Barrosinha: Between Soil and Silence
Founded in 1947, Herdade da Barrosinha in Alentejo, Portugal, grew around rice fields, cork forests, and vineyards, worked by generations of rural families living in basic housing provided by the estate. Harsh conditions — especially in rice farming — demanded long hours and often the labor of children. Today, some 80 residents remain in 50 of these original homes, preserving a community shaped by both hardship and resilience. Since 2012, Barrosinha has turned to revitalization through winemaking, cork, eco-tourism, and a rural hotel, with larger cultural and hospitality projects on the horizon.
Yet this renewal threatens the very families who built its history risk displacement, as tourism raises the land’s value and they lack legal property rights on these homes.
This work documents a community shaped by labor, memory, and quiet resilience. These images offer no nostalgia, only presence: a record of lives still rooted in place, even as that place begins to slip away.
MIQUELINA PEDRADAS. 93 . The eldest in town. She has been living in Barrosinha since she's is 5.
Lives with her daughter Maria Semiao.
VASCO PEREIRA ANIZA. 79 years old.
Maria Simiao . 76 years old. Daughter of Miquelina. Born and raised in the same house.
She worked the rice and cork fields since very young.
JOSE LOPES. 82 years old.
Living in Barrosinha for the past 50.
He is a retired woodworker.
He got injured in a work accident..
ANABELA PEREIRA. 61.
VIRGOLINO GONÇALVES.
84 years old. He was the barber of to the town. He has been living in Barrosinha for the past 50 years.
CARMILDE . 85 years old. Born in Barrosinha. used to work at the rice fields.
Ana. Carmilde´s daughter and her little dog.
MARIA FATIMA SEMIAO, 80, she was born in Barrosinha and worked at the rice fields until she retired.
JOAQUIM SEMIAO 82. He retired as a carpenter in the Serraçao in Barrosinha.
João Paolo Raposo Gonçalvez / 2 meses . 54 años
ISIDRO CORREIA MARQUES. 77.
A still active mechanic. He lives alone in Barrosinha, with no family. He has owned this his motorcycle for the past 22 years .
MARIA DOS ANJOS GOMEZ. 85 years old.
He moved to barrosinha in 1963 where she worked the fields during all that time.
Ernesto Antonio Fortunato.desde que nació 69 años . Acaba de retirarse.
Comenzo a trabajar a los 8 anos
Francisco Raposo. 81 years old. Albanil reformado.
Lives alone.
Church in the land,
FELIPE DOMINGO, 77 . he used to wolk at the winery. Has been living in Barrosinha for the past 55 .
He is alone, no family left .
MARIA ANTONIA GUERRERO CARVALHO GERVASIO. 62 years old
Born and raised in Barrosinha.
She worked at the winery .
Maria Fernanda Figueredo. 70 years old. She was born at Barrosinha, as her mother did. She lived and worked all her life there. The past 18 years has been working in the winery.
