As the former mayor of La Orotava Isaac Valencia would say, yesterday was a historic day for the Villa, but a sadly historic day, given that the rain destroyed the sides of the great tapestry in the Plaza del Ayuntamientomade with natural sand from the Teide National Park, a fact that had not happened since 1942, when a downpour of water made the carpet disappear completely and it was necessary to make a simpler one so that the procession of the Blessed Sacrament could step on it on Thursday of the Corpus orotavense.
But at that time there were no tents to protect this ephemeral art from the weather, nor were there almost accurate weather forecasts like today. Perhaps for this reason there are many people who do not understand why the two side tents were removed early yesterday when the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) had forecast rain for this Monday.
This decision left significant damage to the two tapestries, that of María Auxiliadora and that of San Isidro Labrador, which cannot be assessed until the rain has stopped. But just taking a walk around the surroundings of the square, as many onlookers did yesterday, is enough to verify that they have been considerable. Mixed colors, others that no longer exist and that are very difficult to achieve, such as green; blurred faces, and the ground as a background is what could be seen, along with the resigned faces of the members of the Artearena carpet-laying team, led by Domingo Expósito, who began working on the first lines on April 24. The central part, which represents the tabernacle of the Iglesia de la Concepción, is still standing and protected, since the idea was to remove it today or tomorrow, Wednesday.
Due to the repercussions that this event had in La Orotava, the City Council sent a statement in which it explained and justified the decision: “From the direction of the Carpet it was necessary to start removing the tents this Monday in order to have time before Thursday . Last year it began to be removed on Tuesday, and the carpet workers could not finish the tapestry until the wee hours of the morning. Thus, for logistical reasons, the tent company began the process of removing them yesterday, since it takes a minimum of two days to dismantle them”. The carpet makers planned, once they were removed, to continue working on the ephemeral art until tomorrow, the eve of Corpus Christi’s Infraeighth, “because the spaces between the tapestries are quite wide and this year the design is more complex, and so that citizens could continue enjoying and admiring the making of the Great Tapestry to receive the procession of the Blessed Sacrament on Thursday.
From the City Council they admit that the carpet “cannot be enjoyed with the beauty and majesty it had, but it will surely be beautiful for everyone as it turns out. The master carpet makers will do everything possible between now and Thursday so that this carpet, which has been worked on for 40 days, can be admired in the best possible way”.
This year’s design closed a trilogy that began in 2019 and was interrupted by the pandemic, which maintains the recovery of old materials such as flowers, burgados, eucalyptus bags and dates, among others, and the structure of its design, maintaining the triangle as a benchmark in all three, but this year with an investment. The same as that of 2022, in addition to the 15 colors of Teide, the design includes the black of La Palma ash.
Support for carpet makers
On social networks, society’s support for carpet makers has been maximum, offering their hands and time to help in whatever is needed, since time is ticking to try to repair damage that, according to some people, could have been avoided.
