Devin Meireles is a young Portuguese-Canadian writer whose two self-published books celebrate his love of family, The Portuguese Immigrant: Atlantic Heritage Story, and his love of the place his family comes from. Finding Madeira is his latest book. You can find information on both through his blog, lusoloonie.

Devin’s contribution to the Portuguese Canadian diaspora dialogue is to be applauded. It warms my heart to know that the history of Portuguese immigrants to Canada continues to be written  and that the stories of individual families become part of the collective narrative of the luso experience.

By writing about his grandparents in The Portuguese Immigrant, Devin gives his family the greatest honour I can think of: perpetuating them through the written word; by writing about Madeira, he honours his place of family origin.

My interest here is not to provide a review of Devin’s writing but rather to celebrate him for his efforts in sharing his personal family history with everyone who cares about where they come from. I hope he will inspire a new generation of Portuguese-Canadians to write their own family stories while discovering and claiming their heritage of both family and geographical place.