ÀNGEL GUIMERÀ: THE GREAT WRITER FROM TENERIFE

Jordi & The Grandma visit the Teatro Guimerà

Today, The Grandma and her friends are preparing their new trip. Tomorrow, they are going to climb Mount Teide and today they have decided to relax and rest in their hotel. Jordi Santanyí and The Grandma have left the hotel to visit the Teatro Guimerá, which is dedicated to the figure of Àngel Guimerà a writer in Catalan language who was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the 19th century.

Jordi and The Grandma are great fans of this magnificent writer who is considered one of the most important authors of the Renaixença (Renaissance) a great and splendorous age in the Catalan literature.

Before visiting the theatre, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 23).

More information: Contrast

Àngel Guimerà (6 May 1845 or 6 May 1847 or 1849 – 18 July 1924) was a Catalan Nobel-nominated writer in the Catalan language. His work is known for bringing together under romantic aspects the main elements of realism. It is considered one of the principal representatives of the so-called Renaixença, at the end of the nineteenth century.

He was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, to a Catalan father and a Canary islander mother. At an early age, Guimerà's family moved to Catalonia, where they settled at his father's birthplace, El Vendrell.

Guimerà wrote a number of popular plays, which were translated into other languages and performed abroad, proving instrumental in the revival of Catalan language as a literary language (Renaixença) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By far, the most famous was his realistic drama Terra baixa translated as Martha of the Lowlands. Written in 1896, it quickly became an international sensation. The play was translated into 15 different languages. In English, the play received three Broadway productions between 1903 and 1936.

Àngel Guimerà

In addition to being a popular stage play, Terra baixa was made into six films, including a silent film in the United States, entitled Martha of the Lowlands (1914) and Leni Riefenstahl's Tiefland (1954). Furthermore, it served as the source material for two operas: Eugen d'Albert's German opera Tiefland (1903) and Fernand Le Borne's La Catalane (French).

Playwright Àngel Guimerà was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, though he never won, due to controversy about the political significance of the gesture. He was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in 1904, to be shared with the Provençal writer Frédéric Mistral, in recognition of their contributions to literature in non-official languages. Political pressure from Spain central government having made this prize impossible, it was eventually awarded to Mistral and to the Spanish language playwright José de Echegaray.

When Guimerà died in 1924, he was offered a state funeral in Barcelona of a proportion which had never been seen before and was laid to rest on the Cemetery of Montjuïc.

In his hometown of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a theater built in his name, Teatro Guimerá.

More information: Teatro Guimerà

Terra baixa is the story of Martha, a poor girl from Barcelona, who finds herself the young lover to Sebastià, the most important landowner in the Catalan lowlands. Sebastià must marry a woman of prominence to keep his land and inheritance. To squelch gossip of his relationship with Martha but still keep her as his lover, Sebastià marries her off to the unsuspecting Manelic, a young shepherd from the Pyrenees, and sets the newly weds up in the house attached to the town's mill. Martha finds herself torn between her old domineering lover and her new caring husband. 

Another well-known work by Guimerà is the play La filla del mar (The daughter of the sea, 1900), that recounts the story of Àgata).

Her name is that of a precious stone, in sharp contrast to the contempt in which she is held. Her uncertain origins, and the fact that she had been born among Moors renders her an object of hate, branded as a heretic.

One of the few people who does not exclude her is Baltasanet, who states that When we are born, we are all Moors. Agata is perfectly conscious of the fact that she is considered a nobody and a nuisance. What evil have I done, that everyone despises me?, she asks. The discrimination she faces leads ultimately to her death.

Àngel Guimerà's state funeral in Barcelona, 1924

Agata feels attracted by the sea, which seems to be calling out to her, in the voices of her parents.

For her there is a symbolic opposition between sea and earth, the latter being all about misery and tears, whereas the sea harbours peacefulness and truth. Drowning, for her, would be a return to the amniotic fluid of the sea from which she was born. Like a sailor, she is strong, brave, and vital. At the same time she is sensitive, and when she finds in Pere Màrtir the affection she had desperately lacked, they are able to connect. She excuses his past as a ladies' man, but, overcome by jealousy, threatens him with death if he relapses.

The story of Àgata involves numerous literary allusions and archetypes, from mythological aquatic characters, to the legend of Sappho committing suicide by throwing herself from a cliff into the sea.

In his honor, the main theater of Santa Cruz de Tenerife takes its name (Teatro Guimerá), and is also the oldest of the Canary Islands. On the facade of the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes de Santa Cruz de Tenerife are a number of marble busts representing famous tinerfeños, among them Àngel Guimerà.

In Plaça del Pi in Barcelona is a seated bronze statue of Àngel Guimerà, which is a faithful replica of the one located opposite said Teatro Guimerá of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Such Theatre is located in Avenida Ángel Guimerá, named for being the street where the draumaturgo born. There turn a similar statue one in the municipality of El Vendrell in the province of Tarragona. These three statues were made by the sculptor Josep M. Codina i Corona from a mold made by Josep Cardona i Furró. He was also named adopted son of Barcelona in 1909.

