La Matanza de Acentejo is already a historic town

The Battle of Acentejothe great Guanche victory during the conquest of Tenerife, led by the Advanced Alonso Fernandez de Lugowas developed in the ravine that gives it its name and that is declared Well of Cultural Interest (BIC) since 2007 with the category of historic site. In that statement it is noted that the ravine of Acentejo «it served as the setting for a fundamental event for the conquest of the island at the end of the 15th century, the battle of Acentejo or La Matanza, which occurred at the end of May 1494, which forced the withdrawal of the Castilian troops and postpone his final triumph until 1496».

The Canary Islands Government Council granted last week to the northern municipality the title of historic town and authorizes the incorporation of said distinction to its heraldic shield. This distinction, which was requested by the Town Council in 2021, has been granted “once the Heraldic Commission of the Autonomous Community has issued a favorable report. The Government of Matanzas celebrates that its request has been met, “successfully concluding a process that does nothing but do justice to the future and identity of our municipality, while providing official status to a condition collectively felt and accepted within and outside the municipality.

In this concession, the Canarian Executive informs that it has applied “the procedure to grant titles to municipalities, as well as for the incorporation of the aforementioned titles in the municipal coat of arms, which is foreseen in the Order of November 15, 1990, of the Ministry of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands». That order regulates the approval, by the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, of heraldic coats of arms, coats of arms and flags of the islands and municipalities of the Archipelago, as well as “the files that are processed for the concession to the Local Corporations of treatments, honors and distinctions, and for the granting of titles, mottos and dignities to islands and municipalities.

The Heraldic Commission of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands addressed this recognition in the session held on February 10, 2022. That entity bases the granting of the title of “Historic” to the Villa de La Matanza de Acentejo in that, traditionally, the granting of these municipal honorary distinctions has been coupled with the recognition and proclamation of events of great importance, “that deserve to be remembered in historical texts, and whose importance can be confined to the local area itself or exceed it”. The Battle of Acentejo is the key to this title, which is also held by the neighboring town of The Victory of Acentejo.

This distinction requires to the municipality of La Matanza to “adhere to its heraldic shield, under the point, a silver ribbon with the legend in saber and in capital letters of the title of Villa Histórica”. From the local government (PSOE) They point out that there will be “a logical transition period” between the new shields, since the name change will be used to develop “a more refined design and a more correct adjustment to the heraldic rules.”

Being the battle of Acentejo a key event in the conquest of Tenerife and in the history of the Canary Islandsthere are not too many certainties about what happened at the end of May 1494 in the surroundings of the Acentejo ravine. Francisco Javier Leon Alvarez points out in his work The Battle of Acentejo: Between History and Legend, published in 2008, that “there are many authors who offered references to it over the centuries, some with more details than others, but all agreeing on a very important factor: they are not contemporary to the event, that is, they write about it at a later date, in some cases they hear about news about it, others by request, offering historical data in their works that are nothing more than a copy of those first references and many others greatly imagining how the battle unfolded, with details that are impossible to corroborate.

Leon Alvarez highlights in that work that for the location of the battle, between the current municipalities of La Matanza de Acentejo and La Victoria de Acentejo, “the investigation carried out by Juan Bethencourt Alfonso at the end of the 19th century to try to clarify the exact geographical framework in which the battle took place, questioning previous approaches and contributing novelties to the study with field work».

In the second part of this book Editorial Gargoyle Awake A comparative analysis is carried out between the battle of Acentejo and two other very significant ones in world history: that of thermopylae, in 480 a. C. in Greece, and that of Roncesvallesin the year 778. «In all three the geographical condition, in one case a ravine and in the others a gorge and a gorge, plays a very important role, without forgetting the mixture of history and legend that surrounded these events, the military strategies that were executed and the interest that art would later show about these battles”, warns the author.

On the Guanche side, which faced the troops of Alonso Fernandez de Lugothe figure of Bencomo, mencey of Taoro. Turismo de Tenerife recalls on its website that «during the conquest, the menceyato of Taoro was governed by Bencomo. From his territory, which he occupied the Villa de La Orotava, La Victoria de Acentejo, Santa Úrsula, Puerto de la Cruz, Los Realejos and San Juan de la Rambla, led the aboriginal forces that opposed the Castilian invasion, which earned him the nickname of King Great. He died during the Battle of La Laguna, in front of the Cadiz troops Alonso Fernandez de Lugo. His son Bentor succeeded him as mencey and illustrated, with his tragic story, the fatality that the conquest meant for the Guanche people. Seeing himself defeated by the Spanish after the battle of Victoria de Acentejo, he threw himself into the void from the top of the Tigaiga ravine, in Los Realejos. There he is remembered with a sculpture located in the viewpoint of El Lance ».

The journalist and writer Nieves Concostrina defined this battle as The Triumph of Guanche Ingenuity in his space It happens that it is not little, which is broadcast on Cadena Ser. With his peculiar style, he emphasizes that «the Castilians came out badly, very badly, because they underestimated genius and, above all, , the Guanche ingenuity and what happened happened: the famous battle of Acentejo». A victory in which the ambush, the surprise factor and the sticks and stones of the Guanches were able to overcome the superiority in weapons, means and men of the Castilians. A victory that changed sides on December 25, 1495, weeks after the battle of La Laguna, which the Castilians had already won, and which has gone down in history as La Victoria de Acentejo, the name of the municipality located to the west of The slaughter.

From an archaeological point of view, the Acentejo ravine, which now ranks La Matanza as a Historic Villa, is of great interest, especially the area of ​​the Sabina cliffalso declared BIC in February 2004. The decree for the protection of Acentejo Ravine, or San Antonio, points out that «the numerous natural caves that open onto the riverbed constitute a characteristic model of habitat; while the cavities that are worse equipped or located in points of more difficult access could have been used as funerary niches. Most of the caves located above the North Highway have been reused for livestock purposes or as tool rooms, and most of their archaeological fill has been lost. However, they constitute a paradigmatic model of the prehistoric habitat of northern Tenerife».