I was born in the parish of Candelária in the Island of São Miguel in the Azores on October 1st, 1950. After graduating from Escola Industrial e Comercial de Ponta Delgada, I worked as a bookkeeper for "ArmazémCanadá" in Ponta Delgada until I went to Tavira - to start basic training in the Portuguese Army. Three months later and weighting 50 Lbs less I went to Lisbon - to the "E.PA.M." Escola Práctica de Administrcção Militar", "Administrative Military School".
    Four months afterwards I was stationed in São Miguel at the B.I.I. no. 18. (Independent Battalion of Infantry #18) at Arrifes.  (It would be nice to hear from some of my friends from those days, who now are scattered all over the world.) While, I was in school in São Miguel, I met a beautiful girl from Santo Amaro do Pico - who was on her way to the U.S.A.. I fell in love with that girl who is now my dear wife, Isilda and from our marriage we have our wonderful son Michael.
    Michael is a very good musician and he, his cousin Ruben and I started the"LUSITANIA BAND OF NORTH BAY" a marching and concert band, whose goal is to perpetuate Portuguese music especialy in the San Francisco North Bay and throughout California.
 
     My wife and I own a dry cleaning store "PICAROTO CLEANERS" in Fairfax,California and I am also a bookkeeper. Since childhood, I have loved to write poetry and I have published a book in Portuguese, "ALMA REPARTIDA", but until I tried to translate some of my verses from the beautiful language of Camões to the one of Shakespeare, I had no idea that I could express some of my feelings much better in English than my native tongue, Portuguese . "TANGLED" totally conceived and written in English, it is a compilation of some of the thoughts, dreams, paradoxes and frustrations I want to share with my readers. A page, or a book, full of "Thank you" will never be enough to show to my wife ISILDA, how grateful I am for accepting me and my occasional moods. It is not easy, but she has always encouraged me during the moments and the hours when my mind has been somewhere else, some times, even thousands of miles away . . . She has always been the compass which has pointed the right direction to me, with love and understanding; to her I dedicate this new book of poems, also lovingly inscribed to my son Michael, who is the best poem I have ever written. I believe a great number of writers, upon finishing their books, would add, if they could, another page to their work. I am delighted that I was able to add that page before sending this
work to the printer. Some of the poems I wrote were inspired by different people,
for whom I deeply care, others by situations  in which I was and still am Tangled.
No book is complete without its cover... I thought about it, I dreamed about it, I had nightmares about it, and one day, as I was saying good-bye to some "friends" on the Internet, this person, named "Suz", sent me this private message "Don't leave without talking to me". That was translated in my brain, at that moment, as an order, but interpreted by my heart as a plea. And I stayed on. "Suz", Susan Jane (Eyre) Wieringa, from Grand Rapids, Michigan and I became friends; I told her about my poems, she told me about her paintings. She offered to paint the cover for my book. And when I suggested the Lakes of "Sete Cidades"in the Island of São Miguel, in the Azores, and the "Golden Gate Bridge"in San Francisco, in the same painting - she said "Consider it done." From our Internet and telephone conversations and by the hands of this great artist was created the cover of my book and the painting which is hanging in my living room and was used by our internet friend, Pierre de Sousa Lima for the illustration of the Azores Immigration on the Geneology web page. Susan, indeed, wrote the best poem of my book, a vivid picture of what is an immigrant's soul. She expressed with her brush strokes what I could never paint with my poems. To Susan, heartfelt thanks from a deeply Tangled soul.
 
 
Besides writing I love gardening. I have what I call a mini zoo in my back yard
in a 50' X 20 ' aviary,

 

(Mama in her nest)

(2 male Canaries)

 

 

     The chickens, I call them walking garbage disposals since they will eat any leftovers. They provide us with fresh eggs everyday and with enough fertelizer for the vegetables and the 67 rose bushes.