The Department of Historical Heritage of the La Laguna City Council has launched an initiative aimed at rescuing the indigenous memory of the municipality with the publication of the book Guanche memories. Testimonies about our indigenous past, which also includes a didactic project.
The volume, written by the professor of Didactics of the Social Sciences of the University of La Laguna and vice-dean of the Faculty of Education, José Farrujia de la Rosa, will be presented tomorrow at the old Convent of Santo Domingo, in an act that will include the presence of the Councilor for Historical Heritage, Elvira Jorge.
The historian Gonzalo Ruiz and the writer and anthropologist Elsa López, winner of the Canarias de las Letras award, will also attend, and during the presentation the actors Roberto Melo and Ana Niebla will represent two of the indigenous testimonies that are part of the book, as reported by the City Council of La lagoon in a statement.
Guanche Memories addresses the indigenous legacy in two parts and in the first, Estate, the testimonies of different Guanches from the 16th century are collected. Some of these stories are inspired by real cases and characters and all are based on documentary and archaeological information of the time. In the second part, fruitsthe texts are located at the beginning of the 21st century and reflect the inescapable and inevitable dialectic that exists between the indigenous past and the present.
For Elvira Jorge, this book represents a historical debt that is beginning to be repaired, because it has focused on recovering through research what over the centuries has been undervalued, forgotten or made invisible.
“And it was essential to do it through this formula, because it is essential that present and future young generations always keep in mind the Guanche legacy, which must survive forever. In addition, we have the right to continue learning what really happened to our ancestors, the natives and inhabitants of these islands, after the conquest”, he adds.
“Some of the stories are really very emotional. The author has managed to masterfully combine history, literature and the existence of real and current people to offer a book and some didactic units that will not leave anyone indifferent, in addition to contributing to the training and knowledge of our young people with respect and appreciation of the Guanche culture”, assures the councilor.
For his part, the author points out that the book seeks to bring the reader closer to the life of the Guanches at the beginning of the 16th century, after the conquest, and also to the patrimonial legacy that survives in the 21st century. For this, multiple ethnohistorical sources were consulted and, above all, documentary sources such as notarial protocols, wills, the Agreements of the Cabildo de Tenerife and the data on the distribution of the territory after the Castilian conquest.
“Through these sources we can infer aspects related to the life of the indigenous people, particularly in the case of Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna, the old Aguere, and its surroundings,” he explains. The book, points out José Farrujia de la Rosa, seeks to “offer an approach to the past in which both men and women participate, thus moving away from the androcentric gaze; and value the heritage based on its knowledge and the study of the geographical and natural environment in which it is inserted”.
