Preparations begin for Portuguese Arrival Day
DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, April 24, 2019
The final preparatory stages for the venue to commemorate 184th Portuguese Arrival Day (May 3) has been deemed satisfactory, according to the Special Projects Officer attached to the Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Social Cohesion, Culture, Youth and Sport, Retired Major Hubert Musser.
Speaking with the Department of Public Information (DPI), during a site visit, Musser said the commemoration ceremony will be similar to 2018’s celebration. The venue of this year’s observance will the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church on Main Street. The Projects Officer noted that the location is historically important to Guyanese of Portuguese descent.
It is expected that the venue will see some 200 persons in attendance. Musser said all aspects for the event have been catered for and are in place and the site visit allowed the department’s planning committee to make their final inspection of the venue.
Public Communications Consultant, Kit Nascimento, who is also on the planning committee, encouraged persons of all ethnicities to come and experience the event. The day, he noted, “recognises and celebrates Portuguese as one of the six peoples of Guyana”.
Last year, President David Granger stated that the designation of specific days to recognise the arrival and contributions of the various ethnic groups is a celebration of the plural character of the Guyanese nation and is intended to support the overall objective of social cohesion.
“Social Cohesion recognises that Guyana is now, and always will be, multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. Miscegenation is forever. Our diversity is an asset, not a liability. We are proud to belong to a society of many faiths. We are proud of the tapestry of ethnicity within our country… I took the initiative after 2015, to designate days, which celebrate the plural character of our nation, not to divide,” President Granger had said.
The first batch of 40 Portuguese immigrants arrived in Demerara on May 3, 1835, on the ship Louisa Baillie. The last batch arrived from Madeira in 1882, at which time a total of 30,645 had already formed a significant part of the population in the then British Guiana.
Portuguese Arrival Day commemorates not only the historical start of migration but also, the process of integration, miscegenation and nation-building and the determination of the Portuguese themselves to enjoy the rights and privileges of their adopted homeland.
Neola Damon.
Images: Giovanni Gajie.