Last Friday, November 24, the César Manrique Foundation (FCM) paid tribute to the folklorist Antonio Corujo with the publication of a book about his life entitled Antonio Corujo. 'Centuries of sand and salt', written by Gregorio Cabrera. In front of a room full of public, the prologuist of the book, Saúl García, opened the act highlighting the authenticity and the genuine character of the author and the protagonist. He described Antonio Corujo as an "innate artist" and highlighted his value as the depositary of a tradition that he makes his own and at the same time transforms, "as the great ones do". In addition, he took the opportunity to request the culmination of the procedures for his appointment as Favorite Son of Lanzarote.
For his part, Gregorio Cabrera began by pointing out that there are events that remain forever in the memory: "The echo of that timple, those limpets and those verses resonated forever within us," he said in relation to a performance that he and his classmates witnessed as children. "He gave us his art, his truth, his knowledge. That is why no one who has listened to Antonio can forget him," he stressed. The author of the book linked this fact with the impression that the men who were in his father Domingo's barbershop and canteen, in San Bartolomé, must have had, "that day when little Antonillo started singing and left them all with their mouths open." "Antonio, in short, is an artist because he leaves a mark," he considered.
Cabrera narrated the process of interviews with Corujo to face the writing of this book, which is the seventh number of the collection 'Islands of Memory', published by the Publications Department of the FCM, with previous titles dedicated to Guillermo Topham, José Molina Orosa, Gabriel Fernández Martín, Miguel Pereyra de Armas, Luis Morales Padrón and Pepín Ramírez. Author and protagonist began talking in Don Antonio's hairdressing salon, but the interviews were interrupted by customers, and, later, in restaurants, where Antonio used to end up stringing together a verse, a seguidilla or a poem after another, 'so it was normal for him to end up attracting everyone's attention, which was not the best for the interview, but it was the best demonstration that where Antonio is, there is the stage'.
In the opinion of the author of the book, Antonio Corujo has always lived in the present, although he does so from the defense of tradition. Proof of this, he assured, is that some of the most innovative musical projects that have taken place in the Canary Islands in recent decades have had his collaboration. In this regard, he indicated: 'People like Antonio show us that there is a common thread between yesterday and today that we must never lose sight of. Not as an exercise in nostalgia, but because pulling this invisible thread will make us see the present and the future in a clearer way and differentiate between what is a legacy and what is simply a burden', added Cabrera.
The author finished his speech talking about the writing process of the book. He explained how his intention "has been to transmit part of that knowledge and that particular way of being in Antonio's world". As a stellar culmination, Antonio Corujo, 90 years old, masterfully recited the poem Lanzarote, by Vicente C. Hernández, to the public, and, then, for more than an hour, the author and the protagonist proceeded to sign copies.
