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Title
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Richard Machado Interview
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Description
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Richard Machado was born on the island of Flores, Azores and emigrated with his family as a young child to Central California. A leader in the field of agriculture, Richard Machado has contributed to the Valley and the Portuguese-American community in a multitude of ways and keeps his heritage to the Azores by visiting his native island and promoting it locally.
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Creator
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Machado, Richard
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McCoy, Kelley
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Relation
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Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute
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Date
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12-17-2019
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Identifier
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SCUAD_pbbi_00011
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extracted text
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Richard Machado: Richard, middle name Corvelo, Machado
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Kelley McCoy: Were you named after anyone, Richard?
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Richard Machado: No, although
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middle name Corvelo is given generally from my,
you know, mother's maiden name. That was kind
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of the naming schema then, that you always took
on your maiden name. So with all my siblings,
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we're all Corvelos for the middle names. Later,
when you do your baptism, you get an additional
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saint's name. But birth name is that.
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Kelley McCoy: When were you born?
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Richard Machado: Born? January
the 28th of 1947.
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Kelley McCoy: And where were you born?
Richard Machado: Born on the beautiful Island of
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Flores, Azores in the village of Fajazinha.
Kelley McCoy: When did your family
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immigrate to the United States?
Richard Machado: We came in about 1949. We entered
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the U.S. in January, in fact. January the 22nd of
1949. We came from Flores to the Island of Santa
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Maria. And then from there, we went there by boat.
From there, we flew to Nova Scotia, spent a night
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in Nova Scotia. And then by plane to New York
and a night in New York and then by train from
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New York to California, my mother, and seven of
children. So myself and my six siblings. My twin
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sister and I were only 23 months old at the time.
My oldest brother was 16. So, there was a 15-year
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difference between our families. My parents had
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in a row, and then a big gap and the
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set of twins. So we -- and so my older brothers
and sisters tended to be a lot like second
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fathers and mothers took good care of us.
Kelley McCoy: So did your mother and you and
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your siblings meet your father over here?
Richard Machado: Yeah, my father was already here.
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So my father had come actually -- have a pretty
long history of an association. My grandfather,
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actually my father's father, received his American
citizenship papers in Shasta County, California
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in the city of Redding in 1883. And I have those
original documents, I didn’t bring with me today.
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But I have those original documents. And he did
what a lot of early some Azoreans did was to come
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here earn money, and with the intent of going
back, buy more property, making a better life in
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the Azores. Many of them stayed. Some did go back.
In my father -- grandfather's case, he went back.
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And when my -- and my father was born there and
because my grandfather had been a naturalized
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American citizen, my father became naturalized.
But not naturalized but natural-born American
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citizen. And so, my grandfather wanted to return
back to the U.S. He was there. He went back. So
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now, I think things are better. So he came back to
the U.S., but my grandmother did not want to come.
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She did not want to leave her family into the
unknown. So my grandfather came back by himself,
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made a life here by himself and my
father stayed as a young boy with his
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mother until he became of age. And around age 23,
my father decided to come to the U.S. And he came
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with some friends of his, whose fathers had done
the same thing, had come and they had citizenship.
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So he had no problem. He had an American passport.
Came over. And he was single at the time, although
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he knew, he knew my mother. He -- he went back and
forth. Worked here for a while in the Bay Area,
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and went back, married my mother. And then
the first family -- five children were born.
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And after, after the birth of that -- the
last of the five, which was my brother, Tony,
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in late 1939 -- my dad decides to come back
to the U.S. again, leaving my mother and the
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siblings there to come earn money, do what his
father originally was going to do, which was to
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come back, buy more land. Now, you got five
children. You know, you need more land to,
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you know, to, to create a better
life and to feed them basically.
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And so he -- he came here and was here all during
the year-- the war years, and then returned.
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And that's when my -- my twin sister and I were
born. He was gone almost five years. So, I said
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he had a lot of romance for mom when he got back.
So they got a set of twins side of the deal. And
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so -- but I think he soon found that having been
here that -- now we have seven children. I think,
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you know, I'm an American citizen. I see what's
going on in the U.S. Life is -- life is still
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pretty hard in the Azores at that time. So it was
time to bring everybody here. Plus, my father had
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a sister already, an older sister, already living
here in Fresno County. I really think that if-- it
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had been my father and maybe only two children,
and maybe if he hadn't had so many children, he
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would have gone back to the Bay Area. He liked the
Bay Area. And there are a lot of Portuguese around
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the Bay Area, San Leandro … Other areas, San
Jose, have a lot of Portuguese immigrants from the
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Azores that were there. But he wanted to be close
to family. So he had his sister and some other
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family members here. And although -- and so we
were kind of in a rural area, you know, of this
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which in everything was agriculturally based. So
the Valley was agriculture, which was just kind
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of a natural tie end. So we came here.
