HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Portugal’s Ambassador to the United States Francisco Duarte Lopes, and Consul General in San Francisco Filipe Ramalheira, wrapped up a week-long visit to Hawaii on Saturday, meeting with officials and Portuguese communities across Oahu, Maui, Hawaii island and Kauai.
“It was so rewarding to see how well integrated are the Portuguese Americans, how much they cherish their Portuguese roots, how much they continue to cherish also the Portuguese culture,” Ambassador Lopes said. “In the four main islands, you have American Portuguese and you have associations to carry on this legacy.”
From malasadas to the ukulele — maritime exploration to cattle ranching — Portuguese culture is part of the fabric of Hawaii.
About 15% to 20% of Hawaii residents claim some Portuguese ancestry, with many tracing their roots to the first immigrants who arrived from Portugal to work on the plantations 150 years ago.
Today, Portuguese communities thrive across the state, each with its own character, but all share pride in their heritage.
“We are looking at people that are 4th, 5th, 6th generation to Hawaii, but the connection is very strong,” Ramalheira said. “On Maui, there’s already a Portuguese cultural center, and there’s the intention of also creating new centers here in Oahu, but also in the Big island and on Kauai.
Portugal’s honorary consul in Hawaii happens to be Honolulu City Council member Tyler dos Santos-Tam, who hosted their visit, which included stops at the State Archives, Pearl Harbor and Lahaina — and meetings with Indo-Pacific Command and state and local leaders.
“Portugal and the U.S. have a long history of working together, of being alliance in military issues and defense issues, so as a founding member of NATO and as a maritime country, Portugal cooperates very closely with the U.S. in the framework of NATO and in the bilateral and multilateral framework around the world, including in maritime security,” Lopes said.
“With institutional representatives of the state, we discussed several areas of common interest because you know Portugal also receives a lot of tourists, and tourism is an important part of our economy so we were discussing this, we were discussing housing, we were discussing energy transition so also from that point of view it was very rewarding.”
They also hosted pop-up consular services for Portuguese nationals living in Hawaii, so they don’t have to travel to San Francisco for documents and other needs.
While the number of Portuguese citizens in Hawaii is small, thousands identify with their Portuguese ancestry.
Portugal officials say their mission is to keep future generations connected to their roots.
“There are sister cities programs with the councils and and the counties of the four islands with cities in Portugal. And we are now, I mean, besides bringing the consulate in San Francisco to Hawaii for 7 days as we did this week, We will also try to deepen this sister cities program to make sure that we enable young people from Hawaii of Portuguese descent or not to go to Portugal and also of young people from Portugal students to come here for some weeks to study and learn English,” Lopes said.
“The Portuguese touch is now part of the soul of Hawaii.”
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Portugal’s Ambassador to U.S. visits Hawaii, nearly 150 years since first Portuguese immigrants’ arrival – Hawaii News Now
