How was your childhood in La Orotava?
I was born on June 27, 1957, a day of the carpets. We lived in Camino Polo and, when we were barely ten months old, my family moved to the neighborhoods of San Isidro, in Los Poyos. My father was a carrier and that marked my life. Always with just enough money to support a large family, with five sons. I always liked photography, since I was little, but it was an expensive hobby and I couldn’t develop it at that time due to lack of resources. My father went to look for merchandise at the dock and distributed it throughout the Orotava Valley. In summer, as he approved of everything in June, I could accompany him in the truck and I discovered a lot of things on those walks along the dock, the boats… From Los Poyos school I went to La Torrita high school, which I practically opened for the first time. I arrived in 1970 and they had inaugurated it in 1968. And I shared a class with the current mayor of La Orotava, Francis Linares.
When did you start working at the Archivo de la Villa?
In June 1993, the City Council initially hired people to help the archivist, but over the years we specialized and I was able to pass some oppositions.
What was that file you found almost 30 years ago like?
Let’s say it was a starting point. It was practically a mountain of papers, although there was also organized documentation. In order to have something well ordered, two things are needed: time and space. And at that time, Negrín, who was in charge, I don’t know if he had time, but I’m sure he didn’t have space. The archive was just a small room, where the elevator is now. People practically walked over the papers. The first big change came when the Music Band moved, in 1992, to the House of Culture, and left the premises they had in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. Shelves were placed there and the file was lowered. The problem? There were still a lot of loose papers, and that caused that when someone went to look for something, the thing ended up even more messy. At that time, with mountains of papers on the shelves and what Negrín was able to organize, we practically started from scratch.
You have lived through this whole process of change from within…
Indeed, and nothing that is seen today in the Municipal Archives of La Orotava is the result of chance. Nothing has fallen from the sky. Each paper, each millimeter, has been carefully studied. We have been a magnificent team and I have had the great fortune of working with two directors like Antonio Álvarez and Concepción Perdomo. I have learned a lot with them and they have been very good people. Nor do I have any complaints about the colleagues from the City Council, who have all been wonderful. The best thing about this file is that we have always worked as a team, contributing ideas and improving what is present. With consensus and without command and command. I have nothing negative to say about the archive, and at the head of the positive is its staff. They have been like a second family to me.
Has the worst of these years been moving?
Well, we have worked very rigorously and they have always turned out well. It was intense and we had to work a lot on the three big transformations. The first, from that room full of papers to the place in the town hall square. The second, in 2001, when the City Council temporarily moved to the current Mercadona offices and we had to pack all the documentation to temporarily move to the current headquarters. Keep in mind that documentation is a world apart. You always have to know what you are taking and where you are going to put it. We took more than a year in the process, which ended in May 2000. In 2005 we did not return to the City Council with the rest of the dependencies. The third major transformation was, between 2016 and 2017, with the installation of compact cabinets. It was a great challenge, a great investment and a good political decision, but it was not an easy undertaking. We had to pack and seal everything for a security company to move. And it came out perfect.
What have been your best moments in this job?
Since I’ve been happy all the time, it’s hard to single out anything. I was happy when I entered the archive, I knew it wasn’t just any job. For me there is no better job. Those of us who like documentation and history, they close the door on us, put us in a bed and we stay here to live.
Photography is another of his great hobbies…
I have three hobbies in life. The story, which leaves me no time to read novels; the documentation, since since I was little I have felt a bond with the papers and I always wanted to work on a table full of documents. At first the only reference I had were the banks and that’s what I thought about. I always had a vocation for organization and my papers were well organized and cared for since I was little. And the great passion of all of them is photography, but documentary photography, not artistic photography. I enjoy the artistic photos of others, but my thing is documentary and architectural photos. I make them thinking about the future, about what remains. And I take my photos thinking above all of La Orotava.
How many photos can you have in your personal file?
Minimum? Between slides, paper and digital photos, I have more than 600,000 images… and I fall short. In just one pilgrimage I have taken 6,500 photos. In 2015 I went to the stew in La Florida, from Friday, when they cut the vegetables, and I took 4,500 photos there. I photograph all the details thinking about tomorrow. These days I was taking photos at night of the asphalting of the TF-21. I enjoy it.
Do you plan to donate those photos to the Municipal Archives?
I’m going more for old than for young and that’s my idea. I have already left many photos, but I will do it little by little, in batches and in an orderly way, because I know that you cannot bring 10,000 photos at once. I don’t want to drive them crazy.
What kind of photos do they need?
People think that a photo of a street or a house doesn’t have much value, but it does, as does a relative’s old wedding photo. If 200 people donated the wedding photos of their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents to us, we could see the reflection of different times. The sociological value would be enormous.
What value do you give to the posters?
Well, I’m obsessed with posters, which is something so ephemeral that it disappears in a few weeks. How ungenerous we are with the future. If we don’t keep those posters and those social, religious, sports or cultural programs… how will future generations know what we did? The Archive does not store the City Council’s things, it stores the history of La Orotava. In the present we organize the past to be relived in the future. This is not a paper warehouse, here the history of a town is kept. And the posters are part of that story.
What plans do you have for after your retirement?
Well, I will continue collaborating with the Municipal Archives in another way. I will continue to provide you with photos and posters. Even more than now, because I will have more free time. I am going to be the poster design nightmare in La Orotava. I am no longer here as a worker, but I will not leave my archival essence, my vocation for history or my love for the Villa. That will die with me.
