Many former students suffered four years ago with the departure of Jose and Manuela Alvarez from Japan – after all, this country was their home for almost half a century when they arrived in 1969. And the Portuguese couple received emotional farewell letters, such as one that Manuela shows to me special tenderness, asking only not to reveal the name of the former Japanese student who signed it. “Dear teacher, since I learned of your departure, I have tried so many times to write you a letter. But I could not, because I felt vague, as if I were a desert without form and horizon, where I could not find any words. At the last moment, I’ll try again, promise to reunite and say thank you for all these years. You have no idea how you have enriched my life as an ideal teacher, charming woman and sincere friend. “
Born on December 4, 1945, Manuela arrived in Japan at the age of 23 and from the first moment she was fascinated by everything so subtle, right down to the way of life of the people. “I liked the country as soon as I landed. I was so curious, ”she says, and Jose, sitting together, smiles. She is from the north of Portugal, from São João da Madeira, he is five years older, was born on March 3, 1939 in Goa, in the city of Panjim, when Portuguese India was still part of the empire. The students met in Coimbra, where Manuela graduated from classical philology and Jose graduated from history.
“It was my fault that I went to Japan. I was going to become a Portuguese reader in Spain, but someone was urgently needed in Tokyo. I never thought about it, ”Jose recalls. For Manuela, it was an opportunity for life and experience unexpected, but it made the family uneasy. “Where has their girl gone, so far away? My parents preferred to be closer, ”he says. “I never saw Lisbon until I arrived to catch the plane,” he stresses.
In 1987, they founded the Centro Cultural Português in the Japanese capital, a testament to their entrepreneurship, a private school created by the couple from scratch. Manuela shows me the manuals that she herself made for students who some wanted to learn the language for work in Portugal or Brazil, others, many even dreamed of singing fado, which became famous with Amalia’s visit. And laughs. But at the same time, when they were studying Japanese themselves, they started working at the Institute of Portuguese Language and Culture (ICALP) of the Ministry of Education, where Manuela was a professor at Sofia University for many years, and Waseda and Jose at the Institute of Portuguese Language. University of Tokyo and University of Foreign Languages. After the disappearance of ICALP after April 25, 1974, employers became structures of the Japanese government, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Many future ambassadors passed by the Portuguese couple, and I am quoting them out of pure curiosity, the names of some Japanese diplomats I know who are fluent in Portuguese, and I found that, of course, they were their students.
I returned to Portugal in 2017 and I almost met them when I was in Japan and reporting that year, went to Tokyo and also to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where while talking to Manuela, I ate castela, a local cake. inspired by bread. lo.
They settled in Lisbon, where their daughter and granddaughter live, whom at the end of our conversation, as I know, her grandmother will take from school. Yesterday they presented their book at the Centro Cultural de Belém entitled New essays by Luso-Nippon. And there they watched a dozen Japanese people, including Ambassador Ushio Shigeru. Not so long ago, they were awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Golden Rays with a Rosette, an award that the Emperor of Japan (since 2019 Naruhito) awards to those who have contributed to the development of relations between Japan and other countries or the spread of Japanese culture in their countries. This was done for two.
Jose, who explains the characteristics of Japanese society with deep knowledge, has written extensively about the historical relationship between Japan and Portugal, which dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, before the archipelago was closed to the outside world. and offer me Portugal and Japan, Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Trade of 1860 and Diplomatic Relations, a book commemorating 150 years of diplomatic relations. Returning to contact with the world in the middle of the 19th century, Japan could see its contemporary only in Portugal – then he was King Pedro V – an old acquaintance. “We say that we discovered Japan in 1543 or that we were the first Europeans to get there. The Japanese only say that they found three shipwrecked people. They are very frugal in their words. For example, from San Francisco Xavier to Luis de Froy, many wrote about the Japanese, but at that time there was only a Japanese text about the Portuguese, and the topic was the introduction of the musket. But they drew a lot, and it is on the screens that the Japanese are 500 years old. “What we saw back in Portuguese is best captured. Our presence was mainly a manifestation of religious proselytism, and that is why it ended in exile,” explains Jose, suggesting here the analysis of the historian a country that, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, had great development and today is still an economic colossus, with the third largest GDP, second only to America and China, but with a much smaller population and territory, about 126 million inhabitants in an area equivalent to five ” Portugal “.
The topic of proselytism leads the conversation to the film SilenceMartin Scorsese, and I learn that Jose and Manuela met Susaku Endo, the writer who wrote a book about the Portuguese Jesuits in Japan that served as the basis for the American filmmaker. Manuela shows me a photograph of her husband and writer at a meeting, which is also attended by Armando Martins Janeira, an ambassador to Tokyo who has studied Luso-Japanese history, and his wife Ingrid, who is now present at the presentation of the new book. a gift from a couple.
Armando Martins Gianeira, who left behind such memorable books as Impact of Portugal on Japanese civilization (published in 1970 and with a Japanese translation back in 1971), he was one of the first to write about Wenceslav de Moraes, a Portuguese who, in the early 20th century, made Japan famous to the Portuguese with his very personal distortions (he came to publish texts in Diário de Notícias). Now Jose has also published an essay about a former consul in Kobe who fell out of love with the Japanese, whom he recognizes, despite his eccentric personality, as a bridge between the two countries. and in this New tests Several texts on the former military, such as “Moraes and the mythical vision of Nippon”, could not but be missed.
Jose and Manuela got married before leaving for Japan. “It could have been different then,” the Portuguese teacher says, laughing. And in 1970, Claudia was born, who is now a professor at ISCTE, all her childhood and adolescence as a Portuguese girl grew up in Japan. With a PhD from Nova de Lisbon and a PhD in Communication Studies from a British University, Jose and Manuela’s only child has a strong emotional connection with his country of birth, right through to being translated into Portuguese. Katie and the Dream Eaterillustrated by Brian Wildsmith and written by Princess Takamado of the Japanese imperial family.
Manuela says life in Japan was a happy time and recalls good relations with her neighbors in Tokyo, whom she taught to cook cod: “There was a van that drove to our neighborhood to sell fish. I bought all these salty ones. cod. to ours, but much less. After a while, I began to explain to Japanese girls how to cook it. “
About the Japanese, Manuela says that “they are very educated, organized, civilized, sophisticated, cultured people, with great sensitivity and a high sense of aesthetics.” But she, according to her, came more excited about the country, which will become the second home of the couple. Japan has attracted her ever since she found Wenceslau de Moraes’s book on a shelf in her parents’ house (again!). As for Jose, when he received the award, he remembered to say, “My relationship with Japanese culture and language was not what the Japanese call it. Hitomebore (“Love at first sight”), but before koi no yokan (“Love at second sight”). But this relationship with the country has become a passion to the point that a proverb is often quoted that says: Sumeba Miyakowhich means that our land is where we live. And it was almost half a century of Japan as the land that the Alvarez couple lived on, a unique experience. Arigato for this conversation of ours.
Method Media Bermuda will present the documentary FABRIC: Portuguese History in Bermuda on Thursday, December 29 at the Underwater Research Institute of Bermuda.
A spokesperson said: “Method Media is proud to bring Bermuda Fabric: Portugal History to Bermuda for its 5th and 6th showing at the Bermuda Underwater Observatory. In November and December 2019, Cloth: A Portuguese Story in Bermuda had four sold-out screenings. Now that Bermuda has reopened after the pandemic, it’s time to bring the film back for at least two screenings.
“There are tickets Ptix.bm For $ 20 – sessions at 15:30 and 18:00. Both screenings will be followed by a short Q&A session.
Director and producer Milton Raboso says, “FABRIC is a definitive account of the Portuguese community in Bermuda and its 151 years of history, but it also places Bermuda, Acors and Portugal in the world history and the events that have fueled those 151 years.
“It took more than 10 years to implement FABRIC. The film was supported by the Minister of Culture, the Government of the Azores and private donors.
“Bermuda Media Method [MMB] Created in 2011 by producer Milton Raposo. MMB has created content for a wide range of clients: Bermuda’s new hospital renovation, reinsurance, travel campaigns, international sports and more. MMB pays special attention to artistic, cultural and historical content.
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Maestro Filipe Cunha, Artistic Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Braga, has been invited to conduct the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra, as announced today.
According to a statement sent by O MINHO, “he will be the first Portuguese conductor to conduct this orchestra in its entire history.”
In addition to this orchestra, the maestro will also work with the Lyceo Mozarteum de la Habana Symphony Orchestra.
The concerts will take place on 4 and 12 March 2023 at the National Theater of Cuba in Havana.
In the words of the maestro, quoted in the statement, “these will be very beautiful concerts with difficult but very complex pieces” and therefore he feels “very motivated”.
From the very beginning, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 will be performed by an Italian pianist (Luigi Borzillo), whom the maestro wants to bring to Portugal later this year. In the same concert, Mendelshon’s First Symphony will be performed.
Then, at the second concert, in the company of the Mexican clarinetist Angel Zedillo, he will perform the Louis Sfora Concerto No. 2. In this concert, the maestro also conducts Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.
“This is an international recognition of my work. An invitation that I accept with humility and great responsibility. I was surprised to learn that I would be the first Portuguese member of the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. This is a very great honor,” the maestro said in a statement.
“I take with me the name of the city of Braga and Portugal with all the responsibility that goes with it, and I hope to do a good job there, leaving a good image and putting on great concerts. These will be very special concerts because, in addition to performing pieces that I love, especially Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, I will be directing two wonderful soloists who are also my friends. It will be very beautiful,” concludes Filipe Cunha.
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