Valente do Moita (Valente)

'Valente do Moita": A small, but growing Alliance, within the Starfleet Commander game on Facebook.

Valente do Moita was started by Todd Davis in Fort Worth, Texas for members of the television media, mainly in North Texas and Northwest Louisiana, but has since grown to include a host of people with a variety of backgrounds; from students to professional executives.

Valente, is a Portuguese/Spanish surname meaning "Strength." Moita, is a small town south of Lisbon, Portugal. Thus, it's translated as "Strength of Moita." Davis's wife, Rosemary (Commander Rho), and the majority of her family, is originally from this small town, even though she calls Fort Worth, as well as Toronto, Canada, home. Quite the traveler, Commander Rho was born in Toronto, but moved as a child with her family back to their beloved Portugal following the 1974 "Carnation Revolution," in which the political landscape was changed from an authoritarian government to a democratic government. Prior to the revolution, and due in part to the unstable political climate at the time, her father had moved his small family to Canada for an aerospace engineering job with Sikorsky Helicopters.

With that in mind, Commander Rho is not a big fan of her husband being on the computer all the time, even though his job as a journalist keeps him there. As an homage to Commander Rho, and as a way of keeping her off his back, he decided to hit the one soft spot his wife has.... all things Portuguese. In doing so, all of his and her planets are named after Portuguese cities. This little act of love has kept Rose at bay so Todd can continue playing in this fake universe.

The group's motto is: "As Armas!"... literally translated, "To Arms!" It is also the name of the National Anthem for Portugal (Youtube LInk) ([1]) and is sung before every major sporting event in the country as well as the Olympics, World Cup and European Cups of football/soccer.

Current members: "The Burns" (Todd Davis): Leader/ Commander Rho (Rose): Officer/ Sol Sun Seu (Skip McBride): Officer/ Haden Braziel/ Rick Blackford/ Sprokett (Karen Farmer)/ Druge Sollinger/ Kelly Winningham/ Carl Blackford/ Hiilden/ Casey Cameron/ Lief Fergus/ Ryoko Jones/ gneissenau/ Levin-PoG/ Zaphod Bebalbrox/ Joseph Iannello/ Todd Grimmett/ Zeem Drazzle/