“In 1940, a group of Micaelenses followed as emigrants to a country, little known in Central America, called the Dominican Republic. This country that shares the territory of the island of Hispaniola with the Republic of Haiti, at the time, 1940, was promoting a population and economic development policy focused on immigration, either by enticing immigrants with an apparently very interesting package of privileges, or by simply “opening the doors” to thousands of war refugees, first from the Spanish Civil War, and then to Europeans fleeing World War II. For this group of Micaelenses, leaving the Azores for the Dominican Republic was a strategy that led to desperate results, suffering the consequences of an ill-conceived population development policy and eventually returning after months of suffering, even poorer and sicker, but helped by a vast network of consular, kinship and support from the various Azorean communities, with connections in Bermuda, the United States of America and the Azores, and finally being repatriated on behalf of the government of the time.”
Last modified: 9 de February, 2022
