Placas colocadas no mural no Dia de Portugal

Three mayors of the island of São Miguel (Azores) marked Portugal, Camoes, and the Portuguese Communities Day, placing homage plaques to their emigrants in the square dedicated to them. The Emigrant Square is under construction in the city of Ribeira Grande and set to be inaugurated next July 26th.

In her first public ceremony as Mayor of Ponta Delgada, Maria José Lemos Duarte placed the plaque of the largest municipality in the Azores on the mural at Praça do Emigrante, as did host Alexandre Gaudêncio and the counterpart of Nordeste, António Miguel Soares.

The president of AEA – Azorean Emigrants Association, Rui Faria, and the author of the sculpture Saudades da Terra, Luís Silva, guided the symbolic ceremony. Several subscribers, including family members of Afonso Maria Tavares, the emigrant from Rabo de Peixe, gone in the first wave of Azorean emigrants to Canada, in 1953.

Emigrant Square, with approximately four thousand square meters, is located on Avenida José Nunes da Ponte. Its central element is the public art piece Saudades da Terra, composed of a globe covered by Portuguese cobblestone, with 4 meters in diameter, based on a basalt stone and surrounded by the Shore To Shore design on the sidewalk.

Emigrant Square also includes the Cobblestone of the Worlds and two murals. One will contain the flags of the main destinations of Azorean emigration, the UN, Portugal, and the Azores. The other will have plaques of all people, companies, or entities (such as the municipalities mentioned above) that make a point of being associated with this homage to Azorean emigrants [More information in the Donations section].