Josué Quevedo, the designer of La Isleta who triumphs in Tenerife and Gran Canaria

This artist can boast of wearing purpurin in vein Nephew of Rafael Reyes, who was vice president of the very Manolo Garcia when he was in charge of Carnival Board, Josué inherits the passion for groups from his mother, founder of the caribbean troupe; in fact, his brothers, Jonathan, the oldest, and Kilian, the youngest, came out like Joshua himself in the ranks of the murga of his neighborhood, La Isleta, Los Chancletas, a militancy that his eldest son maintains, whom in addition to admiring, he praises because “he sings very beautifully” when he came out Grandchildren of Sarymánchez.

Student of Leon y Castillo School and after the Institute of the Islandat the age of sixteen, he debated between his artistic vocation or dedicating himself to cooking, another of his passions, which he initially opted for, studying two years of the corresponding cycle, he ended up working in the residence of El Palmeral and at the Riu Palace.

The artistic vocation resurfaces in him again, just when he helps his mother in the hairdressing salon that opened the doors to him. styling world. It was there when he knew he had to design and dedicate himself to fashion, so he undertook another cycle of styling that gives him access to production company Mediaset, of Telecinco, through some Canarians who, based in Madrid, were looking for a stylist. And there was Joshua, who took advantage of the two years of shift cover to get started in the industry. «I learned a lot. I recognized that it was my pure vocation».

This designer was a murguero before he created fashion. At the age of seven she came out in the Baby Flip Flops, until when she was 16 she became an adult. Josué was first a stylist before he became a designer of murgas fantasies, with which he began with Despistadas in 2011, precisely when he launched his professional project MasQModa Canarias. Since then and to date, Josué Quevedo has been installed in the first prize of Costumes for murgas in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, except in 2015 and 2019, when he was dropped by Los Legañosos. For the rest, she has monopolized the first cards with Despistadas –with six first- and CrazyTrotas –with two top awards–, another of her reference female murgas, along with Los Twittys, by Pepe Talavera. In ten years he has won no less than eight times in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and in 2016 he captured the three Presentation cards.

Already in 2014, Quevedo participates in the contests of Santa Cruz, with the children’s murga Distraídos, by Tana Rodríguez López; that year he achieved a presentation second prize, and in the following, third, to break into the chicharrera capital again in 2022 with Mamelucos, assuming the difficult challenge of replacing Javier Torres Franquis and Lito Díaz -who have converted the murga of the House of Fear in the cathedral of murguero design for its Presentation awards–, and dabbling with Redoblones, by Jose Cortés El Pirata. With both murgas monopolizes the first and the second presentation.

When asked about the key to his success, he is clear: “Let me fly”, to warn that the prize does not have a price, but that the key is to maintain the essence. Hence, every time he tackles each project, he meets with each murga to ask about their aspirations. Previously, as happened with Mamluks and Mamelons, as well as RedoblonesI know contagion of the history and tradition of each group. “I am not here to impose, but to try to maintain the level that exists,” he stresses, and sentences: “Santa Cruz de Tenerife understands and knows a lot about Carnival”, a reflection he made when he received the commission for Mamelucos through Airam Bazzocchi, which led him to ask himself: “why go to another Island?”.

Joshua is respectful to the tradition and history of each group, no matter how much he admits that he has reached the house of fear on skinny cowswhich has not prevented him from winning the double in 2020 nor has it diminished his enthusiasm and creativity: “Mamelucos already has the designs for 2023 and 2024”fruit of those nights that, sleepless, get out of bed to capture the idea that emerged in a drawing, one of his creative secrets.

Another key. When you get to have eleven murgas at the same time, you have to have mixed teams, work with differentiated workshops; otherwise it would be impossible to get the maximum level with each creation, as occurs with Mamluks and Mamelons, with Brenda and Juliana Serranowith Redoblones and the chinese workshop of El Pirata, or the 44 people he has in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

«I do not conceive of Carnival to earn money; it would be impossible”, and confesses: «the only thing that conditions me is what each murga asks». From there, flies and makes the Canarian Carnival great.