The José Ramírez Cerdá Park once again became a stage for Arrecife's musical and maritime memory this Monday with the celebration of the XXXVI Braulio de León Navarro Habaneras Meeting, an event integrated into the San Ginés Festivals program and which brought together on stage three groups deeply linked to the city's cultural history: the Arrecife Folkloric Group Coros y Danzas, the Los Buches Maritime Parranda, and the Arrecife Polyphonic Choral Group.
“How wonderful to once again enjoy the Braulio de León Navarro Habaneras Meeting and to do so with three groups that are part of our memory and our identity,” highlighted the deputy mayor and councilor for Festivals, Echedey Eugenio, who stressed that “it has been a night to be moved, to remember those who made our culture great and, above all, to look to the future by keeping our habaneras, our maritime tradition, and that Atlantic link that is part of who we are alive.”
Eugenio also highlighted the notable response from the public who came to the José Ramírez Cerdá Park, also known as the Old Park, who accompanied the performances with their applause, and thanked all the people who made the Meeting possible, especially the participating groups “for continuing to care for and transmit this legacy generation after generation.”
Musical History of Arrecife
The musical history of Arrecife was thus very present during a meeting that highlighted the conservation, transmission, and dissemination of habaneras, a genre closely linked to ports, travel, and migrations and which uniquely reflects the historical and cultural ties between the Canary Islands and America. The three ensembles offered a musical and visual journey through this tradition, evoking the melodies that crossed the Atlantic and which, upon their return, enriched the cultural heritage of the islands.
The Los Buches Maritime Parranda, founded in 1922 and reconstituted in 1963, also bears the mark of Braulio de León Navarro, one of its founders and promoters and a fundamental figure for understanding the musical trajectory of the group and an essential part of Arrecife's sound and cultural history during the 20th century. Alongside it, the Coral de Arrecife, heir to the old Polyphonic Choir founded by Braulio de León in 1973, also forms part of the historical DNA of this Meeting.
To these two groups was added the Arrecife Folklore Group Coros y Danzas, completing a particularly significant representation of the city's musical culture and of the entities that work to keep traditions alive and project them to new generations. The three groups thus elevated the habaneras to a space of encounter between memory, seafaring identity, and Atlantic vocation, in a setting by the sea that reinforced the symbolic character of the evening.
One of the moments of greatest symbolic weight occurred during the presentation of the Parranda Marinera de Los Buches, with the projection of an image of Braulio de León Navarro playing the violin while a voice-over recounted his close ties to the Parranda Marinera itself, the Arrecife Choir, and the tradition of habaneras in the city. The scene allowed for the bringing together, in a single image and narrative, of a large part of his musical legacy and his contribution to the sound memory of Arrecife.
Musical Heritage of Arrecife
Before the end of the event, the mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León; the deputy mayor and councilor for Festivities, Echedey Eugenio; and the councilor for Culture, Abigaíl González, presented three commemorative plaques to the participating groups in recognition of their contribution to the encounter and to the conservation, transmission, and dissemination of the city's musical heritage.
For its part, the Parranda Marinera de Los Buches, as the host group, presented the City Council and the other two groups with a set of commemorative gifts and items linked to the history and cultural heritage of the association, as a token of gratitude and fraternity.
The public's response was particularly significant, with a large turnout at the José Ramírez Cerdá Park and numerous ovations that accompanied the different performances. The reception reinforces the recovery of an Encounter closely linked to the musical memory of Arrecife and returns to the city a space to claim habaneras as part of its soundscape.
Furthermore, it once again places the figure of Braulio de León Navarro and the legacy he left in different generations of musicians and groups at the center of the city's musical history. The XXXVI Habaneras Encounter thus consolidates its vocation to keep alive and project towards the future a fundamental part of the musical, seafaring, and Atlantic memory of the capital of Lanzarote.
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