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Father TeixeiraA message about the oldest Portuguese man in Macau, Father Teixeira. As reported by Sean Fifer and David Haase March 6, 1998
Father Teixeira was born in 1912 and is currently 86 years old. He became a priest in 1934 and was 22 years old at this time. Everybody was wondering why he hadn't moved back to Portugal, his birthplace. We understood after he said, "If I go to Portugal now I will not know anyone." When he was 12 years old he moved to Macau. His most memorable event was becoming a priest in 1934. " I love my job," he said in pretty good English with a Portuguese accent. "To connect souls. To make people good."
If you are wondering why Father Teixeira came to Macau, it was to become a priest. The seminaries in Portugal all charged money to attend, and the one in Macau was entirely free. So, although he knew he wanted to become a priest he came to Macau to study instead of staying in Portugal. We also found out that he is fluent in French, German, Chinese, Malay, English, and Portuguese. Then we started to ask less personal questions. For example, we asked how long Macau has been a colony of Portugal. He replied that it had been a colony for 441 years. His response, whenever we answered one of his questions correctly was, "You are veddy clever boy," in his Portuguese accent. I started to remember the recent headlines in the newspaper and asked him about the explosions in Macau. He says he is not worried at all. He has never seen any crime in Macau for the 86 years of his life. We finished the interview with the question, "What was the biggest change that has happened ever since you got to Macau?" "When I got here, it was quiet and tranquil. Now it’s developed and fast paced." As we left, Father Teixeira gave everyone in the room a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. We got some pictures of him and left with smiles on our faces. Report by David Haase Assisted by Sean Fifer |
"The
world belongs to those who love it most and show it though their actions."
That is a quote by Father Teixeira, who claims he is "the happiest man
in Macau. "If you don't know already, he is considered the world’s best
historians on Macau and Southern China. He is also an exceptional author
for he has written 125 books, and yet five more are still to be published.
We happened to be able to sneak a few questions to him during an
hour-long visit on Friday morning, March 6th just a couple hours
before we left Macau to return to Hong Kong after four days of studying
Macau.
The
saddest thing that has ever happened to him had to be World War II on Macau,
because he saw so many people die from starvation. One question was, "What
was the occupation of Macau like during World War II?" He replied by saying,
"Macau was not occupied at this time." He claimed that Macau was never
occupied during WWII because some very influential Japanese had settled
in Brazil, a country with strong ties to Portugal. Father Teixeira says
although no-one really knows why Japan did not occupy Macau during the
war he believes Brazil threatened to freeze the bank accounts of the wealthy
Japanese who were living in their country if Japan did occupy this Portuguese
Colony.