On September 8, 1645, a woman named Catalina de Jesús ceased to be a slave.
We do not know what the following days were like. The documents do not tell us where she lived, what her marriage was like, or what happened to her afterwards. But we do know that on that day someone wrote her name and recorded that a different life was beginning.
Catalina received her freedom and, with it, a house, a threshing floor, a camel, and five fanegas of land to sow. The notarial document preserved in the Provincial Historical Archive of Las Palmas even identifies the notary, the protocol, and the folios where that letter of freedom was registered.
Almost nine decades later, another inhabitant of Lanzarote would experience a story of captivity and freedom. Domingo de León Cabrera was captured in April 1729 and taken to Algiers. His wife even sold a horse to raise the money for his ransom.
Domingo returned.
And the forty duros that had been raised to buy his freedom ended up having another destiny: they were used, according to the historical tradition preserved by the parish and documented by Agustín de la Hoz, to acquire a new image of Our Lady of Remedies.
Eighty-four years passed between these two stories.
An enslaved woman.
A captive man.
Two stories of freedom.
And a Virgin.
There is no document stating that the stories of Catalina de Jesús and Domingo de León Cabrera were related. It would be incorrect to claim so.
But there is a thread that connects them and allows us to discover a part of Lanzarote's history that rarely appears when September 8 arrives: the captivity and freedom of those who lived on the island during those centuries.
Because before the Virgin of Remedies became the protagonist of the Yaiza festivals, Lanzarote already knew too well what it meant to lose freedom.
And also what it meant to regain it.
Catalina de Jesús: a name among hundreds of documents
During the 16th and 17th centuries, slavery was part of the social and economic reality of the Canary Islands. Lanzarote was no stranger to this reality.
Notarial protocols preserve sales, wills, property transactions, and letters through which some enslaved people managed to regain their freedom.
The research by Fernando Bruquetas de Castro on slavery in Lanzarote between 1618 and 1650 allowed for the study of this reality through extensive notarial documentation. His work includes, among other data, 299 sale transactions and 42 letters of freedom.
Behind those figures were people.
Men, women, and children who could end up working in agricultural and livestock tasks, in homes, or in various trades. People whose value could be reflected in notarial documents.
Catalina allows us to put a name and a face to that reality.
On September 8, 1645, María Felipe, widow of Alonso de León, granted her freedom. The deed states that Catalina had been born and raised in her house.
And that change in legal status was accompanied by something more: land, housing, and assets with which to start a new chapter.
The document even specifies the archival reference: Provincial Historical Archive of Las Palmas, notary Luis Rodríguez Fleitas, protocol 2.744, folios 114 verso to 116 verso, dated September 8, 1645.
We do not know what happened next.
And perhaps it is important not to invent what the documents do not tell. But we know that Catalina existed.
And we know that her freedom was registered that day.
An island that also knew captivity
The story becomes even more complex when observing the context of those centuries.
The documentation studied on slavery in Lanzarote includes people from different parts of the Canary Islands and other territories, including Madeira, Brazil, and Portugal. At the same time, North African corsair attacks caused island inhabitants to be captured and taken to North Africa.
The paradox is difficult to ignore.
A society that participated in the slave system also knew the suffering of captivity.
And families could be forced to gather resources to try to recover their own relatives.
It is precisely in this scenario that Domingo de León Cabrera appears.
Domingo de León Cabrera and the forty doubloons
In April 1729, Domingo de León Cabrera was captured.
The documentary proof of his capture appears in a report sent by the priest Andrés Lorenzo Curbelo to Bishop Bernuy on May 13, 1729. It states that Domingo had been captured the previous month.
The historical tradition of Yaiza places the capture in La Bocaina, the maritime passage between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
Domingo was taken to Algiers and, according to the tradition preserved by the parish and local historical sources, he remained there for approximately ten years.
Meanwhile, in Lanzarote, his wife tried to get money to ransom him. She sold a horse for forty duros.
It is important to make a clarification here: Domingo's capture is supported by the document from 1729; the story of the forty duros and their subsequent fate comes from documentary and historical tradition collected by Agustín de la Hoz and reproduced by the parish of Yaiza.
Finally, Domingo returned to Lanzarote without that money having to be used for his ransom. Tradition attributes his liberation to the Fathers of Mercy, historically linked to the redemption of captives.
And then those forty duros acquired a new meaning.
The ransom money ended up being turned into a Virgin
According to the historical tradition preserved by the parish, Domingo de León Cabrera used the forty duros to acquire a new image of Our Lady of Remedies.
The current sculpture replaced the old painting in 1739, which had been the first titular image of the church.
The chronological sequence is particularly significant.
Domingo was captured in April 1729.
Tradition places his captivity at approximately ten years.
And in 1739, the new sculpture appeared, replacing the old painting.
The money that had been gathered to recover a man's freedom ended up, according to this historical tradition, being turned into a religious image that would become part of Yaiza's identity.
