PORTUGUESE_DISCOVERIES

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Portuguese Friends Remembered..

Dr. José Delgado Martins and Prof. Dra. Maria Raquel Martins in St. Louis, 1998

AND A FEW MONTHS LATER, KATHY AND I MEET WITH ZEFERINO AND MRS. COELHO AT THE DELGADO MARTINS'S HOME FOR A FANTATIC DINNER IN LISBON.

JOS? DELGADO MARTINS IS A FOREMOST PORTUGUESE CORPORATION LAWYER. MARIA RAQUEL MARTINS TEACHES AT LISBON'S CLASSIC UNIVERSITY. MR. AND MRS. COELHO ARE PORTUGUESE PUBLISHERS (EDITORIAL CAMINHO, LISBON).

I have often wondered about the reaction that an adult, would experience if someday he, or she, ever came face-to-face with one of his, or her, childhood wonders. Would disappointment follow the meeting, or would the adult be overtaken by a sense that, in reality, the discovery brought a sort of elation?

The Teatro de São Carlos, in Lisbon, as anyone can see, brought me a feeling that I still can't describe. I had heard of its wonders as a boy in the Azores and, in a way, felt like Dorothy looking for the Wizard in the Land of Oz as I searched for it for the first time in 1963. Then suddenly there it was, and I could not help but asking myself: Is that all there is?

As the years passed, I never for looked for the Teatro again. Yet, as I look back, I realize that, although I have never seen its inside, except in an American-made movie, I feel nevertheless that the references to it by people whom I once had known - valid, or invalid, claims - were nevertheless not to be forgotten for they, too, were a part of me.

Although this has nothing to do with me, let me remind those who don't know that my father, although being an Azorean at heart, cheered for the SPORT LISBOA e BENFICA. My father, unfortunately, died before his beloved C. D. SANTA CLARA made it to the Portuguese First Division - at which point, I'm certain, the Benfica would pass away from his imagination...

BELOW - 1978 - Jer?nimos Garden, Edward VII Park, Cacilhas - at the door of the O GRANDE ELIAS restaurant - 25th of April Bridge over the Tejo (Tagus) River, and a small Cascais Beach....

ALENTEJO PROVINCE VIEWS.....

ABOVE (CLOCKWISE) -1. 1968 - Photo by Robert C. Strain in the Bel?m area of Lisbon as I stood facing the sun. 2. Photo sent to me by Mrs. Barbara Rasillier from Buenos Aires, Argentina, after her visit to Lisbon. 3. Photo of the 25th of April Bridge as it crosses the Tejo from Lisbon to the Barreiro on the Southern Peninsula. 4. Cascais photo shot by wife, Katherine M. Ponte, during her visit to that charming city in 1998. 6. Photo outside O GRANDE ELIAS RESTAURANT (Cacilhas) as I tried to convince an Americn visitor from Upstate New York about the merits of eating there and the low cost of the house wine served with most fish meals. The restaurant no longer exists- at least not at the same location.

RIGHT - Although the Alentejo Region had the potential to be one of Portugal's richest, it was in reality one of the country's poorest specializing primarily in emigration for the benefit of foreign lands. After the conquest of Lisbon from the Saracens by King Afonso Henriques in the XIIth Century, it took just about two generations to conquer the rest of Portugal. To say, therefore, that the Alentejo has been in Portuguese hands for a long time would not be understatement. Nevertheless, the various Portuguese governments never noticed the area's potential. It was even said in the Azores, where I was born, - another Portuguese emigration area - that the Alentejo was made up of such stupid people that they even produced cork cheaply in order to buy cork stoppers at imported prices.

The Catholic Church in the Alentejo, as luck would have it, did not help matters much. In fact, one the cruelest versions of the INQUISITION was run out of Evora, a city in the Alentejo. The Salazar government, on the other hand, had no qualms about maintaining another Alentejo city in the minds of many young Portuguese of military age as a feared prison that was to be avoided at all costs. It was ironic, however, that one of the most noticeable military acts against that government should have been conducted by army officers in good standing stationed in Beja. Most of those officers eventually had to flee to foreign lands - adding to the area's emigration rolls.

The Guadiana River (with headwaters in Spain) separates the Alentejo from the Spanish Regions of Estremadura and Granada on its way to the Atlantic as it meets the Portuguese Algarve. Although the terrain for all three areas is similar, somehow the traveler steeped in history can not help noticing the differences in the environment reflecting both the Spanish and Portuguese cultures. Fortunately, the current Portuguese democracy is presently doing its best to see that the abandonment of the Alentejo is, like its castles, and unique architecture, a part of the area's history. Now, if only Olivenza, which is still held by Spain since Napoleonic times, were returned to the Alentejo, then that area would possess what for a long time has been truly Portuguese.

THE PHOTOS THAT FOLLOW ARE FROM THE THOSE WHICH MY DAUGHTER JANE SHOT IN AND AROUND LISBON IN JANUARY, 2006:

Beach at Cascais - Just North of Lisbon

Christ Monument at Barreiro -
Visible from Lisbon...

Cascais Beachfront House - one of many OVERLOOKING THE ATLANTIC....

MACIEIRA is reputedly Portugal's finest brandy. PHOTO SHOT IN JEST BY M. L. PONTE . Lisbon Airport departure area.

Above - Ribeira Grande, Azores, City Hall and Municipal Chambers

Lisbon - Saturday afternoon distraction: Family Pigeon Feeding

ST. MICHAEL'S ISLAND, AZORES (Additional text and views on subsquent pages. Click on ...)

From the old Forno da Cal (The Limestone Works) at Canada do Tio Joaquim towards Praia dos Santos, the labor-intensive farms provided work for people whose lives were generally mired in poverty. Years later when I returned, the area had been transformed into badly-needed housing. Even the Limestone Works had disappeared in favor of housing. Whereas in the past most of the people who reached the spot where this photo was shot were generally barefoot, they now had shoes.....

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