Nuno Miguel de Braganca van Uden

Music

Fado Moves to Theatre Stages

During the 1930s and 1940s, fado singers like Hermínia Silva gained fame performing on theatre stages, moving fado from its origins in taverns and streets to broader audiences.

At the table

Wartime Rationing and Factory Meals

During the 1940s, food scarcity led to the rationing of essential goods like cod, olive oil, and sugar using quarterly coupon booklets. Workers often brought their own meals in aluminum lunchboxes to the factory, heating them with alcohol kept in shoe polish tins.

News and letters

Newspaper delivery delays outside major cities

Newspapers often arrived late outside the Lisbon and Porto districts due to poor transport connections.

What people wore

Barretes used as storage

Fishermen used their wool hats, known as 'barretes', as practical storage for tobacco, cigarette rolling papers, and matches.

Daily life

Lack of Basic Infrastructure in Homes

In rural areas, many homes lacked running water, electricity, and toilets, with families often using basic holes in the ground for sewage. Cooking typically occurred on floor-level fires without chimneys, leaving walls blackened by smoke.

Work

Hardship for child laborers and domestic girls

Child laborers in the glass industry earned only 11 escudos per week and were three times more likely to get injured than adults. Girls, often starting work at age nine, frequently received no money, only meals in exchange for their long hours of domestic service.