“I Love Azores” honours Azorean descendants to mark 50 years of autonomy and 85 years of SATA - Communication

Secretaria Regional dos Assuntos Parlamentares e Comunidades

Two young women of Azorean descent from the United States, Amanda da Rosa, from California, and Kelsey Almerico, from Washington, have won the “I Love Azores” competition, an initiative organised by the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities, through the Regional Directorate for the Communities, and SATA/Azores Airlines.

Promoted as part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Autonomous Region of the Azores and the 85th anniversary of SATA, the project encouraged young people of Azorean descent living in North America to share, in English, their connection to the Azores. The competition received entries from various communities across the United States and Canada, with four trips to the Azores to be awarded, departing from the airports served by SATA: Boston, New York, Toronto and Montreal.

The competition jury was chaired by Katherine Vaz, an American writer of Azorean descent based in New York, and also included José Andrade, Regional Director for the Communities, and Graça Silva, Sales and Marketing Director at SATA. The jury decided to award two of the four prizes in competition, distinguishing the entries that stood out most for their literary quality, originality and genuine connection to Azorean identity.

The Boston–Azores–Boston Prize was awarded to Amanda da Rosa, from California. As a descendant of Azorean emigrants, Amanda crafts a text in which the Autonomous Region of the Azores emerges as a space of living memory and profound sensory experience: the smell of freshly baked brioche bread, the sea “like glass,” the taste of fresh fish caught by a cousin. With humour and restrained emotion, the author portrays the dual sense of belonging of someone who grew up between two worlds: “too Portuguese to be American, too American to be Portuguese.” The islands are present in her daily life in unexpected and touching ways.

The New York – Azores – New York Prize was awarded to Kelsey D’Andrade Almerico, from Tacoma, Washington State. Kelsey grew up as part of a “microscopic diaspora of Portuguese descent” comprising just three people, with no community clubs and no celebrations, but with a surname that had always connected her to something greater. Her intimate and reflective writing chronicles the journey she made in 2018 to Terceira Island, the land of her ancestors, and the moving discovery of roots she had only known through family stories. Throughout the text, the story emerges from one of her ancestors, who crossed the Atlantic and founded the first Portuguese language department at an American educational institution.

Entries for the “I Love Azores” competition were submitted between February 1 and April 30, 2026, by Azorean descendants aged between 18 and 40. They consisted of an original text in English, no longer than one A4 page, describing their connection to the Azores, and were required to include references to the “Autonomous Region of the Azores,” “Azorean Communities,” and “SATA”. The results are now being announced as part of Azores Day celebrations.

The “I Love Azores” competition reiterates the commitment of the Regional Government and SATA Group to promoting Azorean identity among younger generations in the diaspora. The winners will receive a round-trip ticket to the Azores as a prize, allowing them to further deepen their connection with the archipelago and experience first-hand the current reality of the Autonomous Region of the Azores.