Category Archives: Histories

La erupción de Garachico (1706) según fray José de Sosa

Chronicles, Histories, , ,

Map of the town of Garachico (Tenerife) circa 1590, drawn by the Cremonese engineer Leonardo Torriani (source: Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra, catalogue number Ms. 314, f. 77v)

Topography of the Fortunate Isle of Gran Canaria, by the Franciscan friar, chronicler and historian Br. José de Sosa (1646-p. 1730) was written at least twice.

The first time was in a manuscript signed by its author, now preserved at Real Sociedad Cosmológica of La Palma, which has seen two printed editions, in 1849 and 1994, respectively, and a reissue of the first (1943).

The second time, in another volume, also autographed, and bought from a private individual in 2021 by Cabildo de Gran Canaria; this volume became part of the collection of the library and archive of Casa de Colón with catalogue number COL MAN 1.

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Blacks from Gran Canaria, Moorish from Lanzarote

Chronicles, Public Documents, Ethnography, Histories, , , , , , , ,

Part of the author’s maternal family, native from Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Gran Canaria, circa 1960 (photo: Antonio López Casanova / López Alonso family archive).

In memory of my mum, Carmen Alonso Suárez, a Tirahanera by her origins, a Teldense at her heart, a Palmense because of her birth and a Schamannera through rooting.

Not long ago a newspaper article attributed the non-existence of a Chinatown in the Canary Islands to the double fact that the Chinese community resident in the Archipelago is small, and to the integrationist spirits of the Canarian population.

The truth is, unlike what is usually understood as cosmopolitanism in large Western cities, which in its less friendly side results in the progressive formation of neighbourhoods where only people belonging to the same ethnic or social group coexist and interrelate, the cosmopolitan character of the Canary Islands is due to the happy paradox that their very nature as islands, and more specifically as small islands, tends to make it difficult to form closed human groups, and no less decisive in this context has been the lack of a clear-cut division between urban and rural areas, forcing the lack of physical distance, in both cases, to coexistence and social interaction. This is undeniably positive and desirable.

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Doramas' two deaths and the enigmatic chronicler Pedro López

Chronicles, Histories, , , , ,

An idealized statue of Doramas by Grandcanarian sculptor Abraham Cárdenes (1907-1971) (source: MILLARES TORRES, A. et al. (1977 [1893]), Historia General de las Islas Canarias, vol. II, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: EDIRCA, p. 178).

In our post devoted to Benahoarite chieftain Tanausu we pointed the importance of the ancient Canarian heroes in the building of the Archipelago’s folklore.

This value reaches a paradigmatic height in the case of Grandcanarian warrior Doramas by adding to the classic personal attributes of courage, abnegation and self-sacrifice, typical of a heroic model, that of the subject of humble origins determined to build his own destiny, who strives to ascend with his only effort along the social pyramid to which he belongs, while simultaneously facing the obstacles placed both by the status quo –an islander oligarchy determined to perpetuate itself in power through the instrument of lineage– and by forces other than internal social contradictions –European invaders–.

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Esteban de Junqueras at the War of Canaria (1478-1483): an official evidence of his participation

Chronicles, Public Documents, Histories, , , ,

A drawing by Javier García Gómez of Esteban de Junqueras’ cenotaph now preserved in the chapel of Pazo de Oca, Pontevedra province, Galicia –GARCÍA GÓMEZ, (2016, p. 262)–.

Some of the narrative sources dealing with accounts on the so-called Royal Conquest of Gran Canaria witness the participation of captains Pedro de Santisteban, Cristóbal de Medina and Esteban de Junqueras commanding a number of troops sent by the Crown of Castile between 1480-1481 in order to support the invading forces already stablished on the Island. Although some coetaneous public documents do confirm the involvement of the two former no data as strong were known until now to prove the intervention of this third person, an evidence that we present in this post.
Antonio M. López Alonso

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From Guise's side. From Ayose's side

Chronicles, Public Documents, Ethnography, Histories, Colonial Heritage, Indigenous Heritage, , , ,

The idealised statues of Guise and Ayose, a work by Lanzarote-born sculptor Emiliano Hernández García, standing on the namesake viewpoint in the municipality of Betancuria in Fuerteventura (source: Luc. T / Wikimedia Commons).

