The pilgrims who began their journey at dawn from August 14 to 15 hardly gave a truce with the arrival of the most official delegations that took part in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary every morning until the irruption of the covid in 2020.
Chago Melián was still singing on the balcony of the old town hall of Villa el Bendita, my Guanche land, and the parish priest of La Concepción de La Laguna –and the next canon– Jesús Agüín was putting order in the pilgrimage that departed at midnight from Aguere to the Basilica, a route that is not foreign to the person who was episcopal delegate in the last visit of the Patron Saint of the Canary Islands to Santa Cruz and La Laguna.
In the Basilica of the Villa Mariana the visitors did not give up during the early hours; perhaps the fluence abated between four and five. But during all the time that it was open, the prior of the temple, José Ramón Enjamio, acted as host. Welcoming, affable, he almost greeted one by one to inquire about the place of origin and thank the pilgrims for the visit as they did to him in person.
With a truce to get the temple ready again -almost with the same dexterity shown by the municipal workers in picking up the terrarium of the ceremony in a single stepwhich was erased from the square when the procession had already arrived again–, the Basilica was prepared to certify the return to the new normality with the roadmap marked by the tradition of every August 15.
At nine in the morning the components of La Guanchería disembarked, to the rhythm and drums and chácaras, which not only toured the exterior of the Basilica but shook the core of those who worshiped the patron saint inside it when they made the church throb with dry and deafening music. Among the participants, the palm tree María del Carmen Ramos –known familiarly as Rosi–, known since the last edition of the Carnival as the queen of the volcanoes, since she was elected sovereign in the Winter Festivals of her native Tazacorte, in 1971, when the eruption del Teneguía, and repeated the feat last June in Santa Cruz of Tenerifemonths after the Tajogaite went out in La Palma.
From nine to ten in the morningsecond act of August 15, with the arrival of seven hundred runners who set out from La Granja park to cross the old highway until completing their offering at the foot of La Morenita. This time, as was the case before covid, the Virgin of Candelaria came out to meet him at the main door. First lap, to pass with candelas enramadas –understood in simile in reference to the bouquets of flowers that they carried on high–. Complete return to the square again to deposit the offering in a dry land barge –due to its structure with wheels–, and words of thanks from the prior of the pilgrims. As if she had listened to Rosi, one of the members of the entourage – who went to the fence to greet her six-year-old son and his mother, and ended up hugging her brother and confiding in him, «this is for Dad”, the Dominican José Ramón Enjamio had words of remembrance for those who are not here, after welcoming “the capital of the Canary Islands, Candelaria”. The priest summoned the runners: “rather than take the photo that you are going to take with the Virgin, take her love with you”. In the absence of official photographers to keep up with him, the Santa Cruz Councilor for Public Services, Carlos Tarife, reached for his cell phone to, like any other runner, immortalize his offering.
And they were not made to beg: Long live the Virgin of Candelaria! Long live the Virgin of Candelaria! Long live the Virgin of Candelaria! intoned by the Dominican himself with the force of Jesús Mendoza himself, who was almost synonymous with the Patron Saint.
Already at eleven o’clock, the most formal moment arrived, to the point that The councilor for Citizen Participation and responsible for dealing with the institutions, Francisco Pinto, turned a deaf ear to President Pedro Sánchez’s request and asked the authorities to come in a suit and tie… without taking into account the recommendations of the energy decree. The aspirations of the island councilor Nauzet Gugliota to come with a jacket and a polo shirt were left on deaf ears. that he completed the act in rigorous suit.
In the entourage, the presence of former president Carlos Alonso, flanked by his nationalist advisers Efraín Medina and Cori Yanes –with a bandage on his left foot–, or the row of nationalist authorities: with the Mayor of La Orotava, Francisco Linares, accompanied from left to right by the Deputy Mayor of Santa Cruz, Gladis de León; the mayor of Güímar, a deputy mayor of Icod de los Vinos and the rigor of El Sauzal, who precisely on August 14 was seen through the streets of the Villa as just another pilgrim.
Francisco Pinto formed a battalion of authorities in the City Hall of the Eight Shellswhich he ordered by rank of representation: Local Corporation, municipalities of Tenerife, Island Council and body consult. The Canarian president Ángel Víctor Torres took it easy and arrived in an official car when the entourage was already placed in the Plaza de la Patrona, minutes before the representative of the King who this year fell on the birthday boy Gustavo Matos, head of the Parliament of the Canary Islands that the day before – August 14 – celebrated the 49th anniversary of his birth.
The Music Band Las Candelas, with Mauro Alonso at the helm –the third generation of master Abilio Alonso Otazo– paved the way for the transfer of the Pendón to Calle de La Arena. The presence together with the mayor of the Villa, Mari Brito, of the representative of the Parliament of Peru Gustavo Pacheco with the corporate ribbons of his medal –blue and yellow–; Her stay in Candelaria is due to preparations for an upcoming twinning.
Rarely is a political representation like this year remembered; came up Peter Martinpresident of the Cabildo, with several members of his team, among whom the vice president was missing precisely on the day of the photo Bertha Perez, that on the eve of the great day of the August Festivities entered the Guinness world record for having participated in the major procession that runs through the town of Candelaria at the end of the Guanche Ceremony, from the Plaza de la Basílica to El Pozo; and also completed the journey to and from the temple, which earned him the indulgence to repeat the odyssey on yesterday’s walk. Although the political delegation was abundant -with more than 120 representatives-, the presence of some representative from La Laguna was felt: “it will be the same because those from Candelaria do not go up to the Christ in September”, slipped some of the political advisers in search of the reason.
The moment of the transfer of the banner, and the authorities, waiting for the king’s representative to arrive, gave way to a parade along Calle de La Arena that allowed the pilgrims who lagged behind to be seen, including some natives of the place who each year implant the round trip pilgrimage model: they go to Santa Cruz to walk or run back to Candelaria.
Already at half past eleven, after the arrival of President Torres, the king’s representative, Gustavo Matos, who reviewed the troops and briefly greeted the authorities; in the military march, the band performed the Pasodoble Islas Canarias. “You have to see how the Army has sweetened its image,” praised the political advisor after seeing how the public applauded them, even more than the praise received by Ángel Víctor Torres.
Already at the door of the Basilica, the bishop received the authorities; little hairs to the sea with those who rejected his controversial statements months ago. After the game of the Banner at the feet of the Patron Saint – it was not clear who had to deliver it to whom – the Eucharist was celebrated in which the bishop said in his homily: “A lot of blah, blah, blah, but when things don’t coincide with your thinking, get rid of those who contradict you”, in reference to the persecution of the Church. At the end of the mass, procession around the square of the Basilica in a ceremony that certifies the return to the new normality of the August Festivities.
