The Plenary Hall of the City Council of Los Realejos hosted last Saturday the act of constitution of the so-called Cochinera Table, a coordination body between the towns of Los Realejos (due to the pig trade developed for decades from its nucleus of Icod el Alto) and de Ingenio (a municipality in Gran Canaria that also shares this legacy) for the defense of its heritage and the dissemination of this ancestral work. The initiative also has the representation and support of the councils of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
The mayor of Los Realejos, Adolfo González, who presided over the constitution of this body, pointed out that “the objective of this Cochinera Table is to promote and disseminate the cultural heritage linked to the ancestral trade and the cochinera tradition that Los Realejos and Ingenio have shared , a meeting point from which to design, plan, organize and manage future joint activities in this line”.
The public administrations that make up this Mesa cochinera are the Cabildo de Tenerife (which was attended by its vice-president, Lope Afonso, and his island councilor for the Primary Sector, Valentín González), the Cabildo de Gran Canaria (which was attended by its island councilor for Employment and Local Development, Juan Díaz), Los Realejos City Council (which was represented by its mayor, Adolfo González, its deputy mayor of Icod el Alto and councilor for Rural Development, Alexis Hernández, and its councilor for Citizen Participation, Macarena Hernández) , and Ingenio City Council (with the presence of its first deputy mayor, Rayco Padilla, its Councilor for Cultural Heritage, Catalina Sánchez, and its Councilor for Culture, Sebastián Suárez).
They also make up the Mesa cochinera and had representatives during the formal constitution meeting of the host Cultural and Recreational Association Los Cochineros de Icod el Alto (promoter of this initiative together with the Mayor’s Office of Icod el Alto and the Department of Citizen Participation of Los Realejos), the Association of Culture and Heritage of the Canary Islands (Cupacan), the Association of the Order of the Canary Cachorro, the Popular Music Group Los Cochineros de Ingenio, the Tenerife Rural Foundation, the researcher and writer Manuel Lorenzo Perera (author of the book Los cochineros of Icod el Alto).
Adolfo González made special mention “of the good harmony shown during the meeting and the unanimous support that with this gesture, with the constitution of this table, the result of consensus between public administrations and entities of different kinds, we are giving to the defense of our heritage cultural, in this case to a concrete task, to an ancestral trade that supported more than 100 families in Los Realejos”.
