A brief history of the Portuguese in Guyana

By Stabroek News On In Daily Features |
The Sacred Heart Church in Main Street built for the Portuguese was opened in 1861. It “became the centre of Portuguese celebrations. Fr Schembri introduced the ceremonies dear to the Madeirans – the processions, the establishment of guilds, confraternities and societies and, above all, the Christmas Novena… The processions figured prominently in the life of the Church and touched the lives of the Georgetowners as members of the various confraternities and societies walked through the streets garbed in their colourful regalia…” (Menezes) The building unfortunately burnt down on Christmas Day, 2004.
The Sacred Heart Church in Main Street built for the Portuguese was opened in 1861. It “became the centre of Portuguese celebrations. Fr Schembri introduced the ceremonies dear to the Madeirans – the processions, the establishment of guilds, confraternities and societies and, above all, the Christmas Novena… The processions figured prominently in the life of the Church and touched the lives of the Georgetowners as members of the various confraternities and societies walked through the streets garbed in their colourful regalia…” (Menezes) The building unfortunately burnt down on Christmas Day, 2004.

While on May 5th the 175th Anniversary of Indian Arrival was commemorated, there was another anniversary two days earlier that slipped by unnoticed. May 3rd marked the 178th year since the Portuguese first arrived in this country. Below we reproduce three articles written by the only authority on the Portuguese of Guyana, Professor Mary Noel Menezes, RSM, all of which had been published previously by Stabroek News. All the pictures are courtesy of Prof Menezes.  

By Mary Noel Menezes, RSM

Previously published in
Stabroek News on May 4th, 2010.

On 3rd May 1835, after a voyage of 78 days, the Louisa Baillie docked in Demerara with 40 Madeiran emigrants bound for Pln Thomas of RG Butts and for Plns La Penitence and Liliendaal of James Albuoy. Why did emigrants from a 286-mile island, Madeira, off the coast of Morocco migrate to a continental British colony on the northern tip