portraits for a unique exhibition to illustrate the diversity of migrant communities across Europe. Schwarz’s focus on Romani people, more commonly known in English as Gypsies and in Portuguese as Ciganos, was the […]

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Posted in Featured, Heritage, People, Portugal, World