The olive harvesters of the Plan that were stigmatized

PalmIn 2021, Francesc Vicens Vidal, a musicologist from Palma, discovered a remarkable story within his wife Maria de Salut's family. "I received," he recalls, "a phone call from filmmaker Álex Dioscórides, who was preparing the documentary." Stone and oilfocused on the olive grove culture of the Tramuntana mountain range. He asked me if I knew any olive harvesters he could interview, given that many sang while they worked. I told him no. But one day my mother-in-law told me that her mother, when she was single, had been hired out to work on an estate in Sóller. They called this 'going to the mountains'."

Vicens was quite surprised to learn that those female day laborers from the Pla region were stigmatized with the label 'gallufes'. The DCVB (Diccionario de la Cultura de la Vega de Mallorca) records this term, along with three other meanings: thistle artichoke, silent flatulence, and woman of little judgment. "It bothered me greatly that in 2021 the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council of Mallorca) didn't consider them when awarding the Medal of Honor and Gratitude to the group of olive harvesters still alive. Only those residing in the Serra de Tramuntana, who had the olive groves closer and better working conditions, were honored. Moreover, they worked on public land." Based on the testimony of his relative, now in her eighties, in 2023 the researcher began interviewing other 'gallufes' not only from Maria de la Salut, but also from Sineu, Llubí, and Ariany. He has now published his findings in a book that denounces decades of silence. It is titled Gallufas! Oral history of the women of the countryside: the last olive harvesters of Pla de Mallorca (El Gallo Editor).

Child exploitation?

From the 16th century, olive oil production was one of the most important economic activities in the Serra de Tramuntana. It was marked by a division of labor between the sexes. Women were responsible for harvesting the olives that had fallen, either due to ripening or the force of the wind. Men, on the other hand, pressed them in the olive mills and were also the ones who climbed the trees to pick the greenest and largest olives, which would be sold cracked or preserved. The season began in November, after All Saints' Day, when most other harvests in the fields had already finished. Depending on the harvest, it could last six months, until Easter. The olive groves were so extensive that the seasonal workers from the surrounding villages weren't enough. It was necessary to go to the Pla de Tramuntana to find them. Each municipality organized itself through a trusted person who acted as a recruiter.

The young women 'recruited' were between 11 and 20 years old. "They would leave 'for the mountains,'" says Vicens, "in a truck provided by the landowner, who, in exchange for this service, promised to pay the parents, usually in the form of measures of oil [one measure was 16 liters]. Back then, oil was a very precious commodity, used not only for cooking but also for other purposes. Today, these contracts would be considered child labor. "Before, however, they were commonplace. Many of the young women who worked as harvesters came from large families, with seven or eight children, who, especially during the post-war period, were overwhelmed by poverty and hunger. Sometimes, their parents would also send their younger siblings, between six and eight years old, along with them, so there would be one less mouth to feed."

The female day laborers of Pla lived in humble buildings near the estate houses. The owners did not provide for their upkeep. This was called 'going dry'. "Each one," the scholar notes, "had to bring her own provisions from home. They had stoves, water, oil, and other basic supplies at their disposal." All the women interviewed remembered the wooden crates with clothes and food that their mothers prepared for them. "In those days there were no suitcases. The crates of food contained soups, legumes, and pasta for cooking, especially noodles and rice, and also flour for kneading bread. You had to eat plenty of carbohydrates to last the whole day. Chocolate, condensed milk, and toasted herring were lunch in the middle of the fields."

Sexual violence

The largest estates had up to a hundred harvesters. The 'cut' was the name given to the group working on each terrace. It could consist of a dozen girls. Their job was to gather the olives from the ground by hand and put them in a basket. Side by side, within designated areas, they moved in a line through the fields, singing in the hope that the weather would be kinder to them. The days ran from sunrise to sunset, six days a week. Since the bulk of the season was winter, they often worked in very adverse weather conditions. "If it rained or snowed," says Vicens, "they covered their heads with palm-leaf hats. And if it was cold, they put hot stones in their pockets and held them to their hands to keep them warm. Others, to protect their fingernails, wore iron or tin thimbles. There weren't any back then."

The seasonal workers followed the instructions of a foreman or the owner. "Sometimes," the researcher points out, "some carried a whip to tap the legs of those they felt hadn't received enough credit for the harvest. Despite this, all the women agree that they were treated diligently and correctly. They are unaware of the inequalities they suffered compared to the men." The musicologist has encountered a taboo subject in their oral testimonies: "Being a man, they didn't want to talk to me about the sexual assaults and non-consensual pregnancies that the group must have suffered. Given the power dynamic, this must also have been common at the time."

Oasis of freedom

Very soon, out in the mountains, those young women realized the privileges the local women enjoyed. "These women," Vicens points out, "weren't stigmatized. They traveled to the estates daily. They could walk for an hour and, at the end of the day, return home to attend to their family obligations. If it snowed or rained, they lost their wages. They did, however, have the option of working on Sundays and holidays. Furthermore, at the end of the season, they washed sacks, rinsed, and cleaned the olives that hadn't been folded..." The treatment of outsiders was quite different; they were insulted with the term "gallufes," especially in Sóller and Valldemossa. In Bunyola, they were called "porch women." "Throughout the season, they lived on the estate. They worked for a fixed, agreed-upon price. On Sundays, they had to do laundry and other domestic chores."

Despite this 'discrimination', the 'gallufes' had one advantage. "At first, some of them felt homesick. Many, however, appreciated spending time in a kind of oasis of freedom, which became a rite of passage into adulthood. They were with their friends, far from the control of parents, teachers, and priests. Every day, at the end of the workday, they organized dances with musical instruments. Sisterhood. Although the working conditions were harsh, most have fond memories." During their stay, their parents usually visited them once. Exceptionally, for a family event, the owner could grant the harvesters permission to be absent for a couple of days. If the season was extended, he also allowed them to spend the Christmas holidays with their families.

All the 'galufas' went 'to the mountains' until they married, usually in their twenties. Then, with the memory of that emancipatory experience still fresh, they had to dedicate themselves to raising children – they usually combined the burden of the house with the tasks in the fields. Many had maintained their courtships in the Serra with their sweethearts from the Pla. "From time to time, they would come to see them on bicycles or motorbikes. Their presence caused more than one argument with other boys from the area who were after some 'gallufa'. Some arguments ended with stones being thrown. There were girls who fell in love while living on the same estate. In Sóller, there are still many mixed marriages between Sóller residents and women from the Pla." With the new economic paradigm shift that the boom With the rise of tourism in the late 1950s, many farms in the Serra de Tramuntana began to do away with combine harvesters. "Interestingly," Vicens concludes, "tourist postcards exploited an idyllic image of the peasant woman, which had nothing to do with her real life, which was entirely self-sacrificing. Today, many suffer from health problems such as rheumatism, asthma, and back pain."