As the Lusitania Islands colour the Port-Lay setting for the 23rd edition of the Groix International Island Film Festival, a history spanning several decades comes to the fore. Here, four nautical miles off the coast of Lorient, resides a community of islanders of Portuguese origin. The Greeks know this, and between 5 and 10% of them come from or descend from the country of fado. A rough estimate varies from town to town. “We hear this number often but it is difficult to estimate.”
Testimony of Victor da Silva, son of a Portuguese immigrant from Groix, listened to by some festival-goers during the radio siesta broadcast on Thursday in Viviège, initiated by Radio Paleses. The excerpt is from the program 3°28 West, produced by Grisilon volunteers.
On the rock, many people focused on this privacy. Indeed, in 2007, the film “Moradores”, filmed between 2001 and 2005, directed by Jane Driessen, told their story through several testimonies. It was broadcast as a prelude to Fifig in July.
“Arriving on this island was amazing.”
The first Portuguese arrived in 1965 to build the Port Melen dam. They were part of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who fled their country, under the dictatorship of António d'Oliveira Salazar at the time. About 800,000 of them put their bags in France, mainly in the cities, but also in other places, even Groix… “For my parents, who were fleeing the dictatorship, arriving on this island was amazing,” says Alice da Silva. Arriving in Groix at the age of two. If she has no memory of life in Portugal, she has spent her whole life on the island of Morbihan and recounts her migration: “We arrived on a Tuesday, on Thursday I was at school, we had a lot of advantages here. The film “Moradores” in particular tells of this integration through work. “The Grocilons were sailors, they didn't know how to build,” testifies one of the residents. A contribution of knowledge that quickly allowed families to find a place for themselves.
“I love my island, but I wanted to see somewhere else.”
In the documentary, little faces appear on the screen. They were still children at the time, but the third generation is now grown up. Two of them, Victoria and Céline, are now 23 years old. They have also spent their entire lives in Groix, until they were 18, before leaving. If some of their cousins have entered the family business, like other children on the island, the reality of the parents is not theirs. Victoria claims to have suffered discrimination because of her origins, “We went through it during our childhood. Especially at Euro 2016, it was complicated. When I say I am from Groix, people say: No, you are Portuguese. Complex experiences, all in a world that is sometimes isolated and narrow. Everything is known here.” “We have been with the same group since kindergarten,” says Céline. “I love my island, but I wanted to see somewhere else.” The need for something else, but also for work, made them land on the continent. “If you want to be a nurse, or practice law or something like that… you can’t stay in Groix,” breathes Victoria. Today, she lives in Lorient, as a saleswoman, and Céline in Paris, where she works as a nurse. Both are proud to be French, Portuguese, Breton and Groisel, and want to continue carrying on their family history. “Moradores is an important film for us. I still show it to my closest people, there are people I love and it’s important to know where we come from,” says Céline.
