The so-called Ceremony of the Guanches was represented again yesterday three years later -after the long pandemic-, like every August 14, in the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias when the sun began to go down and the sea breeze died down. A ceremony that could well be the seed of the devotion that Canarians feel for La Morenita, as a source of Christianity, but also of Canarian identity.
The square welcomed several thousand devotees who attended the representation of the Finding of the Virgin of Candelaria, a ceremony whose origin dates back more than 250 years, and which has been carried out since then by the group of the Guanches of Candelaria, in the that yesterday Néstor Castro was missed, who died at the age of 60 in 2021, who represented the Guanche who threw the stone at the carving found in Chimisay. His brother Ruymán played that role, while his other brother, Aníbal, continued to play the Guanche with the knife and Toño played the king, as he almost always did. All of them come from the town of Malpaís de Candelaria.
Not all historians agree on the place and date of appearance of the image of the Virgin of Candelaria. However, most agree with the first chronicler of the Virgin, Fray Alonso de Espinosa, in that the venerated image was discovered between 1392 and 1445 on a small rock that emerged from the sand on the beach of Chimisay (today El Socorro), on the coast of Güímar, from where it was later taken to the Auchón del Mencey Acaymo in Chinguaro and, later, to the Achbinico cave, in Candlemasa town where it will remain, despite the attempts of the lagoon clergy to take it to the then capital of Tenerife, according to the official chronicler of the Villa Mariana, Octavio Rodríguez Delgado.
Before a large audience, made up of residents of the municipality, tourists and especially pilgrims who have come to the Villa from different corners of the Canary Islands, the group of the Guanches of Candelaria performed the discovery, narrated by the actor José Luis de Madariaga, who gave the voice to the text of the script prepared by Octavio Rodríguez, based on the story of the apparition of the Virgin by Fray Alonso de Espinosa, published at the end of the 16th century, specifically in 1594.
The Guanche collective of Candlemasmade up of more than a hundred women and men, adults and children, carries out this selfless work, supposing a great boost to the knowledge of Canarian popular culture and the Guanche people, which led them to receive in 2008 the Medal of Oro de la Villa and have been proposed to the Cabildo to be BIC together with the group of Guanches de la Virgen de El Socorro.
The representation narrates the discovery by two Guanche shepherds of the image of a woman with a child in her arms on a rock, when they were about to take the cattle to the seashore. Being forbidden to talk to a woman in a desert place, the shepherds make signs for her to move away from her, but the woman remains motionless without responding to her requests.
One of the shepherds tries to throw a stone at him and his arm goes stiff. The other shepherd tries to hurt her with his tabona (knife), although, to his astonishment, he hurts himself. Surprised, they go to look for the mencey of Güímar, of whom they were vassals. The two shepherds tell mencey Acaymo the facts, showing their stiff arms as proof.
The mencey, accompanied by part of his people, decides to go down from Chinguaro to Chimisay to check what they told him, being amazed at the majesty of the image. Despite trying to communicate, he does not respond. He then decides to move her to his Chinguaro cave and tells the two shepherds who found her to carry her there, and when they touch her they are healed of their wounds, he tells the story, although for others it is a legend.
Full of joy for the discovery and the witnessed miracle, the Guanches jump with their spears and play the bucios in honor of the image that they will call Chaxiraxi, which will remain in Chinguaro until the final conquest of the island of Tenerife, when it is transferred to Candelaria, to the cave of Achbinico.
Right to carry
After the so-called Lawsuit of the Naturals, which lasted several years, the Christianized Guanches have maintained since 1601 the right to carry the Virgin, a privilege they have maintained until now and from which emanates the enormous devotion that Tenerife feels for Candelaria, for Chaxiraxi. Thus, yesterday, the Guanches were the ones who carried the image to the outside of the basilica and who, after the representation, led the procession carrying the Virgin’s car.
