My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

factory, Loreto. Shortly after that we moved again to Rua dos
Capa, a 5-minute walk from the center of the city, where my
younger sister, Adriana, was born on April 7 th Capas, a 5-minute walk from the center of the city, where my
, 1943. I also had a
brother who died two months after his birth. His name was Álvaro.
My parents were devastated by his loss.
When I was very young, my parents sent me to a pre-school that
was located near a marketplace called, a Praça. The market was
where families went on weekends to purchase their groceries for
the week. It was the supermarket of the day, but more like a
farmers’ market. The goods were always fresh, sold by the village
farmers who came to the city to sell their produce, which in those
days were always organic. There was also a meat market called,
Açougue da Carne, where people would wait in long lines to
purchase their meat for the week. Meat was a luxury for most of
the population, and so usually it was the rich, the professionals,
and businessmen that could afford it on a regular basis. Today the
same Praça still exists, but is much more modern with a parking
garage beneath it, but still selling fresh produce. Today, in the
Azores, most people live much better than in those days. There are
large supermarkets and the average families can afford to live
much more comfortably since the April 25 th , 1974 revolution and
the admission of Portugal into the European Union.
Family Vacations
My father’s grandparents lived in the village of Ponta Garça,
which is thirty-three kilometers from Ponta Delgada. The village
overlooked the Atlantic Ocean, which created a beautiful vision of
contrast between the very blue ocean and the very green pastures
of the village. The road along the coast was very mountainous and
steep, giving the appearance of a long lizard!
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