Neighbors and visitors of San Cristobal de La Laguna You will wonder why the curious inclination of the first section of the popular La Carrera street -today, Obispo Rey Redondo-, one of the most important roads in Aguere. A legend survives in the memory of the Laguneros with which an attempt has been made to answer this question throughout the centuries and which brings together almost all the ingredients of a crime novel: clandestine loves, a murder and a father who ordered a wall to be built so as not to see the exact place where his son was killed.
Just as you remember Sunday Medina In an extensive article published in DIARIO DE AVISOS, on September 9, 2023, the legend refers to the passionate adventures of Fernando, the youngest son of the 15th century Castilian conquistador, Alonso Fernández de Lugo, who for this reason would have been murdered. It would be then that his father “had the projection of the wall built so as not to see the place where his son was killed.”
Medina recalls that historians such as María Rosa Alonso and Manuela Marrero consider that what really happened is less romantic. “The Adelantado did not live in the Villa de Arriba nor was his son murdered for love,” but in Barbary, “on one of the expeditions to the neighboring African coast,” she points out.
At this point, many will wonder what the aforementioned inclination is due to. “Both La Carrera street to the right and the parallel street of San Agustín, to the left, are caused by the ravines that arose from the water runoff that came from the upper part of the then Villa,” says Domingo Medina.
From ‘La Carrera’ to ‘Obispo Rey Redondo’
La Carrera was considered the main street since the founding of the Villa de San Cristóbal. Medina remembers that “it was originally called ‘the street that goes to Santa María’”, as it appears in the minutes of the Cabildo of 1514, and, a decade later, as Nuestra Señora Santa María de los Remedios street.
Likewise, Domingo Medina indicates that in the Tazmía of 1592 it appears as La Carrera street, “in reference to the horse races that were held there, where the riders, starting from the area of San Lázaro and San Benito, competed to reach the goal that was located in the Plaza de Abajo (Plaza del Adelantado).”
The author also remembers that on the popular La Laguna street there were ribbon races on horseback, “until they paved it.” Finally, the La Laguna City Council changed the name of the street to Obispo Rey Redondo in 1913.
