WHEN it comes to the contributions of Portuguese-Guyanese to Guyana’s culture, aside from their aptitude for business, they are well known for producing prolific sportsmen and women, whose contributions are well ingrained in the fabric of Guyana’s sports landscape.
Their contributions span a wide range of sporting disciplines, including but not limited to boxing, cricket, cycling, rugby, football, tennis, hockey, racing, rowing, and swimming. The Vieira family of motor-racing fame, the Fernandes family in squash and hockey, and the Roberts brothers in swimming, are just a few of the examples of how Guyanese of Portuguese extract have contributed to sports in Guyana in many respects across the decades.
Notwithstanding their drastically dwindling numbers since their arrival in Guyana in 1834, Portuguese-Guyanese have been able to maintain a striking influence in sports by sustaining a high level of enthusiasm across generations.

The Fernandes family is one of the first examples that come to mind. Third-generation Portuguese-Guyanese, John Fernandes, founder of John Fernandes Limited, was an ardent sports enthusiast, who has left Guyana with a legacy of a family line littered with adept sportsmen and women across a number of sports disciplines.
His influence includes his son Christopher “Chris” Fernandes, a former national hockey and football player, and his younger brother, Robert “Bobby” Fernandes, a former national footballer. His granddaughter and Bobby’s daughter, Nicolette Fernandes, remains Guyana’s most successful professional squash player.
“My father was a very sports-minded individual.  He supported our sports interest very much; he would rather buy you a pair of football boots than buy you a nice pair of pants,” Chris joked. Chris is also a former Secretary and President of the Guyana Hockey Board. As a football player, he was captain of the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) for six years, and regularly captained the Georgetown Team in the inter-district competitions.

Though mostly known for his involvement in hockey and football, Chris said he played other sports as well. “In school, I played everything. In 1961, St. Stanislaus College sent teams to play in Trinidad in football, cricket, basketball, and athletics against the Mt. St. Benedict College. Of the 20 persons that went, I was the only one who was on all four teams,” he recalled. The former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of John Fernandes Limited, Chris was one of his father’s 14 children, and just naturally stepped into a life of sports, due to his father’s enthusiasm and influence. “I was number five among the boys, and my brothers before me were all into sports. So I was a sports fanatic. I’m still a sports fanatic, but physically, I can’t any longer involve myself in sports,” the 76-year-old said.

UPHOLDING THE LEGACY
Nonetheless, Chris has already ensured that the sports-loving legacy continues in the family by introducing his children to sports.
“From the time they could walk, they had little hockey sticks in their hands, or a football at their feet. We would play football and cricket in the yard, whichever was in season. When is cricket season, everybody would be playing a little cricket,” he said.
Today, his son, David Fernandes, currently heads the Guyana Squash Association (GSA), while another of his sons, Phillip Fernandes, is President of the Guyana Hockey Board. Their brothers Alan and Stephen also played hockey at the international level.
Several of Robert’s children also continued the family’s tradition of involvement in sports.

His daughter, Nicolette’s professional career spanned 15 years on the international stage, during which time she earned a career high ranking of 19 from the Women’s International Squash Players Association  (WISPA). She is also a three- time junior and six-time senior Caribbean champion, and won the 2009 National Sportswoman of the Year award. Robert’s other daughter, Chantelle Fernandes, was involved in both squash and hockey. She is a former Caribbean junior squash champion, and later served as national captain for the female hockey team.  Their brother, Robert Fernandes, also played both sports, and currently serves as the men’s national hockey coach, while Shad Fernandes followed in the footsteps of his father, and was also a former national footballer.
As with the Fernandes family, Caribbean motor racing champion, Mark Vieira also credits his family with passing down to him their love for the sport.
“My immediate family at the time were big into motorcycling since the 1950s. It was just a monkey-see-monkey-do thing, so, because they did it and I was exposed to it, it just became natural for me,” Vieira said.

PASSED THE TORCH
The veteran motor racer has already passed the torch on to his son, Matthew, who is also a former Caribbean champion in motorbike racing. Mark’s brother, Paul, and cousin, Stephen, are also well known for their legacy of representing Guyana well as motor racers.
Mark said his involvement stemmed from watching his father, Joseph “Joe” Vieira, who was the son of Joseph Vieira, former Executive Chairman of Houston Estates. Mark recalled motor racing emerging in Guyana as a promotional tactic by auto dealers, and then catching on.
“What had happened at the time, we would have the motorcycle dealers, and they wanted to sell their bikes. So what they did is, they created racing. They copied from the English; so they raced on Sunday, and sold bikes on Monday. That’s how it came about,” he noted.
In swimming, brothers Niall and Yannick Roberts have left their mark. Both represented Guyana at a number of international events, with Niall still being holder of Guyana’s national record for the 50m butterfly. An Olympian, Niall represented Guyana at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona. Roberts said he is looking forward to passing on a love for swimming to his daughter.