The COVID-19 pandemic has not prevented the residents of Florida from celebrating today one of the most anticipated days of the year: the traditional stew, which this year once again leaves behind the outdoor venue where thousands of people gathered for the occasion. of the festivities in honor of San Antonio Abad and the Virgen de La Esperanza and is savored at home, in the company of those closest to you.
To do this, the San Antonio Abad Fiesta de las Tradiciones Association has reassembled boxes with the necessary ingredients to prepare this traditional Canarian cuisine dish and has broken all the expected records: 440 boxes with vegetables planted and harvested by themselves. But in addition, it has done it in record time since yesterday, before seven in the afternoon, they were all distributed. Among them, more than 50 were intended for the most needy people in the neighborhood.
Cabbage, chayotas, pumpkin, leek, carrots, bubangos, sweet potato, beans -perfectly tied with a string- potatoes and gofio, were meticulously arranged yesterday in the boxes in which there were also surprises: a bag of chickpeas and a cardboard with half a dozen eggs donated by a local poultry company. There was no corn pineapple because this year’s price was exorbitant and what’s more, the ones that were there were not good. The parsley leaves, donated by a neighbor from the neighborhood and preserved in jars of water, were the last thing added.
Tradition has also adapted to new technologies. Each one has a QR code with the guidelines to follow to prepare this traditional dish to which each one gives their special touch. “It is true that the vast majority know how to do it, but there are many new people in the neighborhood,” says Toya.
The preparations began on Wednesday at the headquarters of the aforementioned neighborhood association, says its president, Toya Hernández, who yesterday was one of its fifteen members who worked tirelessly, dressed in their gloves and mask, so that everything was ready on time and no neighbor will be left without their box. Among them was also the delegate councilor of the neighborhood and councilor for Tourism, Citizen Participation, Historical Heritage, Archives and Museums, Delia Escobar, known for her involvement in this festival “as one more neighbor”, who did not hesitate to select the vegetables, assemble the boxes, load them in his private car and deliver them to individuals.
A work that also had the collaboration of all the people who wanted to unite and altruistically lend a hand, even the smallest, “a generation very involved” with this tradition “and it is not fair that the pandemic stops it”.
“The last Saturday of January in Florida with or without a pandemic, it will smell like a pot. Hopefully next year we can do it in company and receive thousands of people as before”, insists the president.
The last ‘great’ stew was held in March 2020. Since then, the setting has been the only thing that has changed compared to previous years, since the desire, effort, solidarity and involvement and good harmony of the residents of the neighborhood are still intact. “Everything is achieved if each one of us puts his grain of sand,” says Toya.
If anything is clear, it is that the pandemic has not been able to take away this deep-rooted tradition of the La Florida neighborhood. Her neighbors say it’s because they have the best COVID vaccine: a good pout.
