The California Portuguese community was graced with a special visit on September 25, 2022 by the President of the Republic of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as he toured around California accompanied by other dignitaries including the Secretary of State for the Portuguese Communities, the Ambassador of Portugal to the United States, and our SF Consul General of Portugal to visit with the community.
For us, September 25th was a historic event for our Portuguese community in the SF Bay Area as His Excellency visited San Jose. There was a beautiful mass held at Five Wounds Portuguese National Church in San Jose. A reception preceded the mass at the I.E.S. Portuguese Hall next door. It was a fabulous celebration and gathering of the proud Portuguese Community in support of Dr. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s visit. We listened to him talk about how proud he was to be in California during his visit where he stole the show with his fondness of taking Selfies with everyone. He expressed in his speech the importance of letting people know that you are Portuguese and please come back to Portugal to visit our great motherland. It was such an honor for me to meet him personally and present him one of our “Got Minchi” t-shirts during one of our selfies together and let him know that this was from our Macaense Community. He graciously accepted it with a smile and said “ah yes, Macau”.
Viva Macau!
Viva Portugal!
~ Leonardo Xavier