It had to happen sometime. Last weekend, after five years of my Chicago life–and for the first time ever in his, Jose visited me in Chicago. That’s ‘joe-ZAY,’ so pronounce it right in your head when you read it. My best friend from my adult years in New York. My Portuguese connection.
A last-minute substitution brings Mariza, Portugal’s most celebrated contemporary fadista, or fado singer, to Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion tomorrow evening to sing with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. Enormous Lusophile that I am, as I write this, I’m still attempting to lift my jaw off the soalho.
One of the things I miss the most about New York City is the palpable presence of a Portuguese community. If Chicago had just one Portuguese restaurant my life would be a lot easier. I certainly never expected to meet the editor of a prominent Portuguese newspaper at a Greektown reception.