Agustin Monteverderepresentative of the family that began in the 19th century the tradition of making a flower carpet at the door of his house to celebrate the passage of the procession of the Corpus of La Orotavaannounced yesterday that he had found a document from one of his ancestors in which it was recorded that the current route was established in 1536.
“On February 14, 1536, having observed that the procession did not pass by his house, he sent a letter to the Bishop of the Canary Islands complaining about it and he issued an edict addressing the parish so that from that date and forever, the Corpus Christi of La Orotava, which had already been celebrated before, had to go through the house and take the tour”, the same one that is currently done, he said.
“I think this date is important because it marks the birth of the current journey, and if it weren’t for this, I would go somewhere else and what happened next might not have happened,” said Agustín Monteverde. Specifically, he referred to the fact that if the route had not passed through the house of his great-great-grandmother, Leonor del Castillo, she would not have been the promoter of a tradition that began in 1847 and is preserved today: the carpets of petals of flowers and volcanic sand to adorn the Villa on its big day of the Infraoctava, which this year commemorates its 175th anniversary.
Corpus Christi Program of La Orotava
On the occasion of this anniversary, the Association of Carpet Makers has prepared an ambitious program whose president, Leo Rodríguez, detailed yesterday at a press conference. It will take place between the months of April and June and includes the making of a carpet ‘for solidarity with La Palma’, a tribute to the first board of directors of the Corpus of La Orotava, as well as a cooking show, a flower and craft fair and the exhibition 175 years between petals, among other events. In the long term, the Association works with other groups to launch the Canarian Federation of Ephemeral Art.
In this context, the Councilor for Fiestas, Alexis Pacheco, assured that the City Council “works intensely” so that in 2022 the carpets return to the street after two years suspended due to the pandemic.
In this sense, he valued the “intense work” of the carpet makers to maintain and project this tradition, which is the pride of the town.