Terra Baixa/Martha of the Lowlands by Àngel Guimerà

 Era en lo temps en que las neus primeras

las grogas faldas dels turons baixavan;

y en amples collas, volejant lleugeras,

las aus sens pátria sobre'l mar passavan.

Àngel Guimerà

TENERIFE, DISCOVERING THE ISLAND OF ETERNAL SPRING

Claire Fontaine visits La Candelaria Church

Today, The Grandma and her friends have arrived to Tenerife. They are going to stay some days in the island enjoying nature, food and carnival.

Tenerife is one of the capitals of the Canary Islands with Las Palmas and the island offers lots of amazing attractions thanks to its biodiversity and its ancient history. Tenerife has an awesome Guanche heritage that has given to the island its particular idiosyncrasy.

During the flight from El Hierro to Tenerife, The Grandma has been studying a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 19 & 20).

More information: Modals 2-Past

Tenerife is the largest and most populated island of the seven Canary Islands. It is the largest and most populous island of Macaronesia.

Tenerife hosts one of the world's largest carnivals and the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is working to be designated UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of the World.

The capital of the island, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, is also the seat of the island council, Cabildo Insular. The city is capital of the Canary Islands, shared with Las Palmas, sharing governmental institutions such as presidency and ministries.

Tonyi Tamaki visits La Candelaria Church

The island is home to the University of La Laguna; founded in 1792 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, it is the oldest university in the Canaries.

The city of La Laguna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the second city most populated on the island and the third in the archipelago.

It was capital of the Canary Islands before Santa Cruz replaced it in 1833.

Teide National Park is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is located in the center of the island. In it, the Mount Teide rises as the highest of the islands of the Atlantic Ocean, and the third-largest volcano in the world from its base. Also on the island, the Macizo de Anaga has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2015. It has the largest number of endemic species in Europe.

More information: UNESCO

Tenerife is a rugged and volcanic island sculpted by successive eruptions throughout its history. There are four historically recorded volcanic eruptions, none of which has led to casualties. The first occurred in 1704, when the Arafo, Fasnia and Siete Fuentes volcanoes erupted simultaneously. Two years later, in 1706, the greatest eruption occurred at Trevejo. This volcano produced great quantities of lava which buried the city and port of Garachico. The last eruption of the 18th century happened in 1798 at Cañadas de Teide, in Chahorra. Finally, and most recently, in 1909 that formed the Chinyero cinder cone, in the municipality of Santiago del Teide, erupted.

Tenerife is an island created volcanically, building up from the ocean floor 20–50 million years ago.

According to the theory of plate tectonics, the ascent of magma originating from the Earth's mantle is produced by the effects of tectonic activity from faults or fractures that exist at the oceanic plate.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits Guanches Avenue

These fractures lie along the structural axes of the island itself, forming themselves from the Alpine orogeny during the Tertiary Period due to the movements of the African plate.

Tenerife is known internationally for its warm and pleasant climate, as the Island of Eternal Spring.

The island, which lies at the same latitude as the central Florida, enjoys a warm tropical climate with an average of 18–24 °C in the winter and 24–28 °C in the summer.

The island of Tenerife has a remarkable ecological diversity in spite of its small surface area, which is a consequence of the special environmental conditions on the island, where its distinct orography modifies the general climatic conditions at a local level, producing a significant variety of microclimates. This diversity of natural microclimates and, therefore, habitats, means that a rich and diverse flora, 1400 species of plants, exists on the island, with well over a hundred entirely endemic to Tenerife.

More information: Web Tenerife

Endemic species include Viper's bugloss, Teide white broom and Teide violet. The fauna of the island has many endemic invertebrates and unique reptile, bird and mammal species. The fauna of Tenerife includes some 400 species of fish, 56 birds, five reptiles, two amphibians, 13 land mammals and several thousand invertebrates, along with several species of sea turtles, whales and dolphins.

Before the arrival of the aborigines, the Canary Islands and especially the island of Tenerife, were inhabited by endemic animals now mostly extinct. These specimens reached larger than usual sizes, because of a phenomenon called island gigantism. Among these species, the best known in Tenerife were:

Jordi Santanyí under a Dracaena draco tree

The giant lizard or Gallotia goliath inhabited the island of Tenerife from the Holocene until the fifteenth century AD. It was a specimen reaching a length of 120 to 125 centimeters.

The giant rat or Canariomys bravoi. Fossils mostly dating from the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Its skull reached up to 7 centimeters long, so it could have reached the size of a rabbit, which would make it quite large compared to European species of rats. Tenerife Giant Rat fossils usually occur in caves and volcanic tubes associated with Gallotia goliath.

The giant tortoise or Geochelone burchardi. A large tortoise, similar to those currently found in some oceanic islands like the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Remains found date from the Miocene; this tortoise may have inhabited the island until the Upper Pleistocene, apparently becoming extinct because of volcanic events long before the arrival of humans. Its shell measured approximately 65 to 94 centimetres.

The official natural symbols associated with Tenerife are the bird blue chaffinch, Fringilla teydea, and the Canary Islands dragon tree, Dracaena draco tree.