Kelley McCoy: So when you and your mother
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and your siblings came over to join your
father you settled in Fresno County?
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Richard Machado: We settled in Fresno County
initially, made a couple of moves. We were there
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on a dairy, I think, in Hanford for awhile but
initially settled in Fresno County. My dad bought
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a little ranch. And then at that time, there
were the -- there were the -- the five of us
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or the seven of us, the children. And so, we -we settled in there and in the eastern area of
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Fresno, and pretty much remained. My sister,
twin sister, still lives in the house that
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we -- that we first moved into. We were there.
It's been remodeled and updated, of course, but
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she still lives on that property.
Kelley McCoy: So then, was your family
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then an agriculture family in terms of
[inaudible]. You mentioned a ranch.
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Richard Machado: Yeah. We -- we-- yes and
no. Well, my dad was not a full-time farmer,
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more of a part-time farmer. He never really
liked agriculture a lot. But my brothers
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and myself all had, you know, an
affinity for the, you know, for the land.
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And my dad actually because in his early days in
the Bay Area, he had worked on the ferries. You
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know, before the Golden Gate Bridge and before
the Bay Bridge, you know, the ferries were big,
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the only methods of transportation from the
East Bay to San Francisco. And so, he worked
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in-- he worked in the ferries and around, you
know, and around some steel mills. And then later,
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on his second trip during the war, he was
all there during World War II. He worked
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in Richmond on delivery ships and became a
certified welder. And -- and so that was work
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that he'd had. And so, when -- when we brought the
family, he went to work for a company here called
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[inaudible] Company, a steel company later became
Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel that he worked as a
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certified welder there. And then he had the ranch,
small ranch, you know, and what we grew up on. But
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my older brother, Fred, who went in the Navy for
four years, when he returned, he started farming
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and grew really a piece of rental property into
a major farm operation. It was one of the -- one
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of the great farms of Fresno County.
Kelley McCoy: You've mentioned how your brothers
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and you had an affinity for the land.
Richard Machado: Yeah.
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Kelley McCoy: Can you explain a
little bit how that worked?
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Richard Machado: Well, I, I think,
you know, growing up, then, you know-85
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growing up on a farm of any size, when you see
things that grow, put a seed in the ground and
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something comes up and, you know, you can, you
can benefit from that com-- crop or commodity,
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you know, whether it's simply a backyard garden
with vegetables, which we had. I think we had
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virtually everything in the back-- in the
backyard garden. Although I didn't start,
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you know, my affinity for agriculture was from an
early age. I knew I wanted to be a farmer. When
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you go to the -- you know, you're in the 8th
grade, they ask you what you want to be, I want
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to be a farmer. And my mother would say, no, you
don't want to be a farmer. It's too hard of work.
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And then -- and then as we progressed and, and
went on to college, my brothers were discouraging
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me from -- from farming. You know, it was still
back and, you know, in the '60s, late '60s. And
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farming was -- was -- was coming about it, yeah,
but it was still a little hard, hard work. And,
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you know, their advice was go in where you can
work in an office in an air conditioned facility.
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You don't want to be out here on this hot, dry,
you know, hot farming operation. But -- And so,
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to some degree, I took their advice. But it's one
of those things about you. Can't ever take the boy
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off the farm. So my affinity for agriculture came
back. It -- it came out as full circle where now,
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you know, I do a lot in -- My whole life is
based on agriculture. So, I like the symbol that,
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you know, my job depends on AG. And so
agriculture is still a big part of my life.
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Kelley McCoy: But tell me a little bit,
you know. When you came to this country,
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you weren't even two years old yet. So
do you have any memory at all -103
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Richard Machado: No.
Kelley McCoy: -- of what
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your life used to be?
Richard Machado: Life there did
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not other than, you know, countless
stories and growing up. I mean,
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we were in a household where we, you know, we
spoke Portuguese every day at home. I attended
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Madison Elementary. As a kindergartner with my
sister, we didn't speak one word of English.
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We went to school and there were no, you
know, no special programs. Total immersion.
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And which I think today is still the best way to
do that. There’s too many crutches I think that
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are being provided today and people do not immerse
as quickly. But -- And, and there was always,
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you know, either as there have been, you know,
always helpful, friendly people. Neighbors.
