Category Archives: Uncategorized

This June marks the third anniversary of the participation by Memória Luso Vox Portuguese Canadian writers (Humberto da Silva, Aida Jordão, Irene Marques, Antonio Marques, Edith Baguinho, Emanuel Melo) in Dundas West Fest. In the first year, we read on … Continue reading →

The Azorean poet, Gabriela Silva, had come from the island of São Miguel to speak to the students of the Portuguese Culture Course at the University of Toronto. I was anxious to see her, a writer I did not know, … Continue reading →

Chegando à ilha de São Miguel                                                             Photo by Fernanda Sousa   A poeta Gabriela Silva tinha vindo da ilha de São Miguel, para falar aos … Continue reading →

       Antonio Cabral de Melo We remember 25 de Abril as a nation’s embryonic struggle towards freedom. But for me, the Portuguese day of liberation took on new meaning when my father was buried on April 25, 2005. For … Continue reading →

        Sheet music published by J.H. Peel Music Publishing Co., Toronto. Cover   by Virginia Boake ‘48 and Music arrangement by Joyce Belyea ‘46 As much as my writing reveals a nostalgic longing for the place and time of my childhood, … Continue reading →

  When I was a little boy, around the age of six or seven, I would spend quiet Sunday afternoons lying in bed with my grandfather, reading. I can still see the Louis XV style bedroom set in our house … Continue reading →

  At sixty, Tiago (or Mr. James da Silva, his name on the official Staff Directory) had left his job at Crescent School, where he’d taught boys to interpret the beauty of the world through paint on canvas. When a … Continue reading →

                               Toronto’s new City Hall 1965. Photo by Antonio de Melo   My father came to Canada from the Azores, an archipelago of nine small islands in the North Atlantic, when I was just six years old. It wasn’t until … Continue reading →

          Nordeste coast, island of S. Miguel, Azores   “My relationship with Italian takes place in exile, in a state of separation.” So starts Jhumpa Lahiri in her achingly profound and beautiful essay on identity, language and belonging, “Teach … Continue reading →

I came upon the Monumento ao Emigrante in Ponta Delgada, across Avenida Infante Dom Henrique, close to Forte S. Brás and Campo de São Francisco: a bronze family in a permanent act of immigrating. The father, with one arm lifted … Continue reading →