Antonia María Martín Estévez has worked in the Puerto de la Cruz Municipal Market since its inauguration, in November 1986. At that time, it was conceived as a modern and functional infrastructure that replaced the old recova located next to the Town Hall, in which It offered a wide variety of fresh foods.
Antonia opened her store, number 14 on the first floor, when she was just 22 years old with her husband, who later went to work abroad but has returned and together they share the day-to-day tasks at the job. They meticulously arrange vegetables and fruit, serve customers, take orders, advise when required and give a smile and a kind word. That is their biggest secret to maintaining a loyal clientele that spans several generations.
“There are customers who buy from me from when I was in the Plaza de Europa, and now their children and grandchildren also come,” she says proudly.
A client “of the usual”, who listens to the interview reinforces her statement: “We like the saleswoman,” she says.
In these more than three and a half decades, the property and the activity that is generated there have changed a lot, although it has been in this last year when the great work that all the merchants expected was undertaken. “Before the floors had been changed and it was painted twice but this is the best reform they have done,” he points out.
Specifically, it refers to the comprehensive action that is carried out in the facilities – it has not yet been completed – to rehabilitate and modernize them. The exterior makeover is visible to any passerby, not just market goers. The façade has been painted white and features new signage. The Signage Plan and new corporate image also include the renovation of 60 commercial signs.
Added to this is the installation of an exterior panoramic elevator that has not yet been put into operation; the renovation of the bathrooms on the first floor; the repair of paint defects, both exterior, side and in the points where some elements were removed, such as fences, benches and the two large planters that were in the central hall. In addition, glass has been installed in the corridors, on the façade and on the two sides of the gastronomic part that provide light and more security and a vertical garden has been made to beautify the entrance.
Necessary works
Reforms that, according to Antonia, were very necessary and contribute to making people want to go there to buy instead of going only to supermarkets. “Young people like to come,” he says.
Although there were times when the work was reduced a little, he cannot say that it is lacking, quite the opposite. This has forced her to have an employee, a niece who helps her by guarding the premises on the busiest days of activity and she has had to diversify her offer with food, basic cleaning products “and whatever the client asks for, I will bring him” .
It also has a fixed group of “foreigners” who in the three months they spend in Puerto de la Cruz have it as their main provider.
This woman, born in Icod de los Vinos, who always worked in Puerto de la Cruz but lives in La Orotava, assures that “she plans to retire in the market.” “For what I have left …”, he jokes.
The only thing Antonia is missing are more locals like hers. When the enclosure opened its doors there were 16 fruit and vegetable stalls and now only two remain since the rest have been replaced by bars, cafes and food stalls.
The diversification of the positions is one of the things that Eulogio Díaz, another of the historical ones of the Market, demands. Owner of the Siddhartha bookstore, located on the ground floor, he was already selling material before it opened to the public “and at the same time we laid the tiles on the outside,” he recalls.
He was 29 years old, he worked with his compadre in a bar, they were not doing well and they decided to set up the bookstore-stationery when they found out that the Market was opening, which has evolved since then. “When it was inaugurated there were no department stores or supermarket chains and it was a constant coming and going of people,” he adds.
“The decline is now. Before we sold twice as much and now we are flush. The loans of books in the schools mean that it is not sold as before and we understand that this is the case ”, he maintains.
He agrees with Antonia that the greatest and most necessary work is the one currently being carried out, curiously, when there are fewer people. “In August you can spend two hours and you don’t see anyone,” he says.
A statement with which the Councilor responsible for the Market, Roberto Medina, does not fully agree, although he acknowledges that “the Market needed investments and a change of image. It had to be modernized, made more attractive and brought into the 21st century ”.
For this, the City Council has proceeded to undertake a series of works that have been paid for with a grant inherited from the previous mandate that had to be executed, its own resources and aid from other administrations, such as the Government of the Canary Islands.
Exterior elevator
One of the great actions is the installation of the exterior panoramic elevator, although it has not yet been put into operation because there was an error in the upper part of the extraction of the air motors and it was necessary to reorder the parts to change them. “Luckily they have already arrived, so there is little left to inaugurate this infrastructure that everyone longs for and that is a key accessibility element, although the ramps are fully passable for people with reduced mobility but allow easy movement within the market,” he promises.
The task is not over, he clarifies. There’s still much to do. The next step is the remodeling of the car park – it includes the smoke extraction and fire safety system – and in order to carry it out, the City Council has put an amendment to the General Budgets of the Canary Islands Government.
Bathrooms for ostomized people
To this is added the rehabilitation of the annexed square, the bathrooms on the ground floor that will be adapted for ostomized people and the change of image of the weekly flea market with the installation of tents and canopies, among other reforms. The last two actions already have funding and Medina is confident that this year they will come true.
Another of the objectives that the municipal government sets for 2022 is to put out to tender the eleven premises that are pending: nine on the first floor, two on the ground floor and the supermarket. To do this, a small survey was carried out with the Program in Alternation with Training and Employment (PFAE) of Community Attention on the business model that would be missing in the enclosure among those who left a pet shop and a bakery.
“There are many changes ahead to make the Municipal Market the one that the citizens of Puerto de la Cruz deserve and an attraction for tourists who visit us”, underlines the councilor, for whom there is no doubt that in the last two years “There is a before and after” in this installation.
