Photos: Sergio Betancort
The old headquarters of the Lanzarote council, now known as Casa Amarilla, hosts the exhibition 'Buches & Diabletes - The Traditional Carnival', which opened on Tuesday afternoon.
The inauguration began at 7:00 p.m. with the welcoming words of the coordinator of the exhibition, Miguel Ángel Martín Rosa, who thanked the work done by an entire team of professionals who gave everything to achieve the projected objective.
Then the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, took the floor, who was very satisfied with all the material exhibited and recognized the great effort made by the members of the two groups to continue maintaining the cultural heritage, the pride of Lanzarote and unique in the Canary Islands, which must continue to be promoted.
After his speech, San Ginés gave the floor to the curator of the exhibition, Benito Cabrera, who made a rich chronology of the cultural wealth contained in these two groups, which have some similarities with other ancestral representations in other communities and countries where some of them have managed to be declared World Heritage Sites.
After the curator's words, the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, invited all those present to tour the space dedicated to the exhibition, where carnival expressions and customs from other parts of the world are exhibited, many of which have symbolic parallels with our ancient carnivals, all with a very careful aesthetic exhibition planning that has been carried out by the young Lanzarote designer Carmen Corujo.
A walk through the Arrecife Carnival from the beginning of the 20th century
All visitors will be able to enjoy the photographs belonging to different carnival events such as parades, floats, the burial of the sardine, murgas and Carnival queens, clothing, panels with explanatory texts, and video projections. The exhibition also includes a tour of the Arrecife Carnival from the beginning of the 20th century with a large group of studio portraits and photographs taken outdoors.
The origin of Los Diabletes de Teguise dates back several centuries. They constitute the carnival devils par excellence of the Canary Islands, which were initially linked to the celebration of Corpus Christi, like their relatives the Diablos de Yare (Venezuela) or, more closely, those of Tenerife. Los Diabletes symbolize the original, festive and essential sense of the ancient Carnival and have parallels in other latitudes such as the Caretos de Ousilhao (Portugal).
As for Los Buches de Arrecife, they are a vestige of the ancient Carnival, although their exact age in Lanzarote is not known, but there are written references to them at the end of the 19th century. Just as it was once a spontaneous and participatory event, it ended up being lost, but in 1963 a group of friends decided to revive this tradition in the form of a party that evoked that ancient Carnival. In 1991 they published an album where the back cover was designed by César Manrique and whose original sheet can be seen in the exhibition.
Will remain until the month of April
The opening ceremony was attended by the councilors of Culture, Óscar Pérez, of the Tourist Centers, Echedey Eugenio, and of Education and Heritage, Carmen Rosa Marquez, among others. The Councilor for Culture of the Teguise City Council, Olivia Duque, also traveled to accompany the members of Los Diabletes, as well as the official chronicler of La Villa, Francisco Hernández, who gave a brief overview of the history of this group.
Some of its members of the two groups exhibited there also gathered to see all the valuable material exhibited. The exhibition has a projection room where Benito Cabrera, Francisco Hernández and Félix Hormiga narrate with their voices very valuable texts related to Carnival traditions.
The 'Buches & Diabletes' exhibition, produced and organized by La Casa Amarilla, will remain open until the end of April and can be visited from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
