LETTER FROM A GRANDFATHER
My Dear Granddaughter, Addison Clark Corcoran,
Although your name makes no reference whatsoever to your Azorean background, I hope that sometime in your life you will remember that you are only one generation away from your Azorean past. One of
your grandfathers was born on St. Michael's Island, in 1931. He was the son of two other Azoreans, born on the same island, and the grandson of four Azoreans, who were the children of other Azoreans, etc...
For your information, Azoreans come from several backgrounds - Berbers who had remained in the Algarve after the Portuguese had finally conquered their land, Flemish, French, and, mostly,
Portuguese. On the whole Azoreans are a gentle family-oriented people with a great abiding love for their native islands.
In many ways they've always been a forgotten people who are only remembered by the world whenever bigger powers need to avail themselves of their nine small islands in the North Atlantic.
They have been coming to the United States for over one hundred and fifty years, entering through the East Coast, where they dedicated themselves mainly to the fishing industry, or became crews in whaling ships out of New Bedford, moving on to the West Coast, where they did extremely well in farming, fishing, and small commercial enterprises, eventually moving on into the arts and other professions. Some Azoreans even made it to Hawaii, where it is alleged that they, and another Portuguese-speaking
group from Madeira Island, eventually introduced the ukelele.
It's not much of an instrument, or a difficult one to play, but a pleasant one nevertheless.
In 1901, your Mello/Ponte great-great grandparents were in the United States for a time. Three of their children were born here. One, a twin girl, died shortly after her birth in Fall River, Massachusetts. Her bother, Anthony, went to the Azores in 1906 and late in life returned to America, where he eventually died at the age of eighty-four. While he lived in the Azores he became a very accomplished classical guitarist and, to this day, there are pieces in Portuguese music archives whose accompaniments he helped to compose.
Since he couldn't read music, however, due to his semi blindness after his late teens, his name doesn't figure in any of the pieces. On the other hand, there are still people who remember the sounds and their
authorship. Keep that in mind as you grow older. Remember that you will do well not solely by what history leaves in your name, but by the simple fact that you mattered while you lived. Your own great grandfather, John Ponte, was born shortly after his parents arrived in the Azores after their last trip from America, in 1906.
While all that was going on with the Mello/Ponte side of your past, your Costa Afonso great-great grandparents were making a life for themselves in the Azores. The latter were small farmers who, as far as I know, had no sense of history, although your great-great grandmother's mother had lived a most interesting live before her seventh birthday. Someday, after I've had the time to research the story further, I shall write it down for you and your cousins. For some reason which was never explained to me,
however, your great-great grandfather, António da Costa Afonso, who was better known on the island as "António Figueira" acquired a commemorative medal celebrating the only time that a Portuguese
monarch, Carlos I, visited the Azores during the approximately four hundred years that the islands were under the Portuguese royal flag.
King Carlos, by the way, was the only king in the long Portuguese history to have been assassinated. He was succeeded by his son, Manuel II, who reigned for two years, until 1910, when the monarchy was
deposed and the Portuguese Republic was born.
Please note that the first two presidents of that republic were Azoreans, one of whom, Teófilo de Braga, was born on the same island where most of your Mello/Ponte predecessors were born.
In any case, I would like you to own the above medal. It's not much of a gift. On the other hand, I hope you will treasure it as a remembrance of your past and as a reminder that whatever you do with your life it will reflect in the obscurity (for now, that is) of the future. Unlike baseball cards, for example, it may have no monetary value. On the other hand, eight years from now, when you are in the second, or third, grade, the medal will have been in existence one hundred years. Not a bad remembrance to have from an age so long ago.
May you keep it for at least another hundred years.
Welcome to the world.
With love,
"GrandPa" Manuel
Carta da autoria de Manuel L. Ponte, Olivette (St. Louis), Missouri
e-mail: mlp@fclass.net
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