In the Tele Club was one of the first televisions in the municipality, the library and a small bar that served as a meeting point. The current president of the association that took over, Martín Enrique Doble Doble, recalls that it was created at the impulse of the parish priest Juan Velázquez Velázquez “to give the town more social life and facilitate access to culture.”
El Tanque Bajo, a population center that gave rise to this northern municipality, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the headquarters of the old Tele Club, which gave rise to the Virgen del Buen Viaje Neighborhood Association and half a century of neighborhood work in an environment that has always fought against isolation and depopulation. Martín Enrique Doble Doble is the current president of this group, which remains active despite the difficulties: «When it all started there were 234 members who paid 10 pesetas a month, now there are 48 left and we pay 2 euros a month».
Times have changed and every day it costs more to achieve neighborhood involvement and participation. That Tele Club Comarcal, which was born under the protection of a national network, was inaugurated by the authorities of the time in the historic center of The tank, “at the entrance of the town about 100 meters from the square, recently restored,” says Doble. That project had the support of the church and, especially, the parish priest Juan Velázquez Velázquez, who was the first president of the group. “This was created to give the town a social life and facilitate access to culture. There was one of the first televisions, the library and a small bar that served as a meeting point », he recalls.
After years in which first the Tele Club and then the Neighborhood Association were practically the only alternative of leisure and culture, The building is going through more difficult times, but it remains a benchmark: «We carry out infrastructure maintenance activities, the library is still active, there is an internet access point and it is still our meeting point. With the support of the City Council of El Tanque, we organize activities such as the Month of the Elderly, chess championships or school support classes, zumba and dance. And we continue to be the place for important meetings, such as when the local government summons us to agree on projects of general interest, such as the improvement of the square and its surroundings”, details the current president of the group.
Their work does not stop and now this tanker association wants to support the Christmas Eve cultural association, which organizes a living portal with more than 150 years of history, achieves recognition as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), “to ensure their protection”. In addition, they work so that the Virgen del Buen Viaje is recognized as the patron saint of tourism, “as announced in the 1960s and can be seen in some official City Council documents, one of them dated August 8 of 1969».
Among their current demands, the arrival of fiber optics to El Tanque Bajo and the repair of the Las Cruces highway, which connects the town with Garachico, with a partial cut due to landslides for more than three months. They also hope that funding will arrive to prepare the site of the old Parish House.
They have never stopped fighting to recover the local historical heritage, such as the Casa de los Guzmanes, “which is still in a state of abandonment due to the lack of agreement between its owners”, or the pond that gave rise to the name of the town, ” that is still preserved and we have managed to get it signposted ».
