My Father's Archives #3

This picture from my father's archives is a perfect symbol of the sertão and its people. At first glance it shows the incredible poverty and misery the people lived in four to five decades ago in this region of Brazil. Men worn out by work and weather, torn clothes and dried-up, dead crop in the background. After the first rain in December, the seed was sawn. Then everybody waited for the second rain. Beans and corn began to sprout, but if the second rain didn't come, everything died and the crop was lost.
I remember the desperation on the faces of the men who came to our house during that period of the year. There were years when the rain didn't come at all.
But the picture shows something else. The man on his knees is Manoelzinho Aleijado, Crippled Manuel. In spite of his disabilities (caused by polio during his childhood), he was able to support a family and raise four kids. As my father told me, Manoelzinho Aleijado was a famous castorbean picker. I simply can't imagine how he did it. 
Things have improved a lot during the last two decades in that region of Brazil, but the sertão is still full of stories similar to his.
As an extra, another shot with Manoelzinho Aleijado and two of his kids.

#1
#2