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I can recall my parents, you know, going to
parent-teacher conference, right? Well, you know,
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my dad spoke pretty good English, but broken. And
those early days, my mother, you know, did not.
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But there was someone that went with, with them,
and we got it all done. And so, you know, there's
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ways to work through all of those things. So,
those were things that I remember. But growing up,
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you know, we had -- I have a very loving family,
you know. And we had a lot of relatives. It
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was -- there was always Sunday visits. And there
were those visits where, you know, you didn't call
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someone and ask them. If they're home, just go
over there. If they were there, fine. If not, you
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went on to the next house, you know. And if you
did show up there, there was always something to
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eat, drink, and, and story. So my parents visited
a lot of their friends from these doors that were,
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you know, in different parts of the community. And
because my older brothers and sisters were almost,
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you know, on their way developing their
own lives, it was my twin sister and I
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went with mom and dad. And then we had to sit
there in many places and just for hours and listen
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to people telling stories of the old country. Some
of my best recollections now, even as a teenager,
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was sitting at the Portuguese festivals
underneath the shade tree, and my dad talking
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with his friends, you know, about things that they
missed in the old country. And I'll never forget
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the -- my dad's recollection of missing a thing
called lapas. Anybody who's watching this,
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and who's been to the Azores, knows lapas. They
were lipids. They're the kind of indigenous to the
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Azores. But they're -- the -- they are sea urchins
that attaches to the rock. They're small. And
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they're generally grilled with garlic and olive
oil and just wonderful to eat. And you can't find
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them anywhere else or you can't find them in the
quality you find them in the Azores. They'd always
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talk about missing eating those. Well, you know,
we didn't have them here. And I never -- I never
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had a chance to eat those until, until such time
as I made my, my first return trip to the Azores.
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And that's the first thing that I wanted to eat.
And it was -- it was really good [laughs].
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Kelley McCoy: Well, you're talking
about the lapas. Were there any
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other things that you recall, especially
of your mother? What was it like adjusting
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to life in the United States for her?
Richard Machado: Well, for her it was -- it was
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more challenging. She didn't speak English. And
she was not an American citizen, unlike my father,
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who was, you know, a natural-born because my
grandfather had become naturalized. And so,
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it made all of the children same way. We had
a natural U.S. citizenship, but my mother had
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to actually go through citizenship classes and
-- and become an American citizen. And she was
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a very bright woman. She worked hard. She studied
and she did really well. And we were really proud
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of her when she got her citizenship.
Kelley McCoy: So you mentioned growing up
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speaking Portuguese.
Richard Machado: Mmm-hmm.
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Kelley McCoy: What other traditions did you
maintain from the Azores growing up?
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Richard Machado: Well, I've-- we've-- I mean-- I
think sometimes simplicity of food, you know, it-147
00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:22,320
it's hard to believe that in my lifetime,
although, because I was as young as I was, I don't
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recall it directly. But countless witnesses
and stories from my siblings and my parents,
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when we left our Island of Flores,
there was no -- no electricity at all
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on the island. There was no running water in any
house. There was -- there were no roads, no cars.
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My brothers and sisters grew up reading and
learning to read by an oil lamp, you know,
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that -- and this is in my lifetime. And so life
was -- was very difficult and challenging. And
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it was almost a subsistence life. You work very
hard just basically to survive. And so, when
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opportunities came like to come to the U.S., we
did that. So that was, that was one of the, one of
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the changes, but the maintaining cha-- traditions
were the -- because everything was so simple. The
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garden in the back, where you ate, because there
weren't -- there weren't grocery stores to go buy
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things, you know. You -- you slaughter an animal
once a year and -- and you render it in the fat.
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You keep the, you know, the meat that you caught
or maybe a fresh chicken every once in a while,
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but out of the gardens were the vegetables. And
so, one of the first things we always had from day
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one, when we arrived here, we had great gardens.
And my mother used to make a soup that I love and
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it's very -- it's one of -- one of the national
dishes of -- still of Portugal Azores
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Caldo Verde, green soup. And that was
made from -- that made from any variety of greens,
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from turnip greens to mustard greens to water
crest to whatever the green that was available.
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So that was, that was something that I recall.
Just a simplicity of it. I love it today. I just
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had it two weeks ago in Azores, so.
Kelley McCoy: What new traditions did
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your family adopt when they got here?
Richard Machado: Well, I think, of course, new
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traditions were American. I know a lot of people
refer to themselves as Portuguese-Americans. I
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like to reverse the thing: I'm an American of
Portuguese descent. I mean, I live in the U.S.
