Ivone Palezuela (Efe).| One Holy Thursday, before becoming a costalera, Abigail Díaz watched with her grandmother the traditional procession of the Captive Jesus in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. That day, she had to correct a group of spectators who praised loudly next to her how “boys carry Christ well”, because although it is something extraordinary, in this case, it is carried by women.
“Can women carry that weight?” was the question received by someone who, after nine years of experience as a bearer in the Cofradía de la Macarena y el Jesús Cautivo, is one of the most suitable voices to confirm that yes, that a A group made up only of women can carry the 800 kilos that the Christ weighs for four hours. “You go out to the procession and it’s as if you were a famous soccer player, because people are very devoted, they applaud you a lot,” she says.
It is becoming more and more known that this structure is carried by a group of 28 girls, but there are still those who are surprised when, upon arriving at the San Francisco Church, the faces of the sisters are discovered.
At 31 years old, Abigail adds nine as a member of the only group of costaleras of which there is evidence in the Canary Islands. “I think we have made progress but the idea that only men can do things with strength is still present. We carry it like good jabatas, like women and if we have to carry the virgin, because she weighs even more, we will do it too ”, she adds.
For Abigail, this is about strength, but also about faith and technique. “We learn to lift it, to take the correct steps because walking is not the same as carrying the Christ, we have to carry it at neck and shoulder height with a pad and it is necessary to know exactly what position to position ourselves in,” she comments. .
The step is made up of women of all ages who form a team during the rehearsals of more than a month and that is, one of the premises is that “we all go together, if one falters, the rest of us support it”. After many years attending the procession with her grandmother, she fell ill with cancer and the best promise her granddaughter could make was to join this group of bearers: “She always told me that she would love to see me there.”
She signed up with a friend and, since then, every year she lives “an incredible experience” full of “emotion, feeling and sacrifice”, which without a doubt have increased this year after more than three editions without being able to walk the Christ because of the pandemic.
According to Abigail, there is no specific explanation as to why, at the beginning of the 2000s, a group of women met and started this tradition, but it does make it clear that it will continue and that is that the members of the cofradía feel ” hooked”.
“I know that it is something tied to the church and that many people are not believers, but it is wonderful to live it, it is an emotion that cannot be explained, I think that you have to have some faith but it is an experience that goes beyond the religious ”, he recounts.
This year the procession began at 8:30 p.m. instead of 10:00 p.m. as usual, but the route was the same as always, starting at the church of La Concepción and following the route through the Foundation with a stop at Plaza de La Candelaria , where the traditional reverence to the Virgen de la Candelaria was made to later reach the final point, the San Francisco church and close the procession with a mass.
