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Mayor (in office) of São Vicente,
Members of the Cape Verde and Portuguese Governments,
Speaker of the Municipal Assembly,
Aldermen,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Please allow me to address a very friendly greeting to Madam Mayor of São Vicente, to whom I want to thank, with great gratification, all she has done for the success of my visit and to whom I wish a very quick recovery.

It is with great joy that I return to São Vicente and to Mindelo, a city that exhibits, with pride, the vitality of its culture and the dynamism of its inhabitants. A vitality and a dynamism which are yet more outstanding, a joy which is almost moving, if we take into account the path which had to be tread to arrive here. A path of effort and fighting, of sweat and sacrifice.

For years, many many years, the Island of São Vicente, with the aridity of the droughts it suffered, was not an easy place to live in. The settlement in this island was, for this reason, a heroic task.

Throughout centuries there were privations and hunger, lack of employment and emigration, dramas that literature recorded in the immortal pages of works such as “Chiquinho”, by Baltasar Lopes da Silva, or “O Galo Cantou na Baía” (The Cock Sang in Baia), by Manuel Lopes.

São Vicente has approximately eighty thousand inhabitants nowadays and it faces the future with the confidence of those who know that their will is greater than any adversity.

In our days, it is now commonplace to talk about the importance of skill and knowledge as essential components for peoples’ development. The inhabitants of Mindelo understood, before many others, that this was their path. Nobody taught them the value of culture as a factor for progress.

It is not by chance that the books of the first public library of the city, opened in 1880, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Camões, were bought thanks to the donations of the city dwellers. And it is also not by chance that the inhabitants of Mindelo, in 1900, requested that a secondary school be set up here as well as another for the learning of foreign languages. They were hungry for everything but, above all, they were hungry for knowledge. And anxious to do and be better.

Today, everybody praises the cosmopolitanism of São Vicente and the wealth of the cultural environment of this city. They recall that it was from here that the voice of Cesária Évora conquered the international projection that she so justly deserves, opening paths that guarantee to the music of Cape Verde, sung by so many prestigious names, the admiration it enjoys in the five corners of the world. That it is here that reside and work painters and sculptors whose quality and creativity have transcended the borders of this country. That this city is the origin of some of the best literature that Portuguese language produces. That this is where well known festivals are held, such as that which takes place in that idyllic place which is the Baía das Gatas (Cats’ Bay).

This cultural effervescence and the joy we breathe in these streets and squares are owed to the efforts and to the intelligence of the inhabitants of Mindelo. Amongst such difficulties they have found a path. “Claridade” was much more than a movement created by intellectuals in their free time, those “free hours” that gave the name to the poems of Manuel Lopes. “Claridade” is an attitude towards life’s adversities. It is the expression of those who do not resign to the bitterness of the land, of those who aspire to a better future. And, above all, the indomitable attitude of those who are well aware of what they want and what they have to accomplish to achieve it.

Mindelo bet on knowledge and culture. For many years the sole Barlavento (Windward – the name by which this part of the Cape Verde archipelago is known) secondary school existed here. Young people from the other islands came to São Vicente, to learn how to become better. Baltasar Lopes was teacher and Principal in the Mindelo Secondary School, and “Chiquinho”, his fictional character, followed in his steps. Great individualities studied in Mindelo, such as Amílcar Cabral and Pedro Pires.

Mindelo bet on its vocation as a harbour centre, as a capital of culture, as a pole of attraction for trade and services, Out of a barren and deserted land, a cosmopolitan and enterprising city grew, where the charm of its rich historical heritage cohabits with works and projects that point decisively towards the future.

«Work and Discipline» are the mottos of this city. There are few of these where the flaunted watchword is so appropriate to the character of its inhabitants. Before you, I bow to the memory of those who built this Mindelo and pay tribute to your effort, your “Claridade”, your example.

Thank you very much