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of A. I'm an American citizen. I'm proud of
it. It's the greatest country that God ever,
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ever created. And even though there's wonderful
things about Portugal--I love it dearly--I
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always like to refer as an American of
Portuguese descent. But we, we ended up
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adopting, of course, the traditional things. The
Fourth of July, The Thanksgiving. You know, Christmas
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and those religious holidays were all part of
the Portuguese culture, as well. But those,
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those kinds of traditions were things that -that we, you know, that we embraced. We started,
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of course, as I got into school. And we played
football and baseball. Those were things that went
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down there, you know, and my -- my parents came
to, to watch me play and my sister, as well, we
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participated in, in some of those things. So those
are kind of I would think the things that they
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brought about always -- but always with, you know,
the -- the Portuguese heritage all these going,
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you know, in line of parallel track.
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Kelley McCoy: Do you have children of your own?
Richard Machado: I do. I have three.
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Three daughters. And -- and their mother is
100% Italian. So my daughters are half-Italian
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and half-Portuguese, which couldn't be a
pretty good combination [laughs].
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Kelley McCoy: So of your -- with your three
daughters, how important is it to you that they
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maintain some sense of Portuguese identity?
Richard Machado: Oh, it's very important.
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And they -- they all are -- they have
all bought into that totally. In fact,
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my oldest daughter, Gina, and her husband
Matt live in Visalia.
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And I have two grand-- grand-- I have two grand-I have two granddaughters, Chloe and Alexis. And
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they both have been in the last two years down
in Tulare, taking Portuguese classes and learning
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Portuguese. And although Matt, my son-in-law
is, you know, not an ounce of Portuguese in him
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but they -- the traditions have always been strong
with the girls going to festivals and being around
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our family all the time. And my mother, we have
an annual Machado linguica party that we made. I
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think last year we made about 1,200 pounds of
linguica with 150 people and it turns into a
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big feast day. But they've been doing that since
they were young child-- when my mother was still
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alive. They would help my mother mix, you know,
the ingredients for the linguica. The spices.
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And she never had a recipe. It was always
by smell she put in. She could -- she
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knew exactly what was right. And so, they were
rounded. And they do that. And they have lived
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in the Azores. All -- all of them. My daughter
Lisa, who's a teacher, school teacher went with us
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last year. She's -- she's single and-- but teaches
-- loves-- and she went last year again with us.
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And next year, we're -- all of the girls are
going along with our grandchildren. So we expect
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to have a wonderful family vacation in the Azores,
which I go to -- I've been going since my -- that
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first initial trip about 25 years ago when I first
savored the lapas, I'll never forget that, to just
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about every year going there. And in the last four
consecutive years, I've gone twice. And this year,
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I'll be going twice. I just returned in June. I'll
be going back in -- in August again. So.
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Kelley McCoy: So do you still
have family there?
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Richard Machado: I have a lot of family.
My mother had three sisters who never left
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the island. So their children basically
all stayed there. So I have a lot of first
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cousins. I'm in contact with them all the time.
And -- and today, it's amazing when I mentioned
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that there were no -- there was no electricity,
there was no running water in the house, no cars,
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no roads when I left there. I can go back there
today and sit in my village at Fajazinha in, in my
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cousin's little grocery store. And I have a faster
internet connection than I do here. So, I'm -- I-211
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we're texting all the time. I get, you know,
we get a Messenger where we're -- where we're
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talking visually. So it's a pretty dramatic change
in what's happened in the Azores. Yeah.
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Kelley McCoy: So it sounds like, if I may say,
that you -- you not only have a family connection
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to your island, but a soul connection?
Richard Machado: Absolutely.
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Kelley McCoy: And is it important to you because
-- it sounds like your daughters have inherited
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that, that you've raised them with that.
Richard Machado: Yes.
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Kelley McCoy: Why is it important to you
that they're carrying on that tradition,
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which sounds like it's going to be
cultivated in your grandchildren?
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Richard Machado: Yeah. I-- Well, I think it's
a sense. I mean, obviously I have an Italian
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side as well. And my wife -- I visited Italy
several times. We were there last year for our
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45th wedding anniversary. And-- and so, they have
their Italian side, as well. And then this year,
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there's -- next coming year, when we visit the
Azores in Portugal, they're all going to go to
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Italy, as well. So they're -- they're going to
taste a little bit of their mother’s side. But
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I think having some rich connection, you know,
to culture and some of the traditions -- and,
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of course, those traditions are, you know, the
importance of family and friends, the culinary,
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you know, things of the wonderful foods of both,
of both Italy and Portugal. And Portugal has a
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wonderful -- I watched a program last night, Alan
Zimmerman on Portugal and some of the great foods,
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you know, that -- and there are a lot of the
similarities between mainland Portugal and
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the Azores and stuff. But there are
some things indigenous to the Azores.
