While cleaning out my email file folders, I thought that maybe the book I have
been trying to read might have some answers to an email from Mel dated 2004.
In her email, Mel asked about the quality of life her ancestors would have had.
The book, by Susana Goulart Costa, Azores Nine Islands, One History, does not
answer this question or questions about ancestors in general. What the book
does do is give the reader a look at how the Islands were settled; governed;
the wars that were fought and the politics. There is great detail about all of
this and it has taken me quite awhile to dig through the first 90 pages! So
many things influenced the lives of those living in the Azores.
I think that the reader can begin to understand what motivated the common folk
that were living in the Azores to do the things they did. I was of the opinion
that many left the Islands because there was too many people and not enough
food. I know there were various other reasons. Thus far, the book has given me
a lot of food for thought about how the politics at different times played a
part as to how people lived and why some left. I don’t get the feeling that if
you worked hard enough you could change your life.
Maybe it is just seeing what has happened here in the US that makes me think a
young person might entertain the notion that living somewhere else might be the
way to go. Older people that have lost their retirement might also be thinking
the same thing.
Celeste, Hayward, CA
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