Blazons of the poor enrich the city
Traditional marks used by families will be immortalized in street plates being placed in the main streets of Downtown Póvoa de Varzim. Fernando Gonçalves will be the responsible to create the 287 "art pieces".
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ANA TROCADO MARQUES
Behind the door of the fish market, in the Street of the Caverneira, in the heart of Bairro Sul (South district) in Póvoa de Varzim, Irene Costa keeps the old row of her father's boat. She shows with pride the
Siglas Poveiras marks - a sort of family blazon of the fisher class - craved in wood. The symbols do not leave edge for doubts: cálix fechado, lanchinha and pique - " The Vianeses" (family).
Daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of fishermen, explain that the acronym in the family exists for generations. The grandfather of the mother, Jose Gonçalves Vianez, died in the shipwreck of the " S. José" Lancha boat , in the entrance of Póvoa sandbank, in January 2nd of 1924. In the accident ten Poveiros [name of Povoa inhabitants] had died, with the desperate look of the masses of people that, in the beach, waited the men of the sea.
Vitoriana da Assunção, later known as " Porquinha" (Piggy, nickname that, as it is tradition, followed by future generations), was with eight children, in which Ana Assunção, mother of Susana da Costa and grandmother of Irene.
The mark of the Vianez family passed from parents to children - the father of Susana adopted the mark of the woman with who he married. Later, the women, who initially did not have right to the transmission of the familiar mark, had conquered this prerogative for the work they made in fish sales, in "Ala-arriba" beach boat anchor work and and net-making.
Of all her brothers, only Susana followed the fishing traditions, becoming the most popular and known fisherwomen in Póvoa.
"My mother started selling fish in the beach, later in the seaport fish market, and, much later, in the old town market", explains Irene. At 11, she stated to follow the steps of her mother. She remembers to mark each fish and each box with the family mark. It was a "property registration".
The "tourists", that came to Póvoa de Varzim seeking fresh fish, in the 1940s and 1950s, admired the marks and, often, "asked to take pictures".
"When the lanchas were gone and the motor boats came, the siglas stopped being used and the fish marks too", explained Irene.
Today, people no longer follow the transmission rules of father to children, but for Irene and Susana, now 87, the family mark is, similarly to other families, "a pride", as it proves being a fisher descendant and the mark of an ancient family, with traditions and history, that, while not being used as before, it keeps being passed from parents to children, craved in medals, rings and bracelets.
Honoring the fisher origins and "Póvoa's Soul", the city hall decided to adopt a new street sign model in the renovated urban areas: first in Mouzinho de Albuquerque Avenue (inaugurated in past June), and after that, in Pr. Almada Square, read by the end of the Summer.
"Each plate is a unique piece of art, hand painted. The blue, the color of the city, the siglas poveiras that are placed in "frame" position in the plate, remember our origins, and the pictures, boats and fishermen objects, our patrimony", explains, to the JN, the city's Culture secretary, Luís Diamantino. It his idea to immortalize "Póvoa's soul" in the new street plates.
"Boído street, for instance, has a 'poita' (ancient kind of anchor)", referred the secretary. The city hall has already decided that it will be placed 287 plates in all major downtown streets.
http://jn.sapo.pt/paginainicial/pai...e%20Varzim&Option=Interior&content_id=1070398
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