NAME: Ioannis Gavalas (Giannis of Petros) of Petros and (Unknown mother’s name)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Amorgos
PLACE OF DEATH: Amorgos
PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Amorgos
SPOUSE / MAIDEN NAME: Unknown / Unknown
PROFESSION: Porter, farmer, labourer
INSTRUMENT: Folk Poet – Rhyme Improviser
The following biographical note on the folk poet Ioannis P. Gavalas was written by the Amorgian philologist – researcher Georgios A. Mavros. It was extracted from the archive of the latter which was granted in its entirety to the Digital Audiovisual Folk Music Archive of Amorgos and its Islands. The structure, the spelling, and the punctuation of the text in Greek have been preserved. The English translation has been mildly edited.
Giannis P. Gavalas. The so-called Giannis of Petros. Porter in his youth, it is said that he transported with a “hamalika” a barrel of 154 kilos of wine from Katapola, with only one stop at Agrilidi. A man of tremendous strength and appetite at the same time. He worked in Syros as an illiterate porter and in Amorgos. Farmer and labourer he led a very deprived life. He recited his poems, rhymes, and couplets in the streets as he walked up and down the narrow road with his two donkeys, to sell the few vegetables he had grown on his small farm in Varmas (a place with lots of water that he often mentions in his poems).