June 9 marked 20 years since the first attempt to demolish the Atlante Theater. A demolition approved by the municipal government to build on that site, located in the historic center, a macro-building with commercial premises and parking.
The demolition was carried out without informing the Heritage Unit of the Cabildo de Tenerife and was carried out in phases, since it was two years later, in March 2005, with stoppages in the courts, when the neighbors stood in front of the shovels of the now defunct Pejomar company, to unsuccessfully prevent the definitive disappearance of the property.
The anniversary has gone unnoticed in the maelstrom of the electoral results and the formation of the new Corporation despite the fact that a few months before the project was presented to transform the plot, acquired by the City Council several years later, into a sociocultural space that will house the Archive Municipal, a conference room, another exhibition room and a study room, along with other complementary auxiliary spaces.
The truth is that June 9 marked a before and after in the history of the town’s heritage and gave rise to the Atlantean Movement – officially established on July 6, 2005 – made up of a group of citizens who came together spontaneously. with the same objective: to highlight the heritage and cultural value of the property and prevent a project that a large part of the townspeople were against from materializing there.
The demolition of the old theater was a series of absurdities that some called “an act of terrorism against heritage.” Firstly, because the government group (CC) at that time did not initiate the appropriate procedures to safeguard and protect the integrity of the building despite having requested it before the Plenary Session a year earlier by the political party Initiative for La Orotava (Ipo ). Secondly, because the license to the promoter Pejomar was granted two days after the municipal elections of May 25, with a government in office, to name two of the most relevant inconsistencies.
The then mayor Isaac Valencia downplayed the artistic interest of the property and on the contrary, assured that it was “aesthetically an eyesore” and an “obsolete infrastructure.”
Designed in 1932 by the prestigious architect José Blasco, the old cinema-theater was a symbol of modernity in the municipality and a reference in the Valley. National and international artists paraded on its stage, and great cultural, social and sporting shows were organized. In addition, it had a mechanism that allowed the stabilization or inclination of the wooden floor, so that it adapted to each type of show.
The neighbors’ complaint for a planning crime against the heritage that also affected several adjacent historic houses bore fruit and the construction of the large building was paralyzed when the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) agreed with them. As a consequence, the licenses granted to the aforementioned construction company by the City Council were annulled and finally, in 2017, it decided to buy the site for a value of 709,149 euros after reaching an agreement with the judicial administrator to give it a sociocultural use, the same as they had requested by the neighbors in 2005.
On September 23, 2019, the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 2 of La Orotava issued the order to archive the open criminal case for which Isaac Valencia, the former councilor Juan Dóniz, the former municipal secretary Juan Carlos were accused for 15 years. of Tomás Martí and three technicians from the La Orotava City Council. At that moment, the process that began in 2003 was closed and since March of this year, Atlante begins to write a new chapter in its history in which citizens also want to be protagonists.
Because they have earned it and because they want to avoid making the mistakes of the past.
Although it does not meet with the same regularity as then, the Atlantean Movement is still alive. The pandemic has been partly responsible for this lethargy but also the judicial process, which by lasting so many years has made people lose interest a little.
But the reality is that its members have always looked after the town’s heritage, because if something has not been questioned since then, it is that citizens have taken an important role in the diagnosis and planning of the municipality.
For this reason, they are waiting for the mayor, Francisco Linares, to invite them to see first-hand the preliminary project that the public company Gesplan has designed for the site.
“It has been sadly lost but at least the use that is going to be given to it will satisfy the needs of all citizens,” says María Victoria Martínez, who at the time was the president of a Movement that is once again more alive than ever. never, made up of dozens of people including Toño Sánchez and Juan Pedro Hernández, in turn members of the El Rincón Ecologist Coordinator, which was also fundamental in the entire process. With them this newspaper remembered what was experienced in those years.
“This experience marked a before and after in La Orotava, because a good number of people were able to stand before the shovel to prevent the building from being destroyed. The shame was that we didn’t do it in 2003, but I think that until the neighbors saw that the façade was breaking down, they didn’t believe it. “I started crying,” Sánchez confesses.
In his opinion, this process made the heritage take on a different aspect and people began to worry. “From that moment on, any project that the Government wants to undertake in the historic center will have to be thought about,” he declares.
As a result of that camping trip that lasted 19 days “and 500 nights, like Joaquín Sabina’s song, because they were very long,” Sánchez jokes, the Atlante Movement was spontaneously formed, although the neighbors had begun to organize long before. .
“At that time there was no WhatsApp, we agreed through word of mouth to meet at the Coordinadora El Rincón location and everything was voted unanimously, because we all thought the same thing. Seeing the place full of people worried and hurt by what was happening was exciting,” Martínez recalls.
It was a group made up of different ages “and that was the most beautiful thing,” because the younger people with small children took them and they organized games and they all enjoyed watching movies together.
There were endearing people in the process, like Doña Vicenta, who lived across the street, and Aníbal, her nephew. At almost 90 years old, she loved to dance and she always repeated that she had danced a lot in Atlante. “He told that and it united the group more. Because we felt that she was trying to protect a part of the history of La Orotava,” says Martínez.
Juan Pedro Hernández also rescues the sentimental aspect. When the shovel was breaking the facade, she heard a man who, while he was staring at her, said out loud: ‘I’m going to film you because I met my wife there and she died recently.’
“You fell apart when you heard that,” he says. His brother was an operator in the cinema for many years. “On many occasions I would go up and help him rewind the movies. When I saw the table where he did that work, tilted, about to fall into the street so that the shovel could destroy it, tears came to my eyes,” says Juan Pedro.
It was a long process but at the same time a beautiful and exciting citizen experience that everyone later missed because of the “adrenaline” that was created in all that time.
They have hundreds of anecdotes and memories. One that stands out is when the architect expressly went to the place to explain the project and everyone present told him that “that building was not going to be built.” The “poor man” was so shocked that he walked away.
After everything that happened with Atlante, this citizen platform would have liked to follow the example of the team drafting the El Rincón Special Plan, which “before drawing the first line” met with all the parties involved to take into account tell your suggestions. Consider that in this case it would have been the correct thing to do before presenting the preliminary draft.
Despite this, since he senses that it is “quite closed,” he hopes that the government group will be receptive to listening to proposals. Because if anything is clear 20 years later, it is that the defense of Atlante was not in vain and the Movement that bears his name will continue to ensure that no more injustices are committed with the town’s heritage.
