Mineola-to-Portugal exchange program links students and firefighters across continents

From a yellow castle atop a mountain nearly 1,500 feet in the air, Michaela Palumbo could see various corners of Portugal: Buildings. Farmland. Bodies of water.

In that moment, the then-Mineola High School junior tapped into a part of her identity that had been latent, she recalled.

“I knew I was always Portuguese, but I didn’t really know what it was like to be Portuguese,” she said. “I didn’t realize how beautiful that country was.”

It was April 2023, and Palumbo was among 21 Mineola students on a foreign exchange trip to Portugal organized by Mineola Mayor Paul Pereira. In recent years, the mayor, a Portuguese immigrant and a history teacher at Mineola High School, has spearheaded several exchange programs between his native country and the village. Mineola is home to about 1,300 residents of Portuguese descent, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2022.

The exchange program has seen students and firefighters from Mineola and Portugal experience each other's cultures for short periods of time. In April 2025, the exchange will continue when 18 students from Murtosa, a municipality near Estarreja, head to Mineola.

The program has helped members of the Portuguese diaspora build relationships with people from their ancestral home. Pereira hopes the exchanges will help break down barriers between people from the two areas.

On Nov. 19, Pereira welcomed Diamantino Sabina, mayor of Estarreja, the Portuguese city where Pereira was born, to Mineola Village Hall for the unveiling of a signed “sister city” agreement between the two municipalities.

“I think many of us in this room are grateful that we have a foot in each of these cultures,” Pereira said. “These communities are better for it.”

'A TikTok room!'

The Portuguese influence in Mineola is strong. There are nearly a dozen Portuguese restaurants in Mineola, Pereira said, as well as a folklore dance group and a soccer team. Escola Júlio Dinis, a Portuguese language school on Jackson Avenue run by Palumbo’s mother, Cina, gives young people a taste of the culture.

But there is no substitute for experiencing real-life, cultural immersion. 

In October 2022, Palumbo’s family hosted Leonor Santos, a Lisbon resident around her age, as part of an exchange with the United Lisbon International School. Palumbo recalled Santos was awestruck from the moment she walked into Palumbo’s house, where she geeked out over the box of Lucky Charms in the kitchen. Then she saw Palumbo’s bedroom, which resembled what she’d seen of American teens' rooms on social media, with a swing hanging from the ceiling.

“She said, ‘I’m in a TikTok room! I’m in a TikTok room!’ over and over,” Palumbo said.

The students spent the first day shadowing Mineola students through a regular school day. The group then spent the rest of the week touring the area, including a trip to New York City to see a Broadway show. 

The next year, Palumbo and her classmates traveled to Lisbon, where she stayed with Santos’ family in nearby Almada. She said she was struck by the “relaxed” pace of life there.

“Everything in New York is always, like, on the go,” Palumbo said. “When I was in Portugal, everything was moving so much slower that I was much more nervous. I was like ‘We’re going to be late, we’re going to be late.’ But it wasn’t like that at all. Everyone was so friendly there.”

Firefighters swap, too

In October 2023, four members of the Estarreja fire department — known as the Bombeiros Voluntários de Estarreja — flew to New York, where they embedded with the Mineola Fire Department for about 10 days.

The Mineola firefighters showed their guests around their firehouse and brought them to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan. One day, the Estarreja firefighters participated in Mineola’s weekly training at the Nassau County Fire Service Academy in Old Bethpage. They ate at Portuguese restaurants every day, but it was a meal at Memories 2 Bar & Grill in Williston Park that Joaquim Rebelo, chief of the Estarreja fire department, will remember most.

“I really enjoyed eating traditional American food like burgers and chicken wings,” Rebelo said through a translator.

Rebelo said the two departments had formed a “brotherhood.” Domingos Magalhaes, chief of the Mineola Fire Department, was born in Portugal. He wore a red jacket inscribed with Bombeiros Estarreja — which translates to Estarreja Firefighters — in white lettering at the sister city ceremony.

Then, in July, some of Magalhaes’ department visited Estarreja. Denis McCann, a Mineola firefighter, earned a new nickname — Super Bock — for his favorite choice of Portuguese beer.

“We were out together having dinner and relaxing, just hanging out at night, sitting around and joking around,” McCann said. “It got emotional for a couple of our other guys. It was hard for them to say goodbye.”

Soon, those bonds might pass over to the next generation. In July, Mineola’s junior fire department, whose members range in age from 14 to 17, are likely to visit the Estarreja juniors.

In November, Father Jorge Gonçalves, the parish priest in Veiros, the hamlet in Estarreja where Pereira’s family is from, said Mass at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Mineola.

Many in the congregation were familiar with Gonçalves: They are originally from Estarreja and still spend time there. After Mass in Mineola, many stayed late to embrace Gonçalves.

“I could notice in him it was a real privilege, and a great learning experience, to see these Portuguese immigrants in their community in the United States, where they’ve lived for decades and decades,” Pereira said. “It’s great for him to see how they still keep up with their faith, their culture, their roots, and how they take a little bit of Portugal with them everywhere they go.”

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.