Lady Madeira Saudade

Book excerpt: In the de Oliveira Evora family, it was a tradition for the women to keep a journal to record life’s events. On November 14, 2007, no ordinary day for the family, Lady Madeira passed, knowingly ending centuries of a federation of ancestors who had developed a dynasty with an empire and died like it: a testament to contradictions. In a compelling intergenerational history extracted from journals and oral stories, Viberto Rodrigues traces the roots of this Portugese family from Lisbon to Madeira, England, Brazil, and the United States of America. After detailing their experiences as early settlers of the island of Madeira, he discloses how the family used slave labor in their sugar cane plantations in Brazil, funded their global business with Jewish capital, and assisted refugees fleeing to the Americas during the second World War. Rodrigues also shares glimpses into how a family member worked with the World Health Organization to eradicate malaria in the Amazon, how their close relationship with military regimes led the family to seek refuge in the United States in the 1980s, how the last member of the family searched for her Jewish father, and much more. Lady Madeira Saudade is the fascinating intergenerational history of a Portugese family extracted from journals and oral stories.