Artistas Portugueses-Canadianos de Ottawa-Gatineau (pdf 1, 683k)

Élio Mendonça
(fotógrafo)
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Amigo da comunidade
portuguesa e um dos dirigentes
da “Portuguese House of Arts
and Culture,” juntamente com o
Egidio Nascimento e outros, não
deixa de ser, ele mesmo um
grande artista de fotografia.
A vida levou-o a trabalhar neste
país como todos nós
artistas. Tem feito uma carreira
profissional no dominio de segurança da tecnologia de
informação e esta num projecto importante com o Governo. No
entanto a sua paixão pela fotografia e o querer partilhar as suas
experiências com a comunidade portuguesa, especiamente os
mais novos, deixa-o numa fase de reflexão. Será que por
intermédio duma arte, como a fotografia, os nossos jovens
portugueses poderão sentir-se melhor como portugueses?
Nada como convidar os nossos jovens, e outros profissionais em
fotografia, a participarem mais activamente na comunidade
portuguesa de Ottawa Gatineau, e ver até que ponto é que estas
novas formas de intercâmbio comunitário poderão trazer novos
laços de amizade.
Élio has created a wonderful website with some of his works, and
invites all of us to go take a sneak peek. Personally I have done it
and I must say that the photography of Canadian nature and seasons
touches my soul.
His parents brought him here, to this beautiful country as a child
from the beautiful islands of the Azores Portugal. Élio did not have
the opportunity to study in Portuguese, but he graduated from
Carleton University with a degree in English Literature. He has
also worked professionally in photography and now plays an important
role in the Information Technology Security sector.
I hope that the photography that Élio shares with us will motivate
us to try it ourselves, or send him an e-mail and ask for advice on
how to get started. Also, I hope we will see a major exposition of
all his works sometime soon.
Here is Élio’s web site :
http://www.zengineer.com/Gallery.htm
Here is the site of the Portuguese House of Arts
and Culture, where Élio is also involved:
http://www.casaportuguesa.ca/
You can also visit our website at:
http://musacademia.tripod.com
and go to artists or links to visit all artists
homepages.
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Junho –Dia de Portugal
In the month of June, we celebrated the day of Portugal
as usual, without any support from Portugal. We did not bother
asking either, or submitting a « projecto » to the Portuguese
Embassy here in Ottawa. People think the embassy of Portugal
has lots of money, but the truth is that, like in Canada, money
comes from budgets and if we want to celebrate the day of
Portugal it is up to us to submit a requisition for funding.
A few years ago, there was a real gentleman for an ambassador,
forgot his name, but not his deeds. He organized a
small modest party in the front yard of his house, maybe because
he knew it was better than putting up with a divided
community and all the possible criticism if he had sponsored
one and not another… however, these little celebrations in his
yard were the greatest party we ever had to celebrate our
wonderful country of Portugal. We felt welcomed and brotherhood
feelings could be seen in people’s smiles and in their efforts
to contribute to the party: some brought homemade petiscos,
others wine, others the folklore dance and the party was
on. For one day a year, our divided community came together
in one place –the ambassador’s house– and we all felt like
brothers and sisters…
This year the day of Portugal coincided with the beautiful
celebrations at the church of Saint Bernadette, which was
decorated beautifully, and where I spent my 10 of June. Father
Antonio put up an historical exposition to celebrate our forefathers
and our culture –very very interesting: religious artefacts,
pictures of the first comers from the Azores, paintings,
arts and crafts, and the wonderful rendinha. I hope he does it
again next year.
Senhor Santo Cristo also had various celebrations and a
Soccer festival. 4 teams composed their soccer tournament:
Ottawa Benfica (the winning team), Amigos do S. Santo Cristo
(second place), Amigos Unidos Old Timers (third place), and
our brotherly friends from Angola (fourth place and 2005
champions).
What sadden me the most about this day was to drive
by our Portuguese monument in Hull and to see the precarious
shape it was in… our national flag was not even there. In addi-
tion there were a number of flags missing. I do not know who
takes care of this monument, but please put up the missing
flags, if you need one come to my place, I have one extra…
Éditorial
padrehimalaya@yahoo.ca
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