Basketry is a worldwide craft that consists of creating baskets by hand using plant materials such as roots, stems, branches and bark. This activity, which is unique in the Canary Islands, acquires special relevance in La Orotava and, specifically, in the highlands with chestnut wood, with which these durable and resistant containers were and are manufactured, which replace those of plastic.
These data are included in A thousand stories in a basket, a new educational resource published by the La Orotava City Council and coordinated with the company Cultania with the aim of bringing chestnut basketry and its importance in the history of the municipality closer to schools in the medians
The publication was presented yesterday by the mayor, Francisco Linares; the Island Councilor for Agriculture, Francisco Javier Parrilla; his counterpart in the City Council, Alexis Pacheco, and Yaiza González, coordinator of the project.
The book is mainly aimed at boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 12. Likewise, it addresses, with simple and adapted language, as well as illustrations, general information on the basketry trade in the world, in the Canary Islands and in La Orotava, all the artisan processes necessary to create a chestnut basket and the different types of fibers and models (hand, canastra or banastra, fox, carafe or boat). It also includes complementary activities, descriptive sheets and two examples of works of art that incorporate these containers as a prominent element, as is the case of the monument to the fisherwoman, in Puerto de la Cruz, carved by Julio Nieto, and that of Los Cochineros , in Icod el Alto, in the municipality of Los Realejos. In addition, it is accompanied by an audiovisual, financed by the Cabildo de Tenerife, which can be accessed by scanning the QR code that includes the preparation in the field and the procedures of the vegetable fiber and the container itself.
The mayor regretted that this type of teaching, related to Canarian popular culture, is not carried out in schools to contribute to its conservation, projection and dissemination. In this sense, he announced that he plans to transfer this initiative to the General Directorate of Centers, to extend it to the entire municipality and to the Island.
