The past revived this Sunday, July 2, 2023, on the sidewalks and roads of Santiago del Teide. For a few hours, on a day of hot sun, more than a hundred volunteers made possible a trip back in time to see the women farmers sitting at the edge of the path exchanging almonds, dried figs or wheat for what other peasant women bring from further away; 13-year-old boys, hoe in hand, digging; cabuqueros with dynamite on their backs; muleteers with old beehives and plows; partying brightening up the walk; laundresses giving conversation to walkers; women carrying bundles of firewood, grass or laundry on their heads; a clueless lawyer; a doctor with his leather bag; a priest accompanied by two widows; a goatherd with a single goat; an old lady with dick glasses smoking a pipe, and even a witch.
The XVI Staging of the Barter at the Summit Passorganized by the Santiago del Teide Town Hallstarted at nine in the morning in the square of La Montañeta, in Garachicowhere people dressed as the canaries of yesteryear, staged stories and realities of not so long ago. Around 12:00 they were already in San José de Los Llanos, in El Tanqueand after half past one the procession traveled the roads of Santiago del Teide.
This activity returned to the festive calendar of the Festivities of San Pedro Apóstol in 2022 after the stoppage forced by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. This year, Al Paso de la Cumbre has recounted with the collaboration of the Council of Tenerife through the Tenerife Rural Foundation.
The southern City Council stresses that this initiative «It is a tribute to the generations of canaries and Canary Islands who traveled the paths and paths of the Archipelago looking for family support», and a way to “revalue local products that were part of this exchange system”, such as almonds, fish from the coast or tomatoes. A subsistence economy model, based on barter, in which people from different areas of the municipality and the region traveled many kilometers on foot or on mules to find what they needed and exchange it for what little they had left over.
Many of the participants in this initiative are members of the Folklore Workshops of Santiago del Teide. The attachment to traditions and customs encourages them to prepare, with care and their own resources, a role and a characterization that give to the Summit Pass an authentic touch, where improvisation and interaction with the public are key.
Ivan Cabello and Maria del Mar They have collaborated on seven editions. They say that their role, in the final part of the tour, is “to stage a normal day in a town from before, like people who were washing sheets, children working on building walls and some barter of farm products.” Everything is voluntary and vocational “because everyone looks for their clothes and organizes their props.” A day that for Iván “is different, but also necessary, because today’s youth are losing traditions.”
vicky She has been collaborating for three years and, sitting in the shade, has almonds, figs, wheat and millet placed in metal plates and baskets. «When someone passes by I tell them that if they give me eggs, I will exchange them for wheat or milles. I enjoy it because I like that customs are respected and that the little ones can know them toobecause the older people tell us that they came from Puerto Santiago to here to the town to exchange fish for eggs, or tomatoes, in Tamaimo».
Bartering was also staged in La Montañeta, in the upper area of Garachico, and in San José de los Llanos, in the municipality of El Tanque
Rosana Gonzalez, 13 years old, is another protagonist of this recreation and defends its usefulness: «I think it’s good that we do this because it’s like remembering the old days. Here I feel as if I were in a movie interpreting scenes of things that I have not experienced but that now I can experience ». Unai he is also 13 years old and Daniel, “practically 13”. They are the two boys They work by the roadside with their hoes. It is not the first time they have participated, in previous editions they were in charge of bringing straw or almonds. It’s not the first time they’ve picked up a hoe, either. For Daniel, “it’s like being in a movie, traveling back in time and remembering our ancestors.”
At 66 years old, Luis Martineza retired professor and “involved in the world of folklore for 35 years”, made his debut this Sunday in the staging of the barter: “It is the first time that I can come and I have to be a lawyer who lost his luggage when he came to fix the papers from the sale of some land and I am looking for the priest, the mayor or the teacher to help me ».
In step with the main group bucios are heard and the whistle through which two shepherds communicate who, with the help of large spears or wooden spears with metal tips, climb the walls that surround the path. The shepherd’s jump is mixed with the conversations of two milkmaids who “have not a drop” because they could not find “not even a goat.” At least along the path passes a kid that accompanies a solitary goatherd. It goes where he goes and stops when he stops. “That baifo looks like a dog”comments a woman dressed as a peasant, with stockings and everything, astonished.
There is also a party and, as if it were a small pilgrimage, a woman with a hat, basket and apron, invites almonds, rosquetes and kneaded gofio. Another lady is very weighed down by the basket of beans that she wants to exchange “for something else that I lack.” This homage and festival of traditions ends in the square of Santiago del Teide, with music and good food. Among the audience, the mayor of San Miguel de Abona, Arturo Gonzalezwho sees “great that these things are taken care of so that traditions are not lost.”
