Hello and welcome turbotad hopefully a couple of other expats in Portugal will chime in on this thread but I'll give you my limited opinion.
One of the toughest small trees large shrubs around is Prunus lusitanica, very drought tolerant (once established) great foliage and flowers.
Remember however that fast growing almost always means short lived, so mix up your plantings..use fast and short to protect slow and longer lived specimens.
Two very long lived and resiliant oaks that love Portugal in all its extremes are Quercus suber (cork oak) and Quercus ilex plant them both you won't regret it.
__________________ Sean  Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran
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