5. Blogger Rosa Maria Silva of Angra do Heroísmo was 15 at the time, so still living at home with her parents in her native Serreta, Terceira. At the end of 2009 she posted a poem she composed to commemorate the 30th anniversary, which Dr. Bobby J. Chamberlain and I translated:
The earth shook in January
Of a time forever standing still;
We wept uncontrollably
In the presence of everything in ruins.
The Day of St. Mary
And of Peace announced itself…
New Year of agony
On the afternoon that pitched back and forth.
Eighty, year of pain
And great consternation;
The central island group in a frenzy
Only saw destruction…
I recall how my mother’s yellow jacket
covered me
(it was beautiful)
And it marked me forever.
I was trembling so very very much,
And my fear was ignited…
The Divine Holy Ghost
And Our Lady protected us.
Another sorrow ran through me
Upon learning of a young woman:
Rocks fell on her… She died…
Zita, my good friend.
I wept so much over her death,
She was from Doze Ribeiras, my closest classmate,
At school she was strong
I remember well her surrender.
Then later I found out
That a cousin from Altares,
Aída da Conceição,
Engulfed her Terceira home into mourning.
And other deaths stained
Other homes with bitterness
And relatives wept
Their sad fate at grave’s side.
Thirty years have now passed
Since the island tragedy;
Rebuilding without delay
Put everyone to work.
Much help arrived from outside,
From the Continent and abroad,
They will forever deserve
Our heartfelt Praise.
And our institutions,
Rescue Squads and Armed Forces,
People from the overseas communities
May they always be praised.
http://www.rtp.pt/icmblogs/rtp/comunidades/index.php?k=TRINITA-ANOS-DEPOIS-as-rimas-de-Rosa-Maria-Silva-English-translations-by-Katharine-F-Baker-Dr-Bobby-J-Chamberlain.rtp&post=20239
Portuguese version originally published at: http://silvarosamaria.blogs.sapo.pt/802905.html
6. Marilia Wiget, a Californian who has long been active in Sacramento’s Portuguese Historical and Cultural Society and edits its newsletter O Progresso, emailed:
I’m sure that Frank Dias was involved in broadcasting and assisting with donations. St. Elizabeth [Portuguese National] Church did some collections. There was a very large California effort throughout the East Bay and Central Valley.
7. Dr. Elmano Costa, professor at California State University-Stanislaus, who immigrated as a child with his family to Turlock, California, emailed:
Actually, our house did not suffer any damage. Two girls were killed in my home town [Altares, Terceira] when a wall of their houses fell and buried them in the rubble. I have only sporadic notes from my relatives, but most actually survived with only minimal damage to their houses. What my farmer cousin talks a lot about was the fallen walls that divide the fields, and the work rebuilding them. The only thing I can add is the reaction from this side of the Atlantic. 1980 being before the Internet and cell phone and instant communication, we would rely on Frank Dias who had a radio program out of Sacramento to hear the daily news. He was able to establish daily phone communication with someone there and run the conversation over the radio on his program. We listened attentively to get tidbits of what was happening in Terceira. I have a faint recollection of a radio program doing a peditorio, a sort of telethon to collect funds.
8. Because the Azores are a seismologically active area, it was only natural that renowned Terceiran author Álamo Oliveira would employ earthquake imagery in his novel I No Longer Like Chocolates (English translation by Diniz Borges and me), about a family that immigrated to Tulare County in California’s San Joaquin Valley in the 1950s from a town reminiscent of his native Raminho. Álamo addressed the Portuguese-American community’s response to the disaster through the persona of socially ambitious daughter-in-law Milu, a nettlesome Portinglês-spewing immigrant character of sometimes comic relief, who nonetheless enjoyed her finest hour directing the Tulare area’s earthquake relief effort. He described it thus:
They all wept when the island collapsed to the ground, reduced to rubble by an earthquake so severe it buried people alive. They filled an enormous warehouse with clothing and canned goods, coming to the aid of anguished appeals that arrived in spotty and often contradictory news reports. And they filled the church in order to implore Our Lady of Fátima not to allow Our Lord to send more temblors to the island. At that point Milu was again on the front lines, giving orders like a battlefield general.
“Uel, that boxe comes over here! Uel, that bundle of clothes goes apestér! Uel, who donated that piece of junk? Do they think this is for pigs? Uel, put everything in the gábiche. Uel, aimetaia!”
And then she would sit down to rest on top of a case of powdered milk. [p. 109]
9. Joe Beirão provided the following information about his parents’ generosity in the relief effort:
In 1981, poet Maria das Dores Beirão and guitar virtuoso Hélio Beirão hosted approximately 100 guests at a fundraising night in Napa, California, to benefit the rebuilding of São Bento, Terceira’s, main parish church in Maria’s hometown. She and poet Dr. Décio Oliveira served as presenters and also read poetry, while Portuguese Tribune publisher João Brum was keynote speaker. Music consisted of Azorean folksongs performed by Urânia Gomes and Damasceno Leal (the first time Hélio ever played the Viola da Terra [Terceira-style guitar] in public); Lisbon-style fados sung by Henrique Cordeiro and Ariovalda Maria, accompanied by Leonel Medeiros on Portuguese guitar and Hélio on classical guitar, presented by fado expert António Guimaraes; and, Coimbra-style fados sung by Leonel Garrido accompanied by Leonel Medeiros and Hélio, presented by former Coimbra University student Helder Castro.
