La Laguna demonstrates through San Benito the good health of its rural geography

The day began very early with the ofrend the saint in his hermitage, in which a couple from each Island of the Archipelago offered their typical products. Expectation and a lot of emotion with more and more people around the small hermitage. They are the two feelings that prevail before the saint comes out. It is always the same ceremony, but also different every year.

the veteran

María del Carmen is an elderly lady who lives nearby and goes every July at the call of the saint. She is flirtatious and nice, she says that she is “70 years old” and that falls short. Using a cane to walk, she says that La Orotava “is the best” because she was born there “although I got married here.” She has come to see the cows that come from her town. “This year there are few” sentence. The inspector of the Local Police of La Laguna Javier Fleitas has a few pilgrimages behind him. He says that already in the early hours they have had to convince two countrymen with a few more quarters since the night before to leave the area of ​​the hermitage. With a lot of left hand. Occupational hazards. The breeze relieves the heat, but Fleitas points out that “the clouds are beginning to open up.” They opened up and temperatures rose, but always less than last year’s sweltering. There is also space to do legitimate business on such a special day. For those who have souvenir stalls or sell San Benito tiles on the street. Or those who have set up a drinks and food kiosk. Everyone has the right to eat and eat.

Participants

In the rectangle of Marqués de Celada streets, La Candelaria avenue – where the cars wait for their animals to leave – and Juana la Blanca, everything and everyone is concentrated. Magicians, oxen and wagons that arrive from San Rafael, San Lázaro, from other points in La Laguna or from El Portezuelo, in the municipality of Tegueste. Dami’s garden, La Pajulla, El Cuartito, Los Chiquitos, Las Materias, I sign up for everything, Los Rebenques… So up to 61 carts, each one with its own history and that of those who get on them to spend these hours – about two on the way out and no one really knows how many on the way back until late in the afternoon– with family and friends. That is the essence of San Benito. All are identified with a number. Some are authentic works of art such as those crowned by the tower of the Sanctuary of Christ or La Concepción. Others, much more humble, contain the magic of a setting as simple as it is unique to have a good time with families and friends. They all fit in the pilgrimage. Many onlookers in the area or weekend regulars such as bikers, always passing through. And walking their dogs on Sunday morning. Case of Juan Ramón Vinagre, in the vicinity of the headquarters, on Calle Juan reallyfrom the Orfeón la Paz to whose rondalla he gave as director 16 consecutive first prizes for interpretation at the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. There is very little left until eleven o’clock and it does not seem easy for this to start because it is presumed difficult to couple the essential animals. However, everything flows in a few minutes. There is the saint, and the technicians from the town hall, so that it goes well. The couplets sound in the first carousing when San Benito leaves his hermitage on his way to the Cathedral.

music and musicians

Drum, flute, bucio and chácaras come from Tigaiga, in Los Realejos, to announce that San Benito is coming out. Be careful because you have to lead the way. A father from outside tells his daughter “Look, touch a shell” and the baby’s eyes widen. In front are Los Sabandeños, after the hiatus in 2022. Then, at the height of their house on La Carrera street, they will wink at their eternal director, Elfidio Alonso, who gazes at them elongated to the window. Also in front are the drums of the folkloric group El Farol and the Guamasa Flower Dance. This group from the town of La Laguna has been attending the San Benito pilgrimage for 15 years. It is based on a first choreography dating from 1932. For Fani, spokesperson for the twenty dancers and vice-president of the group, it is the dance of Elías by the author, her great-grandfather. “Starting to dance is always feeling something special and it excites me,” she says.

It’s in their blood

Romanito’s sheep and goats, about 40 in total, wait stabled on one side of the hermitage. They form one of the two flocks displaced for this year’s festival; in this case, from Camino Tornero through Óscar and Romanito. They left on Saturday because the animals were in Tegueste and they led them along paths and ravines of old transhumance. They explain: “We brought them along the Camino los Pobres, Camino Los Laureles and Las Pañuelas.” His sons Dylan, 9 years old, and Jesús Román, 11, run around with the animals. Since their parents have grown up with them and hope that they will dedicate themselves, there will also be shepherds in the third generation. It’s in their blood. At 12:25 p.m. the Regional Pilgrimage starts with cheers to the saint, which is repeated throughout the route with some slight changes this year through the streets of Marqués de Celada, Doctor Olivera square, Herradores and Tabares de Cala to the Cathedral to return via Obispo Redondo King and again Marqués de Celada.

post-pandemic

Year II of normality and I without masks in the Romería de San Benito. She thanks Ana from her wheelchair, who lives in the Virgen Poderosa Nursing Home on Viana Street – Calle del Agua – and who can finally walk and enjoy the pilgrimage without a mask. She takes the opportunity to ask that they put a pool in which she has been her home for a few years. The bells stop ringing in the Cathedral at 2:07 p.m. Everyone lost almost three years with Covid-109 and some even lost the account of the Pilgrimage itself. But Bodas de Brillantes or not aside, the tradition of honoring the most rural part of Aguere on the second Sunday of July remains firm. See you next time. That of El Rosario in honor of Our Lady of Hope on August 6.