House of the Azores of Minas Gerais founded in Belo Horizonte
Ponta Delgada
Secretaria Regional dos Assuntos Parlamentares e Comunidades
The House of the Azores of Minas Gerais was founded on July 26, last Saturday, in the state capital of Belo Horizonte. It is the eighth House of the Azores in Brazil and celebrates 300 years of Azorean presence in a state with more than 20 million inhabitants.
The founding ceremony was presided over by the Regional Director for the Communities, José Andrade, on behalf of the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities. It took place at the Minas Gerais Historical and Geographical Institute.
At the ceremony, the first governing bodies of the House of the Azores of Minas Gerais, chaired by Cláudio Motta, a lawyer, entrepreneur and journalist from Minas Gerais of Azorean descent, took office. A cooperation protocol was also signed between the Government of the Azores and the new organisation.
The Azorean presence in the state of Minas Gerais began in 1723 with the emigration of the so-called "Três Ilhoas," three sisters from the island of Faial, giving rise to numerous prominent families in the history of Minas Gerais, such as Terra, Brum, Silveira, Dutra, Faria, Fagundes, Rosa, Rezende, Cunha, Garcia, Neves, Bittencourt and Goulart.
Over the past three centuries, thousands of Azorean descendants from successive generations have contributed to the development of a Brazilian state comprising 850 municipalities, equivalent in size to the territory of France.
Azorean emigrants even founded towns in Minas Gerais, such as Andrelândia. There are two municipalities in Minas Gerais twinned with two Azorean municipalities, namely Ouro Preto with Angra do Heroísmo and Rezende Costa with Vila do Porto.
The House of the Azores of Minas Gerais now joins the Houses of the Azores of Rio de Janeiro (1952), São Paulo (1980), Bahia (1980), Santa Catarina (1999), Rio Grande do Sul (2003), Maranhão (2019) and Espírito Santo (2022), nearly all of which were represented at the founding ceremony.
The presence of these Houses motivated the organisation of the 8th Azores Brazil Meeting, held on July 27 at the Minas Gerais Historical and Geographical Institute, which included a conference on Azorean journeys through Brazilian lands. It was delivered by Vera Lúcia Maciel Barroso, a researcher of Azorean descent and director of the Santa Casa de Porto Alegre Historical and Cultural Centre.
The creation of the House of the Azores of Minas Gerais will strengthen relations between one of Brazil's largest states and the Autonomous Region of the Azores, contributing to the recovery and preservation of the Azorean legacy in Brazil.
The initiative is part of the Regional Government's political strategy of bringing together the nine islands of the autonomous region and their communities of emigrants and Azorean descendants scattered around the world.
