Dr. Eric Conway writes:
Hello all,
After
over a week of successful concerts in Spain, we travel to Portugal
today. One big decision was whether to go to another completely
different region in Spain - the beautiful Barcelona region in the north
of Spain with a heavy French influence, or go to Portugal, for a
relatively short look at totally different culture. We decided to sing
in Portugal. This may be our only opportunity for us ever visit Portugal
and share the music of the Morgan State University choir with this
country, given the relative small size of the country. And yes,
Portugal is a much different look at the Iberian/Andalusian region with
some history that is quite significant for an HBCU. We left this
morning for Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal.
We
had a six hour drive to Portugal in total with a layover in Lagos on
the southern coast of the country after three hours. Currently, Lagos’
main industry is tourism, with many persons in Europe traveling to this
community for their beautiful beaches and restaurants. If we were to
sail a ship directly East of Lagos, we might end up in New York City!
Lagos
for us was significant, due to being the country that introduced
slavery from Africa to Europe. Historically, Lagos was the center of
the Portuguese renaissance due to acquiring great wealth due to their
slave trade. Sailors from Lagos were the first to reach the coast of
Western Africa and bring back 244 slaves to Lagos in 1444. The rest is
history! The sailors in Lagos were the first to be enthusiastic
slave-catchers!
Although
we did not have time, we saw a Portuguese slave museum sharing the
story of the first slaves in Europe - Mercado de Escravos (slave
market). Lagos had one of the largest slave markets in all of Europe.
We all chuckled when our guides asked us all to meet after lunch at the
slave market! He had no idea what he was saying to African Americans.
We
had an additional three hour drive to Lisbon. After checking into our
last hotel, within an hour we were on our way to dinner and with limited
sightseeing in the city.
Our
excellent guide Kike Mantecón was leaving us after a week to pass us
along to the Lisbon local guide, Teresa. Although the languages of
Spanish and Portuguese are certainly similar, they are enough
differences that he could not lead in Portugal. He was very
knowledgeable and interacted with us with wonderful humor. We found out
that along the trip that he was a big Michael Jackson fan! Prior to
arriving in Lisbon, he said his goodbyes to the group, and proceeded to
sing us a tribute - a Michael Jackson song - I’ll Be There! We all
appreciated his spirit and hope that he will visit Morgan State when he
comes to the U.S. in August to see the 2017 complete lunar eclipse. At
the hotel he gave me a book, in Spanish of course, which tells of his
excursions to India, Nepal and Tibet - which you may acquire at Amazon!
We
have been traveling hard for ten days now and are all getting a little
weary. Tomorrow we will see the main points in Lisbon, sing our only
concert in Lisbon, and prepare for departure home.
EC
P.S.
See link below to our Seville Concert where I attempted to speak in
Spanish - you might find entertaining - especially if you speak a little
Spanish!
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