More information: Outdoor Tenerife

The island is located between 28° and 29° N and the 16° and 17° W meridian. It is situated north of the Tropic of Cancer, occupying a central position between the other Canary Islands of Gran Canaria, La Gomera and La Palma. The island is about 300 km from the African coast, and approximately 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula.

Tenerife is the largest island of the Canary Islands archipelago, with a surface area of 2,034.38 km2 and has the longest coastline, amounting to 342 km.

Virgin of Candelaria, the black virgin of Tenerife

The island's indigenous people, the Guanche Berbers, referred to the island as Achinet or Chenet in their language, variant spellings are found in the literature.

According to Pliny the Younger, Berber king Juba II sent an expedition to the Canary Islands and Madeira; he named the Canary Islands for the particularly ferocious dogs (canaria) on the island. Juba II and Ancient Romans referred to the island of Tenerife as Nivaria, derived from the Latin word nix, meaning snow, referring to the snow-covered peak of the Teide volcano.

Later maps dating to the 14th and 15th century, by mapmakers such as Bontier and Le Verrier, refer to the island as Isla del Infierno, literally meaning Island of Hell, referring to the volcanic activity and eruptions of Mount Teide.

More information: Lonely Planet

The earliest known human settlement in the islands date to around 200 BC, by Berbers known as the Guanches. However, the Cave of the Guanches in the municipality of Icod de los Vinos in the north of Tenerife, has provided the oldest chronologies of the Canary Islands, with dates around the sixth century BC.

Regarding the technological level, the Guanches can be framed among the peoples of the Stone Age, although this terminology is rejected due to the ambiguity that it presents. The Guanche culture is characterized by an advanced cultural development, possibly related to the Berber cultural features imported from North Africa and a poor technological development, determined by the scarcity of raw materials, especially minerals that allow the extraction of metals. The main activity was grazing, although the population were also engaged in agriculture, as well as fishing and the collection of shellfish from the shore or using fishing craft.

The Grandma visits El Castillo Negro, Tenerife

As for beliefs, the Guanche religion was polytheistic although the astral cult was widespread.

Beside him there was an animistic religiosity that sacralized certain places, mainly rocks and mountains. Among the main Guanche gods could be highlighted; Achamán (god of the sky and supreme creator), Chaxiraxi (mother goddess identified later with the Virgin of Candelaria), Magec (god of the sun) and Guayota (the demon) among many other gods and ancestral spirits.

Especially singular was the cult to the dead, practicing the mummification of corpses. In addition, small lithic and clay figurines of the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic type associated with rituals, interpreted as idols, have appeared on the island. Among these stands out the so-called Idol of Guatimac, which is believed to represent a genius or protective spirit.

More information: The Culture Trip

Tenerife was the last island of Canaries to be conquered and the one that took the longest time to submit to the Castilian troops. Although the traditional dates of conquest of Tenerife are established between 1494, landing of Alonso Fernández de Lugo, and 1496, conquest of the island, it must be taken into account that the attempts to annex the island of Tenerife to the Crown of Castile date back at least to 1464. For this reason, from the first attempt to conquer the island in 1464, until it was finally conquered in 1496, 32 years passed.

Many of the natives died from new infectious diseases, such as influenza and probably smallpox, to which they lacked resistance or acquired immunity. The new colonists intermarried with the local native population. For a century after the conquest, many new colonists settled on the island, including immigrants from the diverse territories of the growing Spanish Empire, such as Flanders, Italy, and Germany.

Tenerife, like the other islands, has maintained a close relationship with Latin America, as both were part of the Spanish Empire. From the start of the colonization of the New World, many Spanish expeditions stopped at the island for supplies on their way to the Americas.

Tina Picotes visits La Laguna, Tenerife

They also recruited many tinerfeños for their crews, who formed an integral part of the conquest expeditions. Others joined ships in search of better prospects. It is also important to note the exchange in plant and animal species that made those voyages.

After a century and a half of relative growth, based on the grape growing sector, numerous families emigrated, especially to Venezuela and Cuba. The Crown wanted to encourage population of underdeveloped zones in the Americas to pre-empt the occupation by foreign forces, as had happened with the English in Jamaica and the French in the Guianas and western Hispaniola, which the French renamed as Saint-Domingue. Canary Islanders, including many tinerfeños, left for the New World.

The most notable conflict was the British invasion of Tenerife in 1797. Between 1833 and 1927, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 the government ordered that the capital be shared with Las Palmas, as it remains at present. This change in status has encouraged development in Las Palmas.

Before his rise to power, Francisco Franco was posted to Tenerife in March 1936 by a Republican government wary of his influence and political leanings. However, Franco received information and in Gran Canaria agreed to collaborate in the military coup that would result in the Spanish Civil War; the Canaries fell to the Nationalists in July 1936.

In the 1950s, the misery of the post-war years caused thousands of the island's inhabitants to emigrate to Cuba and other parts of Latin America.

More information: The Telegraph

The general knowledge of time on the island depends,

curiously enough, on the direction of the wind.

John Millington Synge