Víctor Fernández Gopar "El Salinero". That has been the name chosen for the Insular Theater of Lanzarote. The result of the vote called by the Cabildo has been announced this Monday and although there were six options, El Salinero has taken almost half of the votes. In total, 144 people have voted for him to give his name to the Lanzarote theater.
Far behind is the second most voted option, that of Clavijo y Fajardo, which has received 59 votes. Striking has been the third place, which has been to maintain the current denomination, that is, Insular Theater, which received 52 votes. In fourth place was José Saramago, with 28 votes, followed by Ángel Guerra with 21 and Rafael Arozarena with