Not a pin could fit this Monday in the Santa Catalina park and the Sagasta and Tenerife streets, taken by the people who came to see the Paseo Romero del Victoria, who returned after two years of absence.
There was a great desire to party, so much so that more than one did not hesitate to put a towel over themselves and leave the sand of the beach for a moment to dance, in cholas, with the groups that this Monday animated the pilgrimage of the Real Club Victoria. Something normal when the pilgrimage is celebrated in the streets surrounding Las Canteras like the one that returned this Canary Islands Day after a three year hiatus. The typical costumes were mixed with the swimsuits and the cholas and with the occasional suitcase of travelers who were arriving or leaving and stopped for a moment attracted by the hubbub. Most of the terraces of Las Canteras overlooking the pilgrimage, as it passed through Sagasta Street, were packed with customers, who comfortably enjoyed the show from the front row while having their beer or soft drink and a snack.
The stall was formed as soon as the parade startedfrom the Santa Catalina park, and The event was not lacking in cows, dance groups, carts and sailboats, which arrived from Tenerife last Saturday, directly from the town of Tegueste, expressly invited by the Victoria. And it is that since 2010 a representation of the town of Tegueste celebrates every year, with the exception of the last two due to covid, Canary Islands Day on the opposite island.
The walk was attended by two sailboats and a cart that came from the Tenerife town of Tegueste
In total there were nine carts, representing the eight islands and the Victoria Club, which traveled for more than two hours -under a scorching sun that almost at the end took pity on the pilgrims and hid behind the belly of a donkey- through the streets of Luis Morote, Sagasta, Albareda, Tenerife, Eduardo Benot, Agustín Millares Sall and Plaza de La Luz.
The President of the Victory Club, Francisco Medina acknowledged being “excited and very nervous and happy at the same time» for taking up the tradition. «We have started it in twenty days, in which we have worked in a crazy way, because we did not know if it could be done or not». In the end it went well. People had a great time and the pilgrims deposited fruits and vegetables worth about 3,000 euros in the parish of La Luz, which will end up on the plates of the Cáritas soup kitchens. And it is that solidarity is the purpose that moves the pilgrimage walk, together with the celebration of the Day of the Canary Islands.
The rosemary walk was opened by a delegation from the town of Tegueste, with one of its typical carts, true works of art, made with roasted grains. It takes about four months to make these wonders, in which the drawings are first made with the chosen motifs and then they are filled or bordered with seeds. Ana Mena, Mayor of Tegueste and Eladia López, Councilor for Celebrations and Roadassured that for them it is «a pride walk through another island the tradition of our people», which also includes sailing ships pulled by animals. This year the neighborhoods of El Socorro, Pedro Álvarez, Portezuelo, San Luis and El Gamonal attended. “We have very good cable with them and they always come,” said Medina.
This is the second year that Nayara came with the cows that her brother brought from Agüimes. “If they call us, we always come,” said Nayara.
a divine thing
He also did not miss the citto Ana Gomez, which is part of Xerax folk group, from the Schamann neighborhood. He insisted on attending, despite not being able to play the guitar due to health problems. «The return of the pilgrimage is a divine thing. Imagine what it does that we didn’t come. I couldn’t miss it », she explained.
A little later they danced Margarita, María del Pino, María and Paqui, from Mesa y López, Arenales and Ciudad Alta, who have always been faithful to the pilgrimage since it was born. Wing of the Victory and all those who are put in front of them, because they do not forgive a party. “We missed this one and we take it back with pleasure, because after the pandemic it comes in handy. We have returned to a lost past, to our traditions. Now everything begins. Now there are so many things that we don’t have time to go to everything. You have to choose,” they said.
They are also not enough Linda Lopez and Rosa Delia. Although they are from Tamonante group They went “freely” to the Victoria pilgrimage, because “some companions had to have surgery and the whole body is not there,” explained Rosa Delia, while waiting for the arrival of a group of friends from Isla Perdida to get together and start partying .
The Victoria Club delivers 3,000 euros in fruit and vegetables to the parish of La Luz for the soup kitchens
«We had a great time, because we live this of Canarian and our customs. It should be promoted more in schools and in homes, because we are losing traditions and it’s a shame. People from the boonies come and they stay private and we don’t value it”, complained Rosa Delia, who recalled that her group, apart from having a great time on the pilgrimages, goes three times a year to the Taliarte nursing home and other centers to “make life happy for these people and for them to make life happy for us”. This Canary Islands Day they planned to continue the party until the end. “And then we had a few things,” she explained happier than a partridge.
As the pilgrimage progressed along Sagasta Street, the promenade was transformed and acquired the status of a party, after the influence of the songs, the dances, the jumps and the transfer of beer and other spirituous concoctions. The most lively were, without a doubt, those that closed the walk. It was impossible not to move the body or start with the palms, infected by the tremendous hesitancy of these pilgrims who began the party with “throw red wine on this car, it won’t start” and ended with “triqui, triqui, triqui, traca” , without stopping for a second and after singing and dancing the entire festive folk repertoire.
