The Los Remedios festivities kick off with the opening speech by Juan Antonio Machado

The event took place at the Benito Pérez Armas House of Culture

September 2 2023 (13:18 WEST)
Updated in September 2 2023 (14:46 WEST)
Yaiza Town Crier, 2023
Yaiza Town Crier, 2023

With the opening speech by Juan Antonio Machado Santana, the municipality of Yaiza began its festivities in honor of Our Lady of Los Remedios this Friday night. An event that was held at the Benito Pérez Armas House of Culture, which the public filled, completing the allowed capacity. The presidential table was composed of the mayor, Óscar Noda, the parish priest of the municipality, Yonathan Almeida, the Councilor for Festivities, Javier Camacho, and Juan Antonio Machado Santana, the speaker.

The speaker was at all times very "excited and grateful" for the invitation he had received to announce the festivities in which he had participated as a local police officer of Yaiza for 32 years, in which he was providing service to the community and that he never imagined that one day it would be his turn to announce the festivities of Our Lady of Los Remedios. Festivities for which he feels great devotion and respect.

Machado not only served as a local police officer in Yaiza, but he also fell in love in the municipality, forming a family, and from that union, his two children were born, of whom he said that he can only speak "with a heart full of pride." In relation to his profession, he suggested that not all that glitters is gold, that he also had his bitter moments, but that since we were at parties, that always gives us the opportunity to give more space to the good, remembering those social and political talks and the characteristic anecdotes with Esteban, which were extended without taking into account the time elapsed. He also pointed out that although many people believed that Yaiza was an easy municipality, seeing it from the inside, reality presented us with one challenge after another, you only have to remember the operation that had to be prepared for the arrival of the turbines to the desalination plant, the transformation in the face of tourist growth, the open doors from neighbor to neighbor, the aroma of the chickpeas from the Stop bar, and those bus trips to go to or come from Arrecife that became an odyssey.

The speaker highly valued the very important space that culture has, which Yaiza proudly sustains, highlighting above all this year where Rafael Arozarena and his Mararía are commemorated, placing the municipality on the national literary map. He also had a special mention for two neighboring writers, Jaime Quesada Martín and Manuel Concepción, who with their contribution demonstrate that Yaiza is one of the municipalities with a consolidated literary trajectory. Another of the anecdotes that Juan Antonio recalled was the one related to the first service he performed together with Manuel Medina in the afternoon shift, on August 25 in the famous car of the time known as the "Four Cans", with which he had to travel throughout the municipality.

The speaker had a very special mention for all his professional colleagues, including all those on the afternoon shift. Tito Viera and his sweet shop were also present, one of the first people to lend him a hand as soon as he arrived in the municipality when he considered himself a foreigner, informing him about the most important place names of the place together with Mateo the postman and Esteban Rodríguez, Official Chronicler of Yaiza, who died in this same year. Another very funny anecdote that the speaker wanted to share was an event that happened to him 30 years ago. In one of his first services for the Los Remedios festivities, he decided to wear new shoes, which made the day an authentic odyssey, which ended up asking his brother-in-law Andrés for his shoes, because his feet had become like pounds of sponge cake.

Minutes before finishing, the speaker had a very special mention for his children and as a father he saw with pride how his daughter Alba began her career as a local police officer in Los Llanos de Aridane on the island of La Palma and his son David as day after day promotes the cultural panorama of the island. Juan Antonio made a call as a retired person to act as a speaker to ask for more recreational and social activities because the retired do not disappear once retired, we are even more present than ever and we need the spaces we occupy to also represent us.

With a Long live Yaiza, long live the festivities and long live the Virgin of Los Remedios! he finished his speech.

Immediately afterwards, the mayor, Óscar Noda, and the Councilor for Festivities, Javier Camacho, presented him with a wooden sculpture with the image of a fisherman.

And the night ended with a surprise for the speaker that made tears run down his face, when his colleagues made an appearance through the central corridor of the House of Culture singing him a sea shanty.

The company of show technicians, FASE, was in charge of carrying out a lighting and sound totally studied and programmed for the occasion.

 

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