The Portuguese Communities

Source: stormfront.org 

As I have spoken previously, Portugal is well known for being the pioneer in the Age of Discovery and for having created the first global empire of history by colonising several territories, which most of people do not even have a clue that were Portuguese territories in the past, and I include myself in this bundle.

When I was researching to write this post, I found out places that were Portuguese territories that I have never imagined they were once occupied by Portugal as Bahrain, enclaves in Indonesia, Mombasa in Kenya, and Nagasaki in Japan!

I have even found out that the Japanese vocabulary has been influenced by the Portuguese idiom! This is really surprising.

Indeed, seven of the territories that once were Portuguese colonies have become countries (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe and East Timor) and have created, along with Portugal, the Community of the Portuguese Speaking Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa – CPLP), which is an international organisation that aims to promote economic and cultural interchange among these countries.

Besides these countries, I would like to highlight the Portuguese communities in India (Goa, Daman and Diu) and in China (Macau), which still have a very expressive number of members who are entitled to the Portuguese citizenship.

The Portuguese people are innate sailors and their adventure spirit have made them travel around the globe and not only populate their own colonies, but also to settle down in several countries like the USA, France, South Africa, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Australia, Luxemburg, Belgium, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Andorra, Italy, Bermudas, Zimbabwe, Sweden, Uruguay, Morocco and others.

Personally, I think this is the quality of the Portuguese people that I admire the most because, despite of the fact they come from a very small country, they were able to spread and build their own history in almost every country of the world, without forgetting their roots. You should all be very proud of it.

And I think it is important to talk about the Portuguese communities because they are those who carry the Portuguese blood and, consequently, those who are interested the most in the content of this blog.

Actually, every Thursday will talk about the Portuguese communities around the world. And I take the chance to invite all readers to contribute to this blog by sending texts, about the Portuguese community they are part of, to be published here.

So, if you want to participate, please, send an e-mail to larissa.bona@lawrei.com (put Portuguese Community on the subject) and it will be my pleasure publish your text, because I believe that no one rather than community members themselves have the authority to talk about and promote their own communities.

Larissa Bona

Tomorrow: Portugal & the European Union