“You can’t talk about identity if we don’t know ours,” said historian Eduardo Zalba, author of La Devoción al Santo Madero en el Puerto de la Cruz, a “rigorous” work of months of research, a synthesis of the unpublished work entitled The Cross in the Port, which has resulted in the first of the heritage booklets that tells the story of the patron saint of the municipality: the Holy Cross, illustrated by Jonás Emanuel.
This Tuesday, May 3, the Holy Cross goes out in procession again. She will do so at 12 noon after the celebration of the solemn Eucharist in the Peña de Francia church and will follow the traditional route accompanied by the pigeon clubs of the city and the Los Dóniz party.
The rest of the traditional acts of this day are completed with the celebration of several routes that run through the different logs that are honored in the municipality.
The last record is from 1999, when 130 and 30 chapels were counted, but in recent years new ones have been added, such as the one found in the courtyard of the old convent of Santo Domingo, created by municipal workers with the torch left over from the Parque San Francisco, and the hundred that Porto families shelter in their private homes.
However, the acts in homage to the Holy Cross begin the day before with the concert ‘Eat and sing’ by the Parranda Villera, at the request of the elderly group, which will provide entertainment that night from the esplanade of the Casa de la Aduana.
The details of the festive program in honor of the Holy Cross were given yesterday by the mayor, Marco González; the councilors of Festivities and Education, Alberto Castilla and Flora Perera, respectively, and Eduardo Zalba.
“After two years of pandemic, in which this day was celebrated in a special way, this year it returns to be able to enjoy the spectacular nature and beauty of the branches of the crosses that distinguish the municipality. A tradition, but also a beautiful way of pointing out that which distinguishes us and that has a lot to do with the legacy that we have as a people and that as such we must take care of from the institutions”, highlighted Alberto Castilla.
The mayor expressed himself in the same vein, thanking the work of so many Porto families “who from generation to generation continue to plant hundreds of crosses with the same enthusiasm and devotion, which represent a unique opportunity to enjoy this ephemeral art.”
In this sense, he recalled that the schools and institutes of the city have designed some very special crosses that will be these days on Mequinez street, in the La Ranilla neighborhood, “a unique occasion where our schools share all their creativity and talent with us ”, transferred Flora Perera.
A very particular initiative that celebrates its second edition is the artistic crossing route, which adds 3 new ones to the initial 6 and is carried out by groups, individuals and companies such as the Green Zone, the Municipal Gardening Service, Juan David Pérez, the Verart cultural association , Joel Mesa, Jonay Díaz, Christian Hierro and Domingo Fernández Real on behalf of the Punta Brava-El Veril Cultural Association.
