The FCM presents “Dorotea de Armas. The last potter of El Mojón", by Jaime Puig

The César Manrique Foundation (FCM) presents on Thursday, September 25, at 7:30 p.m., the book entitled “Dorotea de Armas. The last potter of El Mojón”, written by Jaime Puig, with a prologue by Myriam Ybot and published by the FCM's Publications Department within its Islas de Memoria collection. The research gives an account of the history of a humble person with a simple life, but, at the same time, one of the leading women in the imagery of popular culture in Lanzarote. The event will take place in the José Saramago room (La Plazuela, Arrecife).

In the presentation, the author of the book and the prologuist will talk with Toño Armas —teacher, researcher of the pottery of El Mojón and ceramist— about the publication and its protagonist: Dorotea de Armas Curbelo (Las Montañetas, 1899 - Arrecife, 1997), who inherited the traditional arts of making ceramics and transported them to the gates of the 21st century. Dorotea learned the trade from her mother, María Andrea Curbelo, who, in turn, received teaching from her mother-in-law, Luciana Ramón Torres, originally from El Mojón, where women worked hard in the practice of ceramics as domestic utensils.

During her youth, and until the mid-thirties of the 20th century, Dorotea de Armas made pottery for use in the home and for sale in different parts of the island. However, this practice was interrupted with the arrival of other materials for cooking and preserving food and it would not be until the end of the sixties when Doña Dorotea resumed the activity. It was then when, in the context of the rise of tourism, the figures called Los Novios de El Mojón, a couple with exaggerated sexual attributes, which is related to the rituals of courtship, became especially relevant.

“Dorotea de Armas. The last potter of El Mojón” is the ninth book in the Islas de Memoria collection, which has dedicated previous titles to Guillermo Topham, José Molina Orosa, Gabriel Fernández Martín, Miguel Pereyra de Armas, Luis Morales Padrón, Pepín Ramírez, Antonio Corujo and Antonio Álvarez. A series of titles aimed at rescuing the memory of characters or events in Lanzarote whose contribution, from different areas of culture, science, society or politics, has contributed to building the collective imagination of the contemporary history of the island.

Jaime Puig Casasayas (Olesa de Montserrat, Barcelona, 1964) has been working as a journalist in Lanzarote since 1986, the year in which he joined the staff of Radio Lanzarote. He signed articles in La Voz de Lanzarote and launched La Voz de Fuerteventura. He also published in the newspaper La Provincia. Later, he joined the Volcán Group to take charge of the news programs of Antena 3 Radio and, after its absorption by Prisa, he began broadcasting Cadena SER in Lanzarote. In 1994, he was in charge of the news programs of Televolcán. At that time he also collaborated with Antena 3 TV and signed in the opinion section of the weekly Isla Informativa. In 1999, he directed the implementation of the new Fuerteventura TV, before joining the Cabinet of the Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands. After this stage, he worked at Archipiélago TV where he was in charge of the news services and presented various information and political debate spaces. In 2006, he began a career as head of news at Localia TV and, at the same time, he entered gastronomic communication with the administration of various thematic digital media. Since 2010, he has been part of the Biosfera Group, where he is responsible for the news services of Biosfera TV and the morning container of COPE Lanzarote.