A trip to the homeland: Madeira, Portugal

Growing up I was never quite sure of my background and consequently struggled with my cultural identity. My mom is American. That is easy. My father, however, is a different story. Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad grew up in Venezuela, moved to Brazil when his parents divorced and then onto the states for High School. To confuse me more my father worked, although throughout all of Latin America, primarily in Argentina and supported both their and Brazil’s national teams. It did not help that my father did not meet his father until the late 1990s, and I only learned a few months ago the political situation that lead to this whole mess with my Great Grandfather. Long story short (kind of), after a lot of question asking, I discovered where my heritage came from: Portugal.

Madeira Island is located 900 km off the coast of Portugal and is actually closer to Africa than Europe. My grandfather was the last Pereira (my father’s last name before he adopted his stepfather’s, Hudson) to be born on the Atlantic Island. As I continue the extensive process of acquiring my citizenship, I decided to make a pilgrimage of sorts to the island, where you can trace the Pereira lineage back a few centuries.

After my very fun but tiring (a combination of the travel issues, little amounts of sleep and copious drinks), my trip to Madeira was a nice escape. I traveled alone and couldn’t have been better. Spending the Thursday in Lisbon allowed me the opportunity to see the Portuguese capital., home of some very cool forts and castles. I arrived in Madeira early on Friday morning and spent the next sixty hours relaxing, reading by the water, and exploring the island. A product of a volcanic eruption, Madeira actually has very few beaches. Lush, mountainous, and with a very unique culture, it was a surreal experience to visit the island where half of my bloodline is based. As I prepare to return to Madrid, I plan on continue to research my lineage and one day return to the beautiful island.