ABOUT SONIA

Having grown up Portuguese in America, an invisible minority, I gravitate towards underdogs and untold stories. What fuels my writing is a desire to give a voice to those people and places that would otherwise not have one.

In 2014, I resigned from my public relations job in Manhattan to spend two years intermittently immersed in one of Europe’s oldest open-air markets in the city of Porto, building the relationships that inspired the intimate portraits in my first book, Porto: Stories from Portugal’s Historic Bolhão Market. The book was born out of a partnership with Gabriella and Ryan Opaz, co-founders of the travel agency Catavino. I contributed to Catavino’s blog for several years, mostly focused on the cultural and culinary treasures of a Portugal less traveled. With an American eye, but a Portuguese heart, what I humbly came to realize is that I share stories about Portugal through a unique lens. Porto merges my love for writing about Portugal and its gastronomical identity with my determination to give Bolhão Market the voice it deserves.

As a journalist, editor, and publicist, I primarily work with food, wine, travel, and art organizations to promote Portugal. Born in Lisbon and raised in the Ironbound, a Portuguese enclave in Newark, New Jersey, I now live in West Chester, Pennsylvania.