The story of one family’s history. Both, the story and the history, have no known (yet) beginning (beyond the 1580’s, at least) and – because the future is… the future – no known end either.

A tree named Laíns
|Created and produced by Marco António
|Translated and narrated by Lucy Pepper
|Official theme music: “Fado do Sonho“ – Pensão Flor
|Additional music: Lee Rosevere| Yshwa | Matti Paalanen| Jahzzar  |Orquestra Popular de Paio Pires
|The Portuguese version of this episode can be found at “Histórias de Portugal” (narrated by Marco António)

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Not the usual kind of love story told for St. Valentine’s Day… a love story about the magic of Portugal.

Episode 14 – From America, with love… |Created and produced by Marco António
|Translated and narrated by Lucy Pepper
|Official theme music: “Fado do Sonho“ – Pensão Flor
|Additional music: Wes Martin | Lee Rosevere| Josh Woodward | Onda Choc | The Mendes Brothers
|The Portuguese version of this episode can be found at “Histórias de Portugal” (narrated by Marco António)

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Angela is a Portuguese-American. So is her husband, Adrian. They live in California. Adrian is first generation, his family comes from Sesimbra, a fishing village near Lisbon. Angela is third generation, but her roots remain strongly Portuguese.

Angela’s father’s family came from Terceira, one of the islands of the Azores. Her mother’s family came from Guarda, on the mainland. Both families arrived in the states in the early 1900s.

Angela’s great grandfather from the Azores went alone to America when he was 14, and went straight across country to sunny California. Her great grandfather from Guarda tried three times to get there, but the first two times, he failed to find a sponsor and had to go home. On the third trip, the captain of the shit said “you keep coming back, you must really want to be here…” and so the captain ended up sponsoring him to be able to stay in America. He started off in Rhode Island, since he already had family there, but when his wife arrived, they decided Rhode Island was too cold, and headed west.

Both families ended up in farming in California, and that is where Angela and Adrian met, a hundred years later…

Angela is also a podcaster! With her friend, food writer Maria Lawton, also a Portuguese American from the Azores, she produces Our Portuguese Table, in which they talk about everything to do with Portuguese food and being Portuguese in America, talking with luso-descendant food producers, chefs and writers, people making a mark on the Portuguese food map of America. It is a coast to coast podcast, with Angela on the west coast and Maria on the east, and is just one of the ways in which Angela helps the Portuguese of America to find each other. There is a surprising amount of Portuguese food culture in America… so, check them out for lovely warm and funny chats about the most important thing… Portuguese food!

Find the podcast on their site, or wherever you get this podcast! Just search for Our Portuguese Table.

Since June you’ve been listening to our voices (THANK YOU!)
Now… we would love to hear YOUR voice! And your story!

Tell us a real story related to Portugal. Use your computer or recording app on your mobile or tablet, begin with your name and “This is my Story of Saudade”, tell your story (take all the time you want) and send it to historiasdeportugal.podcast@gmail.com

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When a scandal blows up, everyone has an opinion. A good scandal always gets people interested. In this episode, we tell of several historical scandals, all in the city of Lisbon.

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On the night of 25th to 26th of November 1967, in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, hundreds of people died in the worst floods ever seen in Portugal.

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This is a story from the centre of Portugal, it tells of birds and bikes and all begins on one of the most famous bridges in the country, more than a hundred kilometres away.

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We went to find a story about a craftsman. We left with another story.

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Piquete is always on duty. He never leaves Vendas Novas Fire Station.
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Which flag is the flag of Portugal? For most people, the green and red one comes to mind. But not everyone thinks of THAT flag as Portugal’s flag. (more…)

A special episode for more than one reason that you’ll discover while listening, but one thing is for sure…the fountain water is to blame.

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There was no battle called The Battle of the Uvas and the Telhado, or Lixa, but a battle did take place round here, in a land rich in grapes (which make a fantastic Vinho Verde) and there’s a native of Telhado who is important in this story… of Quinta da Lixa.

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11th of September, 1984. Something that had never been seen on a football field happened 20km from Arouca. It wasn’t a football match, but it did have a ball and it ran on wheels.

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António Fortunato, 82 years old with a collection of tractors and other agricultural machinery from times past. A collection which isn’t a collection.

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The story – and stories – behind one of the most emblematic chapels in Portugal. The chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição – Praia de Mira, Coimbra.

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The (apparently commonplace) story of a man who, on one hand, had a big misfortune in his life, but on the same hand, acheived fortune and the admiration of everyone.

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Episode 3 – The “right” side of the Padrão
|Created and produced by Marco António
|Translated and narrated Lucy Pepper
|Official theme tune: “Fado do Sonho“ – Pensão Flor
|Additional music: Lee Rosevere | Orquestra Popular de Paio Pires
|The Portuguese version of this episode can be found at “Histórias de Portugal”
(narrated by Marco António)

O Padrão dos Descobrimentos, the Monument to the Discoveries, in Lisbon, almost never existed. It was imagined, at the last minute, in the middle of the night in 1939 by  Cottinelli Telmo, but only after they had told him that his plans for the Exposição do Mundo Português of 1940, the Exhibition of The Portuguese World, lacked “something”. Even though he was annoyed, he came up with the idea for the monument (modelled later in plaster by the sculptor, Leopoldo de Almeida) and not only was it the star of the Estado Novo’s exhibition, but it was reconstructed definitively twenty years later, in concrete and stone, next to the Tejo, where today it is one of Lisbon’s tourist must-sees.

The figures, 33 of them, of important figures in the Discoveries (find out who they were at the official website of the monument, here (in English: www.padraodosdescobrimentos.pt) were created between 1958 and 1960 by two stone masonry firms from Pêro Pinheiro. Pardal Monteiro e José Raimundo were the master masons chosen and each one was given one side of the monument to work on (the figure of Henry the Navigator, at the centre front, was shared between the two firms).

For an idea of how big the figures really are, click on this photograph from 1940, with the sculptor, Leopoldo de Almeida, up a ladder, modelling the first version of the monument in plaster.

There are more beautiful photos of the construction of the original version of the padrão here.

In this episode, we interviewed Humberto Raimundo Simões, son of José Raimundo, who worked with his father on this and many other projects in the company José Raimundo e Filho, Lda., who revealed that the sculptor, Leopoldo de Almeida was only happy with one side, and made sure that that side ended up on the official commemorative medal of the Padrão.

Our thanks to Ana Vitorino who helped us arrive at today’s story.

Note:
in this episode, we referred to the “eagle” in the statue of Calouste Gulbenkian. We should have said it was a falcon, which represents the Egyptian god Horus.