Mineola has solidified an agreement with Estarreja, Portugal, opening the doors to cultural exchange programs between the two communities.
The agreement, dubbed Sister-City Agreement, is the first ever of its kind to be signed in the village’s history. The idea of this agreement was born in October when representatives from Estarreja, Portugal — where Paul Pereira, the mayor of Mineola, was born — spent a week in the village during an exchange program. Diamantino Sabina, mayor of Estarreja, then invited Pereira and village trustees to attend the 100th anniversary of the Volunteer Fire Department of Estarreja
“They got to spend some time with our fire department, they visited a firehouse in New York City, they visited the fire training academy in Bethpage, they visited the Nassau County Police training facility, and they trained with our firemen,” Pereira said. “They got to see the inner workings of our fire department and it went really well.”
When the delegation visited, the Estarreja Fire Department was in the middle of completing its own training ground. Pereira said they received inspiration on how to complete their training facility after viewing the one in Mineola.
During the trip, Sabina invited Mineola delegates to attend the volunteer fire department’s 100th anniversary on July 13. Pereira, along with the chief of the Mineola Fire Department, the administrator of the Mineola Fire Department, and other fire department members attended the celebration. There were also Mineola residents on vacation there who attended the event.
In a reverse version of Pereira’s journey, Sabina emigrated from New York to Estarreja when he was 10. Pereira said he has mutual friends with Sabina, who was born in Yonkers.
“I was born there and I moved here in elementary school so when we were talking about this, we said, ‘Why not extend this beyond just the fire department?’,” Pereira said. “And in Europe in general, this tradition of having sister cities or these twinning ceremonies is relatively common and we took the 100th anniversary of the fire department and used that to take off from there.”
John Gibbons, Mineola Village attorney, drafted the language of the agreement and on July 12, the agreement was signed in both English and in Portuguese.
“There lives an expressive Portuguese community with strong connections to the land of origin and its president is a natural from Veiros,” the Municipal of Estarreja Facebook says. “Village of Mineola and Estarreja are even closer. It was signed this morning, the Twinning Commitment between the two municipalities, in the Paços do Council Building, by the President of the Municipal Council of Estarreja, Diamantino Sabina, and the Mayor of Mineola, Paulo Pereira.”
At the ceremony, both communities exchanged village and city flags. Mineola will raise Estarreja’s flag at village hall and Estarreja will raise Mineola’s flag at their town hall every July 12.
“Our hope is that this will not only be a symbolic agreement of good faith and friendship, but we hope that it actually does produce some beneficial exchanges in the future,” Pereira said. “The junior fire department comes to mind, cultural organizations, athletic teams, perhaps even economic benefits if a company is looking to plant their flag in the United States or in Portugal.”
The parish priest and citizens at the senior center from Pereira’s hometown in Veiros, a hamlet of Estarreja, will come to Mineola in November. Pereira said he hopes the mayor also attends this trip so that he can continue to have conversations about future events or future activities that he’d like to organize between the two communities.