There was no room for a pin, with the chairs set up from early in the afternoon as the least known ecclesiastical canons mandate. The chicharreros demonstrated yesterday with overflowing enthusiasm the accumulated desire to see in their streets the return of the best Carnival in the world, that of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, thanks to its great parade, that of the Announcing Cavalcade, the one that yesterday -despite the unprecedented and unusual of this 2022 edition- went down again from the avenue of Belgium to the Marítima, passing through strategic enclaves such as Ramón y Cajal, the Weyler square, Méndez Núñez, El Pilar, Villalba Hervás, La Marina…
In all the venues, the usual welcome…, but like never before, that the chichareros (and the thousands and thousands of visitors) have waited two years and almost five months for something to see the great protagonists of their party parade again. Its queens, its murgas, its comparsas, its rondallas, its characters… accompanied by their own, who were none other than the groups of neighbors who prepare their own fantasy to, at least once a year, escape from the otherwise prudish misery of a capital that has not even been able, so many years later, to turn the page on the Francoist past that repressed it to the point of a daze that it still suffers from.
fucking reality
More ‘Ouch! How stubborn is reality. It is true that thanks to the vaccines, the same pandemic that forced so much delay kills much less, but it continues to cost lives in the Canary Islands. Without going any further, in the last three days computed in the Archipelago, it has caused eight deaths, six of them in Tenerife, not to mention that in the same interval there are 2,493 new positive cases in COVID-19 among people of more than 60 years, the only ones who are now monitored. No one who lives on the Islands escapes the fact that, since the authorities surrendered to the bloody bug, infections have multiplied dramatically, and there is nothing easier to check than asking family and neighbors.
Be that as it may, it is impossible to open doors to the sea of people who threw themselves into the street yesterday, and who are even far fewer than are expected today at the Daytime Carnival, which, without a doubt, is going to be the moment summit of this year’s edition. That so peculiar that, thanks to the efforts of the City Council, it takes place even though they were never celebrated on these dates or with this format (except for 2000 when the extra edition in spring on the occasion of the World Capital of Carnival).
That’s not really important, but just as important as having fun is also protecting yourself, especially for groups at risk of COVID.
You decide and, by the way, give your regards to Don Carnal!