But the Virgin still had to face the volcano
The story of Our Lady of Remedies does not end with the arrival of the sculpture.
Between 1730 and 1736, volcanic eruptions transformed Lanzarote and conditioned the daily life of Yaiza. The church, whose construction was completed in the 18th century, withstood the convulsions associated with that period.
In May 1731, lava threatened the surroundings of the town.
According to the account transmitted by the sources, the old painting of the Virgin remained in the church while the transfer of valuables was being prepared.
On May 12, 1731, while mass was being celebrated, what the neighbors interpreted as a miracle occurred: the advance of the fire stopped and the volcanoes went out. The parish preserves the tradition of the so-called "Miracle of Our Lady of Remedies."
But here too, a historical clarification is necessary.
The so-called "Miracle of Yaiza" belongs to the religious tradition and historical memory of the town. It should not be presented as a scientific explanation for the lava flow stopping.
And there is an even more curious paradox: the current image of the Virgin was not yet there.
When the lava threatened Yaiza, the image that remained in the temple was the old painting.
The sculpture we know today would arrive approximately eight years later, around 1739, linked to the money of Domingo de León Cabrera.
Two stories that the calendar brings face to face again
Catalina de Jesús and Domingo de León Cabrera never appear together in documents.
We do not know that their lives had any connection.
But their stories allow us to look at September 8th in a different way.
In 1645, an enslaved woman regained her freedom and received the means to start a new life.
Decades later, a man who had been taken captive to Algiers returned to Lanzarote and, according to the historical tradition preserved by the parish, converted the money raised for his ransom into an image that would become part of Yaiza's religious identity.
She received land.
He left an image.
She was starting a new life.
He was transforming the memory of his captivity into something destined to remain.
And between these two stories, Lanzarote also experienced one of the most dramatic episodes in its history: the eruptions that forever changed the island's landscape.
When the Virgin is paraded again this September 8th
Every September 8th, Our Lady of Remedies once again parades through the streets of Yaiza. It is the town's big day.
The procession belongs to the present, but behind it lie almost four centuries of memory.
Perhaps this year it is worth looking at that image in a different way. Because behind it there is an old painting.
There is a temple that survived the eruptions.
There is a priest who left a testimony of those events. There is a man named Domingo de León Cabrera who experienced captivity in Algiers.
There is a woman who, according to the historical tradition recorded by local sources, sold a horse trying to get her ransom.
There are forty duros that were ultimately not needed to buy her freedom and ended up destined for a Virgin.
And, before all that, there is another story that began exactly on September 8th. That of a woman named Catalina de Jesús.
An enslaved woman whose name was written in a notarial document. A woman who on that day regained her freedom.
And who received a house, a threshing floor, a she-camel, and five fanegas of land to start anew.
Perhaps that is the true link between these two anniversaries.
Not a direct relationship that the documents do not allow to affirm.
But a Lanzarote marked by captivity, freedom, hope, and memory.
Because sometimes a date does not hold a single story.
It holds many.
And September 8th, in Lanzarote, holds at least two that were worth telling again.
SOURCES
• Provincial Historical Archive of Las Palmas. Notarial protocol no. 2,744, notary Luis Rodríguez Fleitas, folios 114 verso to 116 verso. Letter of freedom of Catalina de Jesús, September 8, 1645.
• Fernando Bruquetas de Castro. Slavery in Lanzarote, 1618-1650. Research on the notarial documentation of slavery on the island.
• Andrés Lorenzo Curbelo. Report addressed to Bishop Bernuy, dated May 13, 1729, on the capture of Domingo de León Cabrera in April of that year, according to the documentation reproduced by the Parish of Our Lady of Remedies of Yaiza.
• Agustín de la Hoz. Lanzarote, p. 215. Historical reference to Domingo de León Cabrera, his captivity in Algiers, the forty doubloons, and the acquisition of the image of Our Lady of Remedies, reproduced by the parish of Yaiza.
• Parish of Our Lady of Remedies of Yaiza. Historical documentation on the 1739 sculpture and the so-called "Miracle of Yaiza".
• Yaiza City Council / local historical compilations. Information on the temple, the eruptions of 1730-1736, and the festivals of Our Lady of Remedies.
HISTORICAL ACCURACY
The freedom of Catalina de Jesús is supported by a specific notarial deed preserved in the Provincial Historical Archive of Las Palmas. In the case of Domingo de León Cabrera, his captivity and capture in 1729 are documented; other later details, such as the forty doubloons, the attribution of his liberation to the Fathers of the
Merced and the destination of that money to acquire the sculpture, proceed from the historical tradition collected by Agustín de la Hoz and from parish and local sources. Likewise, the so-called "Miracle of Yaiza" must be presented as a religious and historical tradition based on testimonies and local memory, not as a scientific explanation for the lava's halt. The link between Catalina de Jesús and Domingo de León Cabrera is interpretive and thematic —captivity, freedom, hope, and memory — not a demonstrated personal or documentary relationship.
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