In honor of my father’s family: my great-grandfather Matías Casanova «El Charco», my grandmother, Susana Casanova Darias, and my great-aunt Manolita. From Vega de Tetir. «From Guise’s side.»

That Guise and Ayose were the names of the two maho chieftains who ruled Fuerteventura island at the time of the conquest by Jehan de Béthencourt and Gadifer de La Salle is something well known in Canarian popular culture. Such is so that the latter has been a relatively frequent anthroponym imposed among males born in the Canary Islands since the mid-1970s, a time when recognition and homage to precolonial cultural and historical roots began to be claimed with some force after being silenced for a long time.

But a much less known fact is that both names survived the European conquest for four centuries without losing an iota of their everyday nature. And even more surprising is that they did not do it in the field of toponymy, a common refuge for forgotten words, but in a very unusual way: the administrative field.

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Tanausu: Benahoare's Hero

Chronicles, Indigenous Culture, Public Documents, Ethnography, Histories, , , , , , ,

«Tanausú, Tierra y Nobleza» (Tanausu, Land & Nobility) (2016), an idealized picture embellishing the facade of Casa de la Cultura Braulio Martín Hernández in El Paso (La Palma), a work by Lanzarote-born muralist Matías Mata, nicknamed Sabotaje al Montaje (source: PROYECTO TARHA).

For La Palma, our Benahoare, nowadays in such a need of strength and courage.

In the traditional historical memory of the Canaries, individuals belonging to the precolonial island societies who faced the European Conquest with the technological and numerical disadvantage inherent to their way of life, environment, material resources and demographics who sometimes chose to sacrifice their own lives rather than surrender are bestowed the role of true people’s heroes regardless of whether the referred subjects enjoyed any sort of privileged social status.

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Conquest of the Seven Ysles of Canaria (1687) : Tomás Marín de Cubas : A Critical Edition by Antonio M. López Alonso

3 comentariosChronicles, Colonial Culture, Indigenous Culture, The Essentials, Studies, Ethnography, Histories,

PLEASE FIND BELOW SOME LINKS TO MEDIA INTERVIEWS ON THIS BOOK.

EXPLANATORY NOTE: Due to some incoming enquiries, we must stress as indicated in this post that ours is not a reissue of the 1694 copy-manuscript by Marín de Cubas, but the first edition of his 1687 unpublished manuscript.

We are very pleased to announce the publication in LeCanarien Ediciones of our second printed work; the first and long-awaited edition of one of the fundamental works for the knowledge of the ancient history of our Archipelago: CONQUEST OF THE SEVEN YSLES OF CANARIA by Canarian physician and historian Tomás Marín de Cubas.

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Confined Quiz (II): Tanausu's last spoken words

Indigenous Culture, Histories, Confined Quiz, , , , ,

The sea of clouds upon the inner cliffs surrounding Caldera de Taburiente on La Palma island. Benahoare’s last indigenous defenders took shelter on them under Tanausu’s command against Castilian invaders (photo: Government of the Canaries).

WHICH WERE THE LAST WORDS SPOKEN BY TANAUSU, LA PALMA’S LAST INDIGENOUS CHIEFTAIN, BEFORE LETTING HIMSELF DIE WHILST HE WAS BEING TAKEN TO CASTILE AS A PRISONER IN 1493?

  1. ATIS TIRMA (or any variant)
  2. VACAGUARE (or any variant)
  3. BENAHOARE (or any variant)
  4. IT IS UNKNOWN
  5. NONE OF THE PREVIOUS

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Confined Quiz (I): The oldest recorded name of Teguise village (Lanzarote)

8 comentariosChronicles, Public Documents, Histories, Colonial Heritage, Indigenous Heritage, Confined Quiz, , , ,

Teguise – Lanzarote: Plaza de la Constitución (source: PROYECTO TARHA)

Inspired by the current situation of confinement due to the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, and under the heading Confined Quiz, we begin a new series of short posts with which we intend to clarify certain aspects of the history of the Canary Islands; in particular, those not well known or, on the contrary, widely disseminated but fundamentally erroneous ideas. We will present each topic with a small test under which you might want to find the correct answer -or more correct, should be the case- with the relevant documentary justification. Without further ado, let’s begin:

WHICH IS THE OLDEST RECORDED NAME OF TEGUISE VILLAGE (LANZAROTE)?

  1. TEGUISE
  2. ACATIFE
  3. GRAN ALDEA
  4. FAMAGÜI

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