For a review of the historiography of emigration from Madeira and the Azores to southern Brazil

Abstract

This article revisits the early stages of Portuguese emigration to the Island of Desterro in the eighteenth century—today Florianópolis, capital of the State of Santa Catarina in the Federative Republic of Brazil. Through primary sources, it seeks to demonstrate the diverse origins of the European settlers of this territory within the broader context of population transfers promoted by the Portuguese crown. The aim is to provide a more nuanced understanding of the provenance of these proto-emigrants, who have been simplistically remembered in historical memory as having come solely from the Azores archipelago. The historical sources presented here reveal the arrival and settlement in this southern Brazilian territory of groups of settlers not only from the Azores but also, in comparable numbers, from the Madeira archipelago. This study also critically reassesses the transfer and acculturation of certain traditions to this region—particularly the Festas do Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit Festivals) — which traditional historiography attributed exclusively to the Azoreans who settled there. A comparative examination of the specific characteristics of these festivities now suggests that they may have had an initial Madeiran inspiration, as similar ritual practices associated with the cult of the Holy Spirit Paraclete also existed, and continue to exist today, in Madeira.