Aníbal started at the age of 4 in the Guanche collective with his father. Until 2019 he was the knife of the representation and his brother Néstor – who died during the covid – the stone. who is replaced this afternoon by Ruymán, another member of the Castro family.
The group that co-stars in the representation of the apparition of the Virgin of Candelaria to the aborigines it comes out again this afternoon-night after three years later; the last time it was in August 2019, since the August Festivities were already suspended for the following edition due to the incidence of the covid pandemic.
Aníbal Castro Bello, the man who assumes the role of the aborigine who cut himself with his own knife when he tried to dissuade the Patron Saint, says that the origins of this recreation date back to more than 250 years ago, according to the documentation, when it is ensured that “it was customary to do this tradition.” The base group is made up of seventy people, which increases depending on those who decide to go properly dressed – with sheepskin – every August 14, at 8:00 p.m., to the old town hall of Candelaria. It is the only requirement to be part of this group that is moved by tradition or promise. In the past, it managed its statutes as an association but never completed them.
It’s more complex get the sheepskin to go out in the group, because with the implementation of the regulations it almost becomes an impossible mission unless it can be purchased through a farmer. «Before, goats and sheep were raised for their own consumption and it was used to extract the leather; now all that is impossible because it is regulated and prohibited. The easiest thing is to get sheep wool from a farmer when shearing them, make a fabric pattern adapted to the person’s body and sew it lock by lock.
Its about the only day in which they coincide and embody the Guanches To those to whom the Virgin appeared, “then in the rest of the year many of us do not see each other,” says Aníbal, who confers the power of convocation to the Patron Saint. Beyond that, they have participated in occasional and isolated acts, such as when they went to see the Virgin of Candelaria on the outings to La Laguna or Santa Cruz. «Instead of going with street clothes, we went as Guanche, but without any other protocol». Regrets the loss of the organization of the guided and cultural routes along the Old Way to Candelaria that were organized for the February and August festivities, and that the group of Guanches, as if it were a surprise, welcomed the participants in the Cueva de Añaco, in Igueste de Candelaria, toasting them with a little wine, a piece of cheese or a small gofio pellet.
In the representation group you participate by tradition –the fixed ones, as they are called– and by promisesa, with a wide age range, from infants, as Aníbal explains, to adults. “Even pregnant women participate, so you can see the age of the smallest Guanches, who participate before they are born.”
More than forty years ago, women became part of the representation that until the beginning of the eighties was traditionally carried out by men. “I remember that there was once a group of young people who wanted to participate, and since then it has been normalized.”
Within the collective, a base group is identified that have traditionally carried the weight of the main roles in representation. Aníbal, who started when he was four or five years old, explains that his grandfather –José Bello– embodied for years the role of the Guanche who carried the knifea responsibility he has inherited, while his father, Elías Castro, was the aborigine who tried to throw the stone at the Virgin and his arm was paralyzed. For years, father and son co-starred in the role of the knife and the stone.
The Castro family, with nine siblings, has historically been linked to representations such as the one held yesterday in the Plaza de la Patrona, where for decades Nestor was the stone, as they count in the jargon between participants, and Aníbal, the knife. The incidence of covid did not pass by the group in these three years, to the point that the group itself Néstor, one of the faces best known for monopolizing the camera lenses, died in April of last year. Thus, this year is the first time that another brother, Ruymán, plays the title role of the stone in this performance. “We always had it as a spare in case one of us couldn’t go out, as happened to me once, when I didn’t recover in time from surgery.”
People of all ages, places of origin on the Island and the more various pint professions they identify themselves within the collective of the Guanches of Candelaria, explains Aníbal. He himself is an aluminum joiner; the Guanche king is a computer scientist and this year’s stone, his brother Ruymán, a cook. Within the group there is no shortage of officials who work in public administration, truck drivers or workers in the cleaning sector…, although it specifies that “within the group no one knows what profession the other is, except those they know”, for what participation is open to anyone who wants to join. “We all know that we have to be at the representation on August 14 and each one is already organizing with their respective jobs to have the day off,” he adds.
It is the other face of those who traditionally embody the role of the aborigines to whom the Virgin of Candelaria appeared; whose professional or family dedication is reduced to the papers of the king, the stone or the knife for the Guanches who, by tradition or to fulfill a promise, go every afternoon of August 14 to the old town hall to go out with the other family whom, in most cases they only see once a year. Many had not been in since 2019, and with the aggravating circumstance of the relief of one of the most charismatic characters, Néstor, from this year closer to his Virgin of Candelaria.
