No. 30 - Its Gran Canaria Magazine

24
GET TO KNOW GRAN CANARIA I CONOCE GRAN CANARIA EDICIÓN 30
Teror is all about water, nature, history of
emigration and parranda musical bands
By Míchel Jorge Millares
The popular fiestas in Gran Canaria offer an amazing
experience for visitors travelling around the island
during the summer, because of their diversity
and originality. Many of them are rooted in and inspired
by the landscape and the local people, and
make them recognisable as an expression of the
islanders’ nature and traditions. Indeed, the names
of celebrations reflect these ties with the land,
and fiestas are as simple and at the same time as
attractive as La Rama, La Traída del Agua and El
Barro or del Gofio, El Charco, La Cuevita, El Almendro,
and so on. They all constitute a long inventory,
catalogue and festive agenda that demonstrate
the joyful side to the links that the local population
have with their tiny territory, recreating itself in its
terrestrial nature.
Of all the celebrations, the most important is the
island-wide festival in Teror, the Day of El Pino, in
honour of the Virgin of El Pino, in which popular
fervour is intermingled with several of the most
representative symbols of the people. Its standout
feature is the pilgrimage that takes place on
the eve of the big day from all the cardinal points
of the island to the town, with a massive influx of
people who walk along the ancient paths to fulfil
their promises or, simply attracted by the fiesta,
the parranda musical bands and meeting up with
family and friends. The religious manifestation has
its origin in one of the most representative natural
icons of our flora, the pine tree, remembered in
the chronicles as a natural sanctuary of great specimens
of Canarian flora in the interior of a magical
jungle full of legends. Hence this town was venerated
by the ancient Canarians, constituting a great
natural temple covered by a huge specimen of the
ancient pine forest that was born in a land that
emerged from fire and shaped by water, by the
persevering and humid trade winds, the southern
storms and the omnipresence of the Atlantic
Ocean. In the middle of that 'Garden of the Hesperides',
a specimen of pine tree stood out in the
island’s landscape, surrounded by dragon trees,
dominating this laurel forest, surrounded by natural
springs that flowed from its roots with the flavour
and aroma of the Atlantic coming from the
north.
Here we have another of the fundamental traditional
elements and the islanders' permanent
struggle for survival: water, the guarantee of life, of
happiness for the island's countryside and which
gives meaning to its landscape. Furthermore, in
the Villa de Teror, the main local industry has long
been its mineral water springs, collected from the
ravines in Madrelagua and from the Laguna de
Osorio lake. Pilgrims used to drink from the spring
of medicinal water that flowed at the foot of that
pine tree, until a storm tore it down in 1864, a time
when it had become too heavy and old to withstand
the powerful gusts of wind.
Everyday life for the islanders contained droughts
and storms, pirate attacks, plagues of locusts and
epidemics. They thus turned to emigration as an
escape valve from hardship and famine. Hence,
the celebration of El Pino is also the stage on which
the cultural link with Latin America is highlighted,
which is manifested in the islanders’ feelings
through music, because as the saying goes, ‘Canary
Islanders have their feet in Africa, their minds
in Europe and their hearts in America’.
The municipality of Teror offers a whole new image
this year, with an improved beautiful urban
complex and refurbished church, in front of which
stands the renovated building where the old
'Americano' café was located, a meeting point and
gathering place not just during the fiestas, but
also throughout the rest of year, as Teror not only
attracts pilgrims during September but on a daily
basis, the town in which every corner can be described
in songs with popular roots.
Los caminos a Teror ya tienen
su propia aplicación móvil con
‘Vamos Pa’l Pino’
"The roads to Teror now have
their own mobile application
called 'Vamos Pa'l Pino'"