The festivities in honor of the Santísimo Cristo de La Laguna officially kicked off last night with the reading of the proclamation by the current president of the Tenerife Sports Club, and former president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Paulino Rivero, who recalled the relationship between Real Hespérides and CD Tenerife with the Lagunero municipality, in an event that took place in the atrium of the Royal Sanctuary before a large civil, military and religious representation of the Island.
In his welcoming words, the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, defined the town crier as “a person who, from different areas of public life, has carried out tasks of great responsibility throughout his career, aimed at improving the living conditions of the citizens of our Islands. La Laguna is honored to have him as a preacher of the Fiestas del Cristo”.
Rivero thanked him for the “honor” of proclaiming the Festival of Christ, stating that “I am not a son of La Laguna, but I feel this city and the municipality are my own,” and began by advancing that his proclamation would address a point of view “more linked to the sport, because some of its noblest values are incarnated in the figure of Christ and in all its significance: sacrifice, dedication or humility, among the most striking, in my opinion.”
“I’m going to talk to you about how La Laguna, the Christ, its festival or the square to which it gives its name […] They were present in the genesis and development of the island sport. And football. With two protagonists in particular: Real Hespérides and our CD Tenerife”, he pointed out in this regard.
In this sense, the crier recalled that “it turns out that next to Christ and his sanctuary we can locate one of the first fields for the practice of football – still written at that time in its original English spelling – that our Island had.” , citing what was collected in this regard by the journalist Luis Padilla in his book Centenario de una passion.
“La Laguna plays a relevant role in the first steps of Canary Islands football”
“Padilla thus points out how, already in the first decade of the last century, La Laguna played a relevant role in the first steps of Canary Islands football. In 1903, the Patria and Sporting Club Laguna were born in this city, which in 1912 merged into the Real Hespérides Club de Fútbol. The same 1912 that assists in the creation of the Sporting Club Tenerife”, recalled Rivero.
“Hespérides and Sporting Tenerife have maintained healthy competition ever since,” he continued recounting. A rivalry that continued with the birth of CD Tenerife, in 1922, having notable milestones such as their participation the following year, as a guest team, in the premiere of the Hespérides field. That first venue, let’s call it official, for Lagunero football was built on the site that was later occupied by the barracks of the Artillery group, behind the sanctuary of Cristo Lagunero, where we now find ourselves.
Likewise, Paulino Rivero indicated that “until 1944, with the opening of the La Manzanilla stadium – today Francisco Peraza -, the home duels of that team that wore a light blue shirt and white pants were settled with the close surveillance of the venerated image of the Most Holy.” The town crier pointed out some of the most notable meetings between both teams and recalled how “the duels between Laguneros and capital residents gave rise to tough exchanges that today would have a place in some uncontrolled gathering.”
Paulino Rivero concluded by highlighting that “CD Tenerife’s relationship with this city is not limited only to its rivalry with Real Hespérides. Today, La Laguna hosts, in the Los Baldíos neighborhood, a newly remodeled Javier Pérez Tenerife Sports City of which we are especially proud.” And, furthermore, “La Laguna is also CD Tenerife, as attested by the thousands of followers or subscribers of the town and its towns, from one end to the other,” he said.
He concluded by highlighting that “La Laguna was, since the genesis of football in the Canary Islands, a decisive focus for its development and the cradle of players who helped make our club bigger.”
