The Regional Director for the Communities begins Thursday an official visit to Hawaii, where he will participate in the celebrations of the 140th anniversary of the arrival of the first Portuguese emigrants to this North American state. It was an important destination for Azorean emigration in the second half of the 19th century. Currently, a vast community of Azorean descendants still resides in this state.
 
On the first day of the visit to this Pacific archipelago, Paulo Teves visits the Portuguese Genealogical Society of Hawaii, the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit of the Holy Trinity and Hawaii's Plantation Village. The latter is a historical museum that depicts the reality of many Portuguese emigrants in Hawaii, portraying life in a sugar cane plantation from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
 
Also, on this day, he will meet with members of the Portuguese community on the island of Oahu, namely with the President of Camões Portuguese Club Hawaii, Josephine Carreira, the President of the Brotherhood Punchbowl Holy Ghist President Evelyn Starkey, and with the head of the Department of Languages and Literatures of Europe and the Americas at the University of Hawaii, Paul Chandler.
 
On Friday, the Regional Director visits the Department of Languages and Literatures of Europe and the Americas at the University of Hawaii, where he will deliver a paper on "The Azores and the Diaspora" during a Portuguese course on the Manoa Campus. He will also participate in the 35th anniversary of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.
 
In this visit to Hawaii, Paulo Teves will also attend the premiere of the documentary titled "Portuguese in Hawaii" by Nelson Ponta Garça. Its production was supported by the Government of the Azores/Regional Directorate for the Communities and falls within the celebration programme of the 14oth anniversary of the arrival of the first Portuguese emigrants to Hawaii.
 
On the last day of the visit, the Regional Director participates in the ceremony of laying the first stone of "Saudades, The Longing" Cultural and Educational Centre, a project promoted by the Chamber of Commerce of the Island of Hawaii. He will also attend to the Portuguese community.
 
Large-scale Azorean emigration to the so-called Sandwich Islands began in the last quarter of the 19th century, with many thousands of Azoreans emigrating to the Pacific archipelago to work on the sugar cane, coffee, sweet potato and fruit crops. This migratory flow ended in the first decade of the 20th century.
 
Throughout generations, the Azoreans have allied their vast cultural heritage with the customs of the people of Hawaii and others who emigrated there, a legacy that remains visible to this day in local gastronomy, namely in the Azorean-style sweet bread and the Hawaiian "malasadas" (Azorean-style doughnut). Moreover, this is also visible in the field of religion with the cult of the Holy Spirit as well as in the construction of houses using volcanic stone and in numerous Portuguese family names.