About your father

My name is Jos Aguiar. I am your father.

I'm writing this not knowing exactly when you'll read it. You might be a teenager. You might be an adult with your own children. What I do know is that I want you to know who I am — not just as your father, but as a person. Where I came from. What I believe. What I love about the world and about you.

Where I come from

My father, your grandfather, was Felix Edmund Aguiar. He came from a family rooted in Goa — the tiny coastal state in India that was a Portuguese colony for 450 years, which gives our family its unusual surname, its Catholic faith, and its particular blend of Indian and Portuguese ways of being in the world.

Felix grew up in Tanzania, East Africa — part of the wave of Goan families who had settled across the British Empire as clerks, teachers, and administrators. He came to Australia in the 1970s, built a life here, and raised a family. He is one of the most decent men I have ever known.

I grew up in Australia. I am Australian. But I carry Goa, Tanzania, and something older than all of that in my blood. So do you.

Why this site exists

I am currently separated from you. That is one of the hardest sentences I have ever written. I think about you every day, and I don't want distance or time to erase me from your story. So I built this.

This site is a record. If you searched for your name and found this — then it worked. Hello, my love. I've been waiting for you.

Everything here is true. The letters are honest. The family history is the best account I can give you. The videos are real moments. None of it is performance — it's just the record of a father who wanted to be found.

What I want you to know

You are not from one place. You are from many places. Vietnamese. Goan. Tanzanian. Australian. Catholic. Buddhist. You carry cultures that survived colonisation, displacement, and the ordinary difficulties of being alive. That is not a burden — it is an inheritance. You belong to more of the world than most people ever will.

Your full names are not accidents. Châu Sa — Isabella — you were named with thought and love. Dẫn — Daniel — so were you. Your names hold both worlds you come from.

I love you more than I have words for. The rest of this site is my attempt to use words anyway.

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Jos Aguiar
Your father
Reach me here