Makes sense, there was a huge Flemish (Dutch) settlement in the Azores. It even became known as the Isles of Flanders under Henry the Navigator.
very true esp for places like Faial and Sao Jorge Topo cheese is identical to Gouda cheese on the netherlands and the cows in the azores are all Frisian cows
Now im craving Azorean cheese, i havent had it since i was a kid. Soooooooo gooooooooood. Each island has their own distinct style of making it, they are all delicious. I gotta stop by the Azorean bakery.
From my time at UMASS in my sociology and psychology class I spent a full year working on the Portuguese American society and was a strong advocate for the Azorean Judeu Program regarding the Sahar Hussieman synagogue. It started after I did a DNA test and searched baptism records and found out that I was significantly Sephardic. I also went to Ponta Delgada and did several stops and my studies led me to conclude thats a lot of the Azorean culture is predominantly Jewish The Imperios the procession of the Holy Ghost are actually very similar to Jewish Torah processions also my studies led me to conclude that the custom of Azoreans on Ponta Delgada to crawl on the knees asking for forgivness of sins during the Holy Ghost feast was the way the inquistion from Lisbon would mock and ridicule the new Christians who recently were forced or willingly converted to Catholicism as kneeling to pray is strictly forbidden and Judaism Thought I would share it with you guys as I find it fascinating
I also stopped in Horta and learned alot about the Flemish culture that is very strong there but for Flemish culture nothing beats São Jorge that place felt like I landed in Holland lol Also on the Northwestern corner of São Miguel the parishes of Santo Antonio and Ajuda de Bretanha were mostly people of Breton (French) , Flemish (Belgian-Dutch) and Tras os montanos
For me thought the best spot was Faro and Portimão those two places were ********ing awesome lol the Algarve is the best
lol all trolling aside I studied sociology and was part of the Azorean Heritage club and worked with notable scholars like Jane Garber and Gabe Galambo and also worked with a Rabbi from Lisbon that runs a congregation in Viriginia who also writes for several economic papers in Portugal aswell as working with Jose de Mello a historian in P.Delgada It was a great program and opened my eyes alot glad I did it alot of the documents found at the redone synagogue had letter sent fron places like Fall River MA and Newport RI and Lisbon.
Well thats good. I took a course on Portuguese history and culture during my undergraduate , one of my faviourte courses I got to take . Professor was from Azores as well. Got an A in the course , my paper had to do with portuguese colonization of India.