This Sunday, the President of the Republic will visit communities of Portuguese immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley of California, on his second day on the west coast of the United States.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa arrived in San Diego on Saturday, where a Portuguese president had not been in 33 years, and then in Los Angeles.
Today, at 12:00 noon (8:00 p.m. in Lisbon), the Head of State will have a meeting and lunch at the Portuguese Hall of the Irmandade do Espírito Santo de São José, an association founded in 1914.
Four hours later, he will be with Portuguese and descendants of Portuguese in Agustina, Merced County, in the São Joaquim Valley, which is part of California’s Central Valley, an agricultural region that none of his predecessors had visited.
Today’s program ends with a dinner with Portuguese-Americans and Portuguese-Americans elected to political office in California, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. Monday in Lisbon), in Turlock, Stanislaus County, also in Vale Central.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will remain until Wednesday in California, the US state with the largest number of citizens of Portuguese origin, more than 300,000, according to official data from the US census.
Portuguese emigration to the west coast of North America dates back to the 19th century and comes mainly from the Azores.
Currently, there are two federal congressmen of Portuguese descent elected from California: Jim Costa, from the Democratic Party, and David Valadão, from the Republican Party.
California is the most populous and wealthiest state in the United States – if it were a country, it would be the fifth largest economy in the world – home to the Hollywood film industry and the business tech hub of Silicon Valley.
Geographically and climatically, there are similarities between this North American state and Portugal, both with beaches, vineyards, mild temperatures, but also with prolonged periods of drought and large forest fires.
In June 2018, the President of the Republic, together with the Prime Minister, António Costa, celebrated the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities on the east coast of the United States, in the cities of Boston, Providence and New Bradford, along with Portuguese emigrants and descendants of Portuguese from the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
In a speech in Boston, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa promised to return soon to be with other Portuguese communities “that were very sad” for not having visited them on that occasion, such as those on the West Coast.
In 1989, Mário Soares visited San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes the city of San José. Aníbal Cavaco Silva visited California 22 years later, in 2011, but he only visited San José and San Francisco.
Source: Observadora
