The town of Yaiza fulfilled this Saturday with its romera offering to the Holy Patroness, the Virgen de Los Remedios, and did so exultant with enthusiasm after two years without being able to go out to fill its streets with revelry and that beautiful environment drawn by its white houses surrounded by mountains and volcanoes; there devotees and companions returned encouraged by groups of touch and dance to please the tradition with a return full of joy and also of many emotions.
Animal-drawn carts, decorated from the early hours of the afternoon by excited groups of pilgrims, and camels from Uga participated in the pilgrimage that was already extensive at dusk due to the good number of parrandas, parranderos and folk groups that left the municipal football field, passing through the inner streets of the town to return to the main avenue and end at the church of Los Remedios.
The romería road this year also looked decorated with flags and multicolored rosettes installed on the lampposts along the entire route. The Rubicón Folk Group of Yaiza, which the night before celebrated its first 20 years of existence at the Festival that bears its name, opened the romería playing and dancing with hardly any pause. The Janubio and Sondemar parrandas, also from the municipality, and the legendary Los Buches parranda from Arrecife added their good work to liven up the road.
And they were not the only groups from Lanzarote that performed in Yaiza. The Gaida Folk Group, the Guágaro Musical Cultural Group, Los Labradores, Germán's group, El Verol, the Güerma Musical Cultural Group and the Guagime Group, among others, also accompanied the romería. All the groups also made their most personal offering by performing in front of the figure of the Virgin, outside the church, where the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, was in the company of the councilors of the Municipal Corporation and the parish priest of the municipality Jonathan Almeida.
Invited from Tenerife, from the municipality of Los Realejos, participated the Cultural Association La Guanchería, which in addition to accompanying the route through the streets of Yaiza had the surprise of offering the Virgin inside the church, in the middle of a corridor formed by parishioners and members of other folk groups. Goosebumps and tears of emotion sprang up among the sounds of chácaras, whistles and drums that found in the acoustics of the temple the best accomplice to shake hearts.
And just as the groups externalize with song, touch and dance their veneration to the Virgen de Los Remedios, there are also more intimate offerings, expressions of gratitude and anonymous devotion that go almost unnoticed by Remedios. For example, those unfailing five yellow roses arrived, representing the life, the life of five young people who some years ago escaped a serious traffic accident in Lanzarote. The mother of one of them, resident in Playa Blanca, does not fail the Virgin and every romería of Los Remedios expresses her gratitude with emotion.
After the romería, the presentation and election of magicians and magicians took place in the town square, recognizing the romeros and romeras who participate well dressed in typical costumes of the Islands, with the jury electing Desirée Hernández and Pedro Miguel Sepúlveda.
The Yaiza City Council, through the Councilor for Festivities, Javier Camacho, publicly thanks all the people and entities that participated in the romería, the municipal staff and citizens of Yaiza for their organizational effort and the security and emergency forces that provided preventive services before, during and after the route.
