After the abortive assault the night before, the battle in the historic center of Santa Cruz It flared up last night. The English, willing to conquer the capital no matter what, stood up to the troops of General Antonio Gutiérrez, who once again, specifically number 225, managed to prevail over the British. And it is that the Historical Cultural Association La Gesta recovered the recreation of the spectacular combats that the pandemic interrupted, and that, after two years, have once again filled Santa Cruz with the smell of gunpowder in the 225th anniversary of the victory with which Santa Cruz obtained the title of “Very Loyal Noble and Undefeated Villa”.
The day of victory began early, with the opening of the period camp in the Alameda del Duque Santa Elena, where the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, was in charge of raising the flag that inaugurated the camp. There, until eight in the afternoon, locals and strangers were able to see what life was like in 1797. A space that was also the scene of the awards ceremony that the La Gesta association carries out every year.
After eight in the afternoon, and before a large audience, the fighting began. In the outskirts of the church of La Concepción, the first flashes of General Gutiérrez’s troops were seen, responding to the incursions of the English. La Noria street became the center of confrontations. As an example of how real the combats are, the diners on the terraces of La Noria chose to leave them almost on the run, and wait inside the premises for the reenactment to pass, given the thunderous noise of the cannons and rifles . The Santo ravine was another of the scenes of the final battle, but also closer to the center of the capital, such as the confrontation experienced on Imeldo Serís street.
The result, like 225 years ago, was victory for a town that, for three days, resisted the British onslaught. He did it the first day when they tried to disembark in Valleseco and a water carrier warned the soldiers who activated the defenses. It was then when Gutiérrez, as the chronicler of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Ledesma, tells us, “once he had touched the alarm”, General Gutiérrez, Commander-in-Chief of the Canary Islands, met with his staff and set the planned plan in motion; that is, to vacate the public offices of the Treasury, Tobacco, Post Office, commercial warehouses, and that women, the elderly and children go up to La Laguna in search of refuge.”
He then enlisted the help of the militiamen who arrived from Abona, Güímar, La Laguna, La Orotava and Garachico, some 1,000 men who joined the 600 soldiers of the Canarian Infantry Battalion and the 387 artillerymen who defended the castles and batteries with its 89 cannons, the 60 men of the flags of Cuba and Havana, the 110 sailors of the French corvette La Mutine, the pilots and sailors of the merchant ships stationed in the bay, and the civilian volunteers. Today, the signing of the capitulations will put an end to the frustrated invasion.
