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WHO WERE THE GANHÕES The ganhões were men who worked in the
fields, in farming. There were two kinds of Ganhões, the ones on pension whor
worked all year long at one farm, and the "rasos" who worked on
whatever job they could get wherever they could find it – sowing, reaping,
olive picking, etc. These men would work from dawn to sunset and lived only from
it. "Rude coração pesado do coro de ganhões perdidos na sombra do céu." Manuel da Fonseca (Rude heavy heart of the choir of
ganhões lost in the shade of the sky) "Os Ganhões from Castro Verde are people of
simple lives, loving the earth they fertilise with no profit. Their singing
is rhythmic like the wheat fields lulled by the Levant, it recalls the
evenings in the grey olive groves, the painful heat during harvest and the
quietness of the desert heaths." Colaço Guerreiro in revista "Castra castrorum" "What are those voices? That fill the air, that
keep the stars from shining, that make the faces of men cry when ganhões and
miners pass by facing the ground singing, singing?..." Azinhal Abelho "These people sing with true passion and all
occasions seem fit to express their natural lyricism. There is no work,
holiday, feast or meeting of any kind without an endless rosary of songs. The
soul of the alentejano is deeply musical and singing is the vital link that
joins those primitive people in the feeling of a telluric community. The
alentejano is recognisable everywhere and everywhere he recognises and
identifies his brothers of flesh and mind through his songs." Fernando Lopes Graça |
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