For a while, Portia M. Wood, an estate attorney, had sought sanctuary, a place where a Black woman like herself could simply be at peace. Then, the election of President Donald Trump happened, with a lot in its wake: the deadly white nationalist rally in 2017; the murder of George Floyd in 2020; the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in the U.S. Capitol.
So in June 2024, with Trump the presumptive Republican nominee despite 34 criminal felony convictions in a hush-money scheme — and with her young son becoming a target for racists at his school — Wood decided she’d had enough. She left Pasadena, California, behind and moved to Portugal, for good.
Now ensconced in the Portuguese city of Coimbra, she’s encouraging others to stage their own personal Blaxit and move abroad permanently.
No Place to Rest
“People need a space to rest and to recharge and to be, and particularly our people,” she tells Word In Black. “And the United States has never really been a great place for rest, for reflection. You find some of that in the Black churches.”
Unfortunately, Wood says, “there has been a big attack on the Black churches from, in many instances, failed leadership and some other things that have driven people away from the sanctuary element that Black churches provided, the community and communion of them.”
In her view, Black churches are victims of “a coordinated attack” to drain political strength from the community, Wood says. “If you can’t organize, if you can’t come together, if you can’t share from a heart space, it makes it really difficult to align yourself” towards Black empowerment.
People need a space to rest and to recharge and to be, and particularly our people. And the United States has never really been a great place for rest, for reflection.Portia Wood, expatriate
The political climate of this country in recent years has precipitated a new wave of migration for Black American citizens to find homes abroad that seem more appealing. As grandparents watch their grandchildren fight for the very rights they themselves fought and struggled to gain, and people of all hues take to the streets to push back against Trump, others have decided that enough is enough.
In fact, Wood wants to help others make the same journey. She wonders, “How do I create information and spaces for people to come where they can learn not just how to move abroad, if that’s what they want, but how to secure their assets back home, how to engage in some financial literacy, how to prepare for this changing financial climate, and to really rest?”
“A Different Country”
Wood says the seeds of her own Blaxit were planted not long after Trump’s first election in 2016. Things got complicated when Wood gave birth to a son; she didn’t leave then, Wood says, because a transition would have almost been impossible with a newborn.
However, Wood made contingency plans with her family in case the worst actually happened. She bought acres of land that had access to water, and kept track of who had the generator, or who had the extra food.
The fact that so many people were OK with what Trump was doing “let me know that no matter what, we were fundamentally going to be a different country,” Wood says. “And one that I wasn’t necessarily willing to be a part of.”
Wood breathed easier when the Jan. 6, 2020, insurrection failed and former President Joe Biden took office in a peaceful transfer of power. But she saw the writing on the wall in April of 2024, as Trump stood trial for hush-money payments he made to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star — yet Biden’s re-election bid was faltering.
School Issues
Cementing Wood’s decision: the kindergarten her son attended was shut down because of a stranger on campus, and an armed man at the high school across the street. She asked herself if she was willing to put her son in harm’s way to get an education.
”We’re raising children under this constant threat of harm,” she says. “I mean, you’d rather teach a kindergartner how to plug a bullet wound than deal with gun violence.”
At the same time, her son was in a Chinese immersion program, “and he was the only Black kid in his class. And some of the other parents had created a group chat, calling him racial slurs — a 5-year old. They were calling him a n——- and all of these other things.”
So in April, for spring break, they flew to Portugal, and by June, had moved in.
Creating Space for Others
“It’s not as if I’d been planning an international move for years,” she said. “I sat all these things up, and it was really a breaking point for me. I looked at them and said, this is our lives and this is going very badly.”
Wood’s successful transition “gave people permission to consider it for themselves in a way they hadn’t before, which was great,” she says. “Almost all my family members have their long-stay visas for Portugal.”
And yes, there were moments of doubt, especially when it looked as if former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden on the 2024 ticket, might win.
”I wondered if I’d moved too soon. I really wanted to be on the forefront of this to help her win,” Wood says. Still, “I kept seeing the rhetoric that even if she wins, there’s going to be blood in the streets. It was enough to say, ‘This isn’t going back.’”
So she remains in the new space, a place from which to advocate for others and help those who have made the decision to resettle in a new country, not necessarily Portugal.
