Harold Rivero Pérez has worked on the island protocol, as an official and later Head of the area during the tenure of four of the 31 presidents of the Cabildo de Tenerife: Adán Martín (1987-1999), Ricardo Melchior (1999-2013), Carlos Alonso ( 2013-2019) and the current one, Pedro Martín (2019-). This Venezuelan by birth, who feels like a tacorontero, glosses over three decades of experience and a multitude of anecdotes.
Harold Rivero has spent half his life professionally dedicated to protocol in the Cabildo de Tenerife. He has worked since 1992 with four of the 31 island presidents up to now: Adán Martín, Ricardo Melchior, Carlos Alonso, the three of Canarian Coalitionand the current one, the socialist Peter Martin. He recounts situations and anecdotes from his experience in ensuring compliance with the rules and the protocol ritual in the house of all Tenerife. He details the keys to his work: “Art, creativity, with history as the axis, but, above all, in my case, passion because things have to be done with passion.”
Rivero believes that the Council of Tenerife «It is perhaps the institution with the most protocol activity in Canary Islands», since the events it organizes joins its collaboration with others both in the public sphere –including the 31 Town Halls of the Island– and in the private sphere. The insular Corporation includes in its structure nine areas with their respective ramifications. Protocol must address all of them plus the dependent companies or autonomous bodies.
solemn acts
Rivero values how the two most solemn and important acts from the point of view of protocol, the delivery of distinctions to persons or entities and the inauguration of a new president –and the other 30 elected councillors– in a constitutive plenary session like the one that will take place in a few days after the elections last May 28.
Harold clarifies that “it is not the same protocol as education.” He adds in this regard that “the protocol to follow is part of people’s behavior.” He remembers the old saying “where you go do what you see”. As an example, he points out, “if you don’t know what to do, wait and when two people do the same, repeat it yourself.”
The Chief of Protocol of the Cabildo de Tenerife gives some guidelines about his profession: «If there is any mistake or improvisation, the key is that it is not noticed. Those of protocol should not be seen; Another thing is to hide. That would be avoiding responsibilities because you have to know how to act and always have your mind trained and exercising like someone who goes to the gym. Rivero sentence: «Everything is priced and you can’t play with improvisation, but something can always go wrong. From a microphone that doesn’t work to a traffic accident that prevents a guest from arriving on time. You have to have plan A, B and even C ».
It stresses that another pillar is the technical part: «The guidelines have to be very marked. An act begins from the moment they tell you that it is going to take place, not five minutes before it starts. In a single sentence: «Long preparation, short execution». A half-hour act may have taken months of preparation.
Value that «of the initial idea that the host or organizer gives us is to interpret the philosophy and turn it into something tangible, that can be seen and touched so that those who are in the physical space of the act or follow it online can live it and have the sensation of something that becomes part of the history of the Cabildo de Tenerife and in some cases that of Tenerife society as a tribute, a presentation of distinctions or giving the name of a facility to a person». He remembers several “unforgettable” events over more than three decades: “The inauguration of the Tenerife Auditorium (September 26, 2003 with the presence of the then Prince Felipe) when we had a very powerful deployment ». Also “royal visits to the Island or the commemoration of the centenary of the Cabildo in 2013”.
Harold emphasizes that “each act is different even if they are repeated from one year to the next. You have to start them from scratch, as if they were new. The proof is the next takeover “in which we are already working. Every four years it is done, this will be my eighth, and it is never the same ».
More than thirty years of trade give many anecdotes. She relates this one: «In a delivery of distinctions the wife of one of the honorees appeared and we located her, but after a while another arrived and also said that she was the wife, also the real one according to her because they had not separated. There you have to have skill and find a solution on the fly. We put the children in the middle, both in the front row.
Another one that can be counted: «A person is sitting in an act, another arrives and tells me that if I put it next to it, where it belonged, it will leave. Luckily there are tactics that give experience such as having wildcard seats and it was solved ». He summarizes: «If I doubt it would be a disaster. You have to act quickly and not notice. React rather than improvise”. He considers it one of her best qualities.
Regarding the events, he details the importance “of before, during and after because you have to thank everyone, the team or the cleaning service that went well.” As for the constitution plenary session, scheduled for a few days from now, he considers that “you always have to imagine a possible scenario and the protagonists of the act to complete the preparations because you have to be clear about what they should do, when and how.” He explains that “very hand in hand with the General Secretariat of the Plenary. Everything is very regulated with the advantage of knowing who the president is – the one who heads the list with the most votes – which allows us to have a more lucid event than in the town halls.
Rivero insists on the idea that “we are not luxury ushers, there is much more to do than put people in their places.” He adds: «The chiefs of protocol are like conductors of an orchestra. Eloy Díaz de la Barreda, who held the position here, came from theater and said that the protocol was a staging. With script, stagehands, stage and performances. Without detriment to those who are not actors ».
Referents
He names Harold as a reference to Manuel Martínez Fresno, who was in charge when he started: “He gave me the first opportunity, we went hand in hand and I learned a lot.” He also mentions José Arturo Navarro Riaño, for many years in the Parliament of the Canary Islandsor Manuel Pío, the same in the City of Santa Cruz.
Outside the islands, the Catalan Felio Vilarrubias, “everyone’s teacher”, head of the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Prince of Asturias Foundation as well as promoter of specialist courses at the University of Oviedo. “We all learn from everyone in this profession”, value. He underlines the general improvement in protocol training in recent years when not long ago there were hardly any courses in the ULL.
Another fact is that the protocol must always be exquisite with the symbols in order to know how to manage them, when to place them and how to use them. He qualifies: «The corporate image should not be confused with heraldry or vexillology –the study of flags–. They are not ornaments.”
Regarding the four presidents of these years, he is diplomatic. He comments that “everyone has their own way of doing things. They propose the idea and we give it shape.
He underlines: «Protocol, in addition to the set of rules that govern public and private acts, is effort, knowledge, work and good company». In the latter case, that of the administrative assistant Beatriz Bermúdez -the team is completed by several orderlies-, barely nine months with Harold. Beatriz had no previous experience in this field and her assessment is “very positive, I have learned a lot.” It is not for less given the experience of someone who has seen four presidents of the Cabildo de Tenerife pass in 31 years with a single protocol. That’s what Harold knows about.
A full and intense professional life
Harold Rivero Perez (Caracas, 1962). City Council official Tenerife since 1991, when he joined the Museum of Nature and Man, in the insular department of Protocol since the following year and Head of the area from the beginning of the current mandate, in 2019. He feels from Tacoronte, where he lives, even though he was born In Venezuela, his resume would fill several pages, but it is enough to mention that he is a Specialist in Protocol and State and International Ceremonial from the University of Oviedo and the Diplomatic School of Madrid. He has organized and collaborated in hundreds of events because “the Cabildo is present in practically everything that is held on the Island,” he points out. He criticizes intrusiveness as one of the problems in his profession. He reflects: “We have to be psychologists because we play with people’s egos.” And he values: “You have to take into account for this work factors such as disability, equality or symbols because one act is never the same as another.” The protocol is based, explains, on the inveterate tradition (guide to place in order above vanity) and customary (repeated custom that becomes the norm). A final sentence: “They say that the protocol is something old until they need it.” | JDM
