It is a land of adoption little known to the Portuguese diaspora. On the island of Groix (Morbihan), off the coast of Lorient, more than 200 Groisillons, out of a total population of 2,200 inhabitants, are from Portugal, making the “pebble” their heartland. Symbol of this community landed 60 years ago, eucalyptus trees, planted by the first Portuguese on the island, have grown between the pines.
In a small bar, Alice Da Silva juggles fluently between French and Portuguese. Originally from Vila Nova de Gaia, opposite Porto, she arrived in Groix in 1972 with her parents and her brother Victor after a journey on foot to Brittany. “We arrived here on a Monday. On Tuesday I was already put in school and on Wednesday my father started to work. We were amazed by the island, it was paradise here, ”says the fifty-year-old.
The family came to join the grandfather, who arrived on the island in the 1960s to escape the poverty which then ravaged Portugal and the four years of compulsory military service imposed by the dictatorship of Salazar, at the time of the colonial wars, as in Angola. He was part of a group of 16 Portuguese who fled the country illegally and who landed in Groix, a plot of land 3 km by 8 km, to join the construction site of a dam on an island still devoid of running water. .
“A lot of them are entrepreneurs”
For Victor, “we must never forget that our grandparents and our parents are migrants. They had mad courage to land in France with nothing at all. The Da Silva brothers and cousins, Texeira, Rodrigues, form the first Portuguese diaspora on the island.
“When they arrived, they were featherless. We housed them, we prepared food for them, did their laundry… As they were very religiously oriented, like the islanders and the Bretons, they were immediately accepted,” says Jean-Paul Legoff, Groisillon for generations.
The dam built, the Portuguese remain: between water purification and the construction of new housing estates, there is no shortage of work. Some marry women from Groisillon, set up their construction companies and hire family members from the country. “There are first one or two who came then they attracted their wives, their sisters, their cousins, their brothers…” summarizes the mayor of the island, Dominique Yvon. “Today, a large number are entrepreneurs and contribute greatly to the local economy. Many have taken French nationality: they are completely assimilated Groisillons. »
Between two stone houses surrounded by navy blue shutters, a sign displays “Da Silva, father and son”, one of the two main construction companies on the island with “Texeira Construction”, which each employs around 15 workers.
“I will always be grateful to France”
Paulo Mendonça, a former driver from Porto, arrived in 2005 to work in construction. He is part of this new wave of Portuguese arrivals who then set up his own company, “Paulo Mécanique”, and became the one “without whom in Groix, all the cars would break down”, according to his friend Jean-Paul Legoff. Since then, the man with the brown beard no longer sees himself living elsewhere: “It is France that has given me the most and for that, I will always be grateful to him. »
His son, Édouard, is educated at the college of the island which brings together 28 students. Does he feel Portuguese, French or Groisillon? “During a football match, I am for Portugal. But my home is here, in Groix. »
Impossible to choose for Alice Da Silva: “When I am in Groix, I have the impression of being Portuguese and in Portugal, they make me feel French: I feel doubly foreign. But one thing is certain, each time she leaves the island, a force attracts her like a magnet in the middle of this wild nature of heather and gorse. “The pebble is like a member of my family”. And for Alice, the family, “it’s precious”.