From time to time and like a self-respecting summer snake, news appear in the media alluding to the use of images of Gran Canaria that place emblematic places of our island on the island of Tenerife, mainly Las Canteras beach or maspalomas, originating with it on each occasion, a greater or lesser stir in the media or on social networks.
We may think that this picaresque or fraudulent practice is something relatively new, but no, in reality it has been in existence for more than a hundred years. To do this, it is enough to see in the images of the attached postcards, that since the beginning of the last century it was a practice that had been done, since, as you can see, they locate the Plaza de Nuestra Señora del Pino and the Calle Real of the Villa Mariana in Tenerife, although curiously and I suppose that obeying commercial interests, without specifying exactly the population with which they confuse it?, since as you can see, on one occasion they place it in La Orotava, in another in Realejo (sic ) or simply as a street in Tenerife.
And not only was Teror the object of this fraudulent use, since there are other examples of it, locating the area of the La Laja tunnel, the church of San Lorenzo, or a landscape of San Mateo on the neighboring island.
At the time we are talking about, these were the first years of the use of postcards and it was common, perhaps because of the technical difficulties of the time or because of the cost involved, the repetitive use of the same image by several publishers, varying the printing systems or colors in the case of hand-colored postcards and thus, it is the case that at least to my knowledge, two of these postcards are published by other publishers indicating the correct location, circumstances that also occur in the examples of the other locations cited.
In all the cases that I know of, whether these are from the town of Teror or the other locations in Gran Canaria, the smart-ass editor of the images is the same: English Bazar or Nobrega’s English Bazar since he used both denominations and was based in Tenerife .
In my opinion, it is the fraudulent use of images, and perhaps taking advantage of the ignorance of the time and of the buyers, since it was a product especially aimed at tourists, the offer of ‘postcarded’ motifs was increased and a economic benefit.
We see, therefore, that there is nothing new under the sun, that perhaps the usurped landscapes have changed, the support used or the reasons that lead the authors to do so, but it is clear that it is a more than century-old practice and it must be that it has also lucrative or beneficial, since it remains over time.
In the image above, a postcard published by the Tenerife firm English Bazar in which it places the plaza and the Basilica del Pino in ‘Realejo’, Tenerife. In the two lower postcards, part of the square and Calle Real can also be seen, in which the same editor takes Teror to La Orotava, above, and next to these lines on the left, describes it simply as “Calle en Tenerife” .