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A lot of cookbooks, you know, that -- that
have Portuguese recipes that come both from
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the mainland Portugal and from the Azores.
And Caldo Verde is among the best. It's
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still one of my favorite things.
Kelley McCoy: So let's talk a little bit
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about what brought you to what you're
doing now professionally.
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Richard Machado: Yeah.
Kelley McCoy: You say that
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agriculture--being with the land--has
always kind of been in you. Where did you
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go to college and what did you major in?
Richard Machado: Well, I -- I -- in the days of
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the '60s, we went there with not a lot of -- a lot
of people went off to college. You know, I mean,
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not the college but didn't go away to college a
lot. And I'm a Fresno boy. And so Fresno State
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was, you know, my right direction. And so, I
went there. I majored in -- I had a math -- minor
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in mathematics and then a major in economics, in
ag-economics. And I just thought that was a good
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overall -- you know, you're never quite sure when
you go to college these days. I think today, if
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I were giving a young person advice, I’d tell them
to go off into the military for, you know, for a
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couple of years, get a sense of what he wants
-- come back. And then you kind of know -- who
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knows what they want to be when they're -- you're
18, right? But -- but what that direction and I
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mentioned the coaching from my brothers, that
you don't want to be on these hot farm summers,
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you know, working on a ranch and doing it. There's
better ways to make a -- make a living. Go off and
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work in an office. So I did. I was recruited
right out of college into an insurance field.
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And I spent a few years there, but my heart was
never really in that. It was always -- But the
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other thing that I had a great affinity
for was politics. And so I had the good
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fortune of being able to serve a couple of
governors of California. And so I served in
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the Wilson administration for years
as director of the California Trade and Commerce
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Agency. I got to travel a lot and go out around
the world and travel to Portugal several times
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representing California. So it was a wonderful
experience for me. And so it was -- after that
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experience that the emerging of these, you know,
technology was really exploding, you know. We had
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kind of the vision that the 21st century was
going to be an information-based economy. And so,
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that became, I think, a foresight on what, you
know, what directions were possible, and then
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coming back and trying to tie that to agriculture,
which was still in a very paper mode in terms of
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doing everything that it did. And you compound
that in with governmental regulations that require
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lots of documentation. It was cumbersome. It was
repetitive. And we just knew that there was a
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better way. And so, with the help of a good
partner, we formed and founded our company,
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basically to make agriculture, to give agriculture
a better method for complying with -- with a
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lot of the regulations -- that later expanded
into things like food, safety and others. And
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so our little company grew from a very humble
start in a basement, basically, to a very nice
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international enterprise right now
with about 160 employees.
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Kelley McCoy: Congratulations! How
did you come up with a name?
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Richard Machado: It's funny. It was not our name
originally. We formed our company under -267
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doing what we were doing. We were doing electronic
reporting services. So ERS was kind of our
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company. Let's -- let's -- you know, we're
just kind of call it as it is. And we -- we
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branded our product as Chem File. And so that's
-- we initially were doing regulatory chemical
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finding applications as the state of California
required that. And so -- but it didn't take long.
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We're dealing with some topic within
AG in the food area. They said, nah,
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I don't think you want chemical. No one wants
to hear about chemicals, you know, you
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find. So we've actually found a marketing person
and looking for somebody with the word “AG” in it,
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and “Agrian” was a registered website that nobody
was using. So we found it. We liked the name. It
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was catchy. My partner is Armenian. I like to
sometimes think that he thought that maybe the
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Agrian was more Armenian! But it was a -- it was
just a -- when that -- So that changed our name
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and changed our whole focus.
Kelley McCoy: So what are you most
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proud of in terms of what you've
accomplished professionally?
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Richard Machado: Well, I think -- I think I
-- I -- I liked my years in public service. I
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think it was something. I think we -- we helped
a lot of communities in California-- part of my
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job description here was in the-- surrounded
a lot around agriculture. And again, it was a
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lot-- it was the lynch into-- to the enterprise
we have today. But we started with the idea that
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I was recruiting companies to do value-added
agricultural processing in the Valley, whether
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it was one out of the state to the other. So
that meant when you had tomatoes, that you grew,
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that those tomatoes did not leave California
unless you did everything you could to them.
