The Transmontano
The
character of the Transmontano
villager—he who lives behind the mountains—has
always been shaped by isolation. The
old saying is that “on the other side of the Marão people are their
own bosses.” Lisbon has
paid little attention to this area until recent years.
According to Padre Fontes, a local ethnographer,
“in this
centuries-old corner of the corner of Europe,
alone, in a struggle
against the harsh soil and inclement climate, a character was formed:
the sad demeanor, the mistrusting air, courageous, daring,
hardworking, loyal with strength of character a way of life.” (Fontes,
24)
To paraphrase Fontes, the Trasmontano villager dresses soberly, rarely changing his clothes. In winter more clothes are needed; in summer--fewer. The men dress conservatively, usually wearing dark coats and vests. In the villages they wear caps or little hats and in the town a suit is almost obligatory on Sunday.
In my own observations based on
the market days when rural people come to town, shorts are never
worn by older men or women,
even in the worst heat of summer, and rarely by children.
Usually the babies are overdressed, smothered in clothes.
There is a fear of the sun, especially the warm days of spring,
and especially of drafts. Windows
are rarely opened. Women
use little or no makeup and
many older women still wear the traditional black
of mourning for the rest
of their lives, even in
larger towns like Chaves. Many
of these elderly village women have moustaches.
Teeth are lost at an early age as dentists are a recent addition to the
town. In fact
many of the
dentists in the small towns in the interior of Tras-os-Montes are
Brazilians. The Portuguese
dentists from the coast did not want to come to this isolated area, so
Brazilian dentists from the region of São Paulo, where there is an
excess of dentists, chose to immigrate to Portugal.
Baths in the villages are
often once a week since many of the stone
houses have no heated water.
The
historical picture of the Transmontano is of one who is very
mistrusting of strangers. According
to Padre Fontes, the Transmontano “often feels himself being
tricked. He is spontaneous,
violent, rarely taking premeditated actions.
He lives in a closed society, in small groups, without influence
from other lands. There is
monotony in life, in eating the same food, in love, in work, in
everything. He accepts
gossip as truth. Marriages
between cousins and alcoholism cause many retarded children.
The woman ages quickly in spirit, and in body”…”the man is
a good payer. He won’t go
to jail for robbery but for killing.
Better to kill than to be a thief.” (Fontes, 23)
Although
these descriptions are stereotypes, and dated, it is common knowledge
that even stereotypes have a grain of fact.
A case in point is the restaurant in Chaves that was almost
forced to close become someone spread a rumor that it was serving cat
instead of baby goat. The
owners had to take out a full-page ad in the local paper offering a
reward to anyone who could prove it.
Most people thought it was a stupid rumor but business fell off
dramatically and the restaurant was forced to close.
All
outsiders—meaning doctors from the coast or Brazilian dentists—comment
on how the locals live in a closed group, shying away from contact
outside the family. A
weekend ritual is to go to the village and see the parents who still
live in the family home—often in very bad conditions. 
The
Transmontano is also known for being frugal—especially
reluctant to spend on things that will make his life more comfortable,
like a modern kitchen or central heating.
Cars are not included in this avariciousness.
People will complain when a cup of coffee goes up a few cents,
but outside the café there is a Mercedes Benz awaiting them.
According
to Padre Fontes,
“this is not a land of passage.
We are isolated, without contrary influences on our way of life.
We have lived centuries alone, forgotten by the world, without
light, highways, or telephone. Illiteracy
has reached the highest level here.
There is no reading. There
is no technical advance. The
plow is the same used in the first centuries after Christ.” (Fontes,
24)
About
the Transmontano’s penchant for violence, Miguel Torga—the
greatest of all Transmontano writers—said:
“The legendary frankness which we see in the books is really
theirs. But it dwells in
the same interior force that, taken to the blindness of excitement, can
lead to murder.” (Guia de Portugal, 14)
Despite these observations—which refer to a past time and more
to the villages than to the more urban valley—we have seen that there
is very little violence in Chaves and the surrounding area.
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