It’s not easy to recover from seeing your work ruined. To verify that the space on the floor where the images of María Auxiliadora were projected, in the tapestry on the right, and that of San Isidro Labrador, in the one on the left, now there is only a spot of an indefinite color as a consequence of the damage caused by the rain on Monday to the great tapestry in the La Orotava Town Hall square, made with natural sand from the Teide National Park, when the Infra-Octave of Corpus Christi celebration will take place tomorrow and there is no time to repair them.
“We are very affected and emotionally destroyed, but we continue working on the central tapestry and we are going to look for solutions to try to have the best possible carpet on Thursday (tomorrow), “said yesterday the councilor for La Orotava Festivals, Alexis Pachecowhile observing with resignation the state in which it had been left, he attended to the media and explained what happened to the people who asked him why the two tents on the sides that protected the tapestries had been removed.
His words were also signed by the director of the carpet, Domingo González Expósito, who had to experience the most difficult situation since he has this responsibility. Under his direction, the carpet makers of the Artearena collective did not stop for a second yesterday despite the fact that they could not hide their sadness at what had happened. Resigned to not being able to do anything with the wings, because the work of 45 days cannot be fixed in two, they focused on the task that remained pending, in the way that was planned, “and as quickly as possible so that everything that It is the central triangle, and a couple of small details that were not finished, are as good as possible”, he specified.
During the morning, dozens of people came to contemplate this ephemeral work of art and to give support and encouragement to the entire team. “Thank you, thank you, we need it,” answered González. He waited until the last moment to remove the central tent so that the same thing as Monday did not happen. Finally, around 6:00 p.m., the company’s workers proceeded to lift the entire structure. “Plan B and C have already passed, now we are in D, which is to start praying so that when the tent is removed, it will not rain,” said the director, who hoped that time would help and the central tapestry ” I look my best working long hours.” The members of the School of Carpet Makers, who on Thursday of Corpus Christi make the flower tapestries in the streets of the town, offered to collaborate, since many hands will be necessary to achieve it.
Alexis Pacheco wanted to make it clear that the decision to remove the tents was not rushed. “It is a logistics of many days of work that has to be done later. On Friday it was agreed with the management of the carpet makers, who are the soul of the square, to remove them first thing Monday morning in order to continue making the carpet, since the spaces between the side tapestries were quite wide. This year the design is more complex and we didn’t want what happened a couple of years ago, when we finished at five in the morning,” González pointed out. In addition, he added, “the company could not wait any longer because it has structures and schedules to comply with.”
The mayor admitted that it was not the right decision, “but it has not been anyone’s fault, rather it responds to the logistics of this event.” He recounted that on Monday afternoon they looked for solutions to see what could be done, “but the rain was falling so hard that whatever element we placed on top was worse,” he said.
panels with images
To solve what happened, huge panels will be placed with the images contemplated in the tapestries “so that the work that was almost finished can be seen.”
The person in charge of Fiestas hoped that next year it would be possible to have structures similar to the awnings that formerly supported the palm trees that were in the Plaza, which allowed their removal to be delayed as long as possible, while the tents need to be collected earlier. due to the weight that the structures support, according to what is required by law.
“There was talk of a single tent and it was unfeasible, because it could not enter the surroundings of the square and it also had to be dismantled on Monday and, since it was taller and more complex, the risk was even greater,” he explained, for his part, Domingo González.
A provisional measure that takes six years
The first time the tents were installed was in 2017 as a result of pruning the seriously diseased giant palm trees and to which the usual awning that covered the large tapestry was anchored.
A provisional measure that has been going on for six years now and that has conditioned the way carpet makers work, who have had to get used to doing it inside them.
In this sense, the mayor hoped that in 2024 the situation would be reversed once the Plenary of the Corporation unanimously approved leaving the new natural stone pavement ready, where a structure designed to support the future awning is buried, which must protect the making of the large and unique carpet representative of the patron saint festivities and of the ephemeral art of the town from the inclement weather.
“The objective is for an engineer to design a system of tents that completely covers the Plaza, but it must be studied because they cannot be dismantled while the tapestry is underneath and do it in 24 hours. There are many factors that must be taken into account and the objective that we have set for ourselves is to have them next year”, indicated, finally, Alexis Pacheco.