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You put them in a can, in a mug, and you cook
them and you made sauce, and you didn't ship them
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off somewhere else. It was so -- it was helping
to vertically integrate California agriculture
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into the food processing. And that's -- again,
that was a -- that was kind of a forerunner of
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watching and seeing a need for data and, and
that led to that. So that was a very -- that
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was very important time in my life. I think
it gave me not only the relationships and the
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connections but it gave me the knowledge, I think,
to look at what opportunities were coming. That's,
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you know, that term that we pulled out
of the 21st century, really being an
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information knowledge-based economy came from
those -- those days and that vision. So.
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Kelley McCoy: So I only have
a couple more questions.
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Richard Machado: Sure.
Kelley McCoy: So they're kind of identity
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questions, so to speak. And they aren't things
that we often think about. But then when we do,
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we're kind of amazed by what
we discover about ourselves.
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To what extent do you believe that being an
American of Portuguese descent has shaped the
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way that you've moved through the world, Richard,
both professionally as well as personally?
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Richard Machado: I think I am part of it. I
think there's a couple of things. But one,
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I think was--and I attributed a lot of this,
of course, to my -- my parents, my mother in
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particular, but even to my siblings--who gave me a
great sense of self-confidence. I think, you know,
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always encouragement and -- and -- and promotion
that you can do things. And so I -- I got engaged
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from the time I was in grammar school until
-- everything I can do in a high school and to
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college and politics. I mean I just-- and that,
and that was-- I think that that was part of that
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family culture, Portuguese family culture,
encouraging. My mother and my father were both
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big believers in education. And even though we
came from a very small rural village in Fajazinha,
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Flores, they had wonderful schools. Great,
great books. My mother was -- was just
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an expert on writing and wrote beautifully and
could read everything. I get -- my one regret was
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that I -- I read Portuguese now, but it's
challenging but I -- I -- I get several
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newspapers. I'm-- I listened to the Portuguese
station RTP, always trying to perfect, you know,
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my, my language skills. When not practicing
every day. It's -- it's a challenge. I know that
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spending just by the time I spend two weeks there,
the old country I'm -- I'm, I'm on my way. I just
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wish I could spend more time. But the -- so that
kind -- that kind of shaped, you know, the thing
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for knowledge and the encouragement. And I think
it -- it just guided me and then the sense of hard
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work. I mean, work was always something that you
needed to do and responsibility, honesty. And I
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think you incorporate that last one was faith that
you get, you know, that you -- your faith comes
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to you. But I mean, it starts with the family
introducing it. My mother was very religious.
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We went to church many times where my ears were
turned off. I -- my -- if I made too much noise or
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I got poked, you know, it was-- you know, it was-and it was-- and it just helps build all of your,
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you know, your personality and character.
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Kelley McCoy: So last question
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what does being an American of
Portuguese descent mean to you?
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Richard Machado: It means that I
have a clear identity to the history,
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you know, a direct path to where ancestry
came from. I mean, people today I think
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long for that. You see the growth of these DNA
tests, you see Ancestry, 23andMe, all of these.
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There’s longing, I think, for people to have an
understanding of, you know, who I am and where
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did I come from and how will I expand. What are
the things that make up, make that up for me?
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I think I'm fortunate and that I have, you
know, that clear lineage back to, you know,
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my grandfather and great grandfather's days.
Exactly where I was at. And many of them were in
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that very same village, and that very same island
in the Azores. So you, you know, you were tied
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there for hundreds and hundreds of years. And -and I've -- I'm a participant in both Ancestry and
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23andMe. I'm surprised to see linka-- you know,
some of these linkages that go back even further,
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but they're directly tied to that. So it means
to me, I think that the spirit -- I'm a traveler.
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I love to travel. I like to think that a lot
of my traveling around the world -- I've been
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to a lot of other places, and always eager to go
at the drop of a hat is part of that spirit of
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the Portuguese during the years of the discoveries
when they got on ships, when everyone thought that
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the end of the Earth was flat, took courageous
people to get on a ship to go out there and
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prove that it wasn't flat, right? You had to keep
going. And so, I hope that, you know, that part
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of what I have as -- as an American of Portuguese
descent, is that I got that spirit, you know, that
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the Portuguese were well-known for in the great
days of the discoveries running in my blood.
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Kelley McCoy: Thank you so much for your time.
Is there anything that I didn't ask of it?
