San Francisco street laundriesin the historic center of La Orotava, were created in the 16th century and until the end of the 60s of the 20th century saw many generations of women wash who left their hands rubbing their own and other people’s clothes against the stone. That place of work and meeting takes more than half a century in silence and only recovers part of the life it had thanks to the recreations that, like this Saturday, May 14, 2022, organized by several women from the theater group of the The Staircase Cultural Collective: Alicia, Bernarda, Caty, América, Lala, Miguelina, Yaiza and the boy Héctor.
For the fourth time since the end of 2021, this group of women from La Orotava They appear dressed in old clothes, hats, canvas and aprons, with their metal buckets and buckets, bars of blue soap and millet pits to wash clothes again as it was done for centuries, just until the normalization of domestic use of a appliance that put an end to a trade: the washing-machine. With conversations, prayers and songs from before, these women show neighbors, visitors and tourists what the day-to-day life of the washerwomen of the towns was like.
America Gonzalez Gonzalez will soon be 86 years old. She washed as a child and as a young woman out of necessity, but this Saturday she went back to work to help keep the collective memory alive. «I used to wash here until the washing machines came, so today we are doing everything as it was done before. With the bath and the bucket; the bathtubs to make indigo and whiten clothes; the pits to scrub the dirtiest pants; the bar soap that came before: yellow from the lizard and blue, and some rosquetitos and a treasury of gofio to make an ayanto. And the bottle of anise in case someone gets a kick out of it, so let’s have a rebound and warm up the belly », he explains.
These laundries worked with the water that moved the gofio mills of the Villa, this Saturday they received again the necessary liquid to work and leave their clothes white as snow. America says that “People used to come here a lot to wash the clothes of rich peoplebecause it was what it was. It was a job for the houses that could afford it. They brought full baskets and washed themselves in order to win a little dog. For the oldest member of the group, it was a morning of memories: «Since I was a girl I used to come with my mother and then alone. There was a shortage, but he had a good time. The women fought if someone came too early and they took away the stone where she used to wash. Each one had one that she thought she washed better.”
The coordinator of the group is Miguelina Garcia Estevez. In 2021 it occurred to them to propose to the Town Hall the possibility of organizing these recreations to give life and activity to this corner of the town: «Every once in a while we organize this recreation, for which we document ourselves with women who came here to wash. We had a fun time and we show the hard work and effort of the women of yesteryear».
Stairs has already organized four recreations since November 2021 and hopes to celebrate the last one this year next june, “before the holidays”. They have the support of the municipal Heritage area, although their work is altruistic. Their payment is to be able to show the new generations part of the history of the villeras. His work will soon be immortalized in a video that visitors will be able to consult in the car washes through a QR code.
