The events of the festivities in honor of San Bartolomé are taking place with a lot of public participation. Last Friday night, the neighbors gathered in the tent installed in the Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente park to enjoy the XXI José María Gil Memorial and the 'Ajei Recognition' for the folkloric work that in this edition went to Juan Rodríguez Rodríguez, founding member of the La Peña Folkloric Group.
At 9:00 p.m. the event began with the performance of the Tagomate Folkloric Group from the palm grove municipality of Tijarafe. The group was founded in 1972 and is made up of about forty members distributed between the dance troupe and rondalla. It has an extensive repertoire of performances throughout the geography of the Canary Islands and peninsular Spain. One of the group's objectives is the conservation of traditional clothing in its purest style and especially to spread the traditional folklore of the island of La Palma. Tagomate began its performance with some folías continuing with the most representative of the palm grove folklore. Tagomate is directed in the musical part by Marcos Lorenzo and the dance direction is in charge of José Félix Rodríguez.
Secondly, the members of the La Peña Folkloric Group of San Bartolomé took the stage, founded in 1993 by Marcial de León with much effort and above all with much love for the most deeply rooted folklore. La Peña began to grow with the arrival of new members enthusiastic about the nascent project that was beginning to take shape and thus with that illusion the players and dancers joined. Currently they continue to carry the name of San Bartolomé and the Canary Islands participating in festivals, pilgrimages and television programs. They are organizers of their festival called "Antigua Ajei" and in 2011 they presented their album Recuerdos, which includes the most traditional folklore of San Bartolomé and the Canary Islands. They are directed in the musical part by Toni Rodríguez and the dance troupe by Raúl de León. They began their performance with some folías from Lanzarote continuing with the most traditional songs and dances that have always been sung and played in San Bartolomé.
Later, the expected moment arrived with the 'Ajei Recognition' for the folkloric work of Juan Rodríguez Rodríguez. First, a video was shown in which some passages of Juan Rodríguez's experiences were collected, where the protagonist was recounting his connection with folklore from a very early age, participating in several folkloric groups until 1993 when he became part of the La Peña Group, currently he is the only founding member of the same where he has always participated playing and singing with his very peculiar style when singing the malagueña, seguidilla, sorondongo or folias.
After the video, the mayor of the municipality of San Bartolomé, Isidro Pérez, took the stage, who made a semblance of the distinguished, congratulating him for contributing so many years of his life to folklore, wishing him to "continue with that altruistic work for the good of our traditional culture."
Finally, the Councilor for Festivities and Culture of the San Bartolomé City Council, Estefanía Luzardo, and the mayor, Isidro Pérez, presented him with the accrediting diploma and a replica of the 2023 festival poster carved in wood, a very emotional moment that was reciprocated by the applause of the public.
The memorial came to an end with the airs of malagueña and the isa parrandera to which the members of the invited group also joined, thus putting the finishing touch to a night where traditional culture was the central axis of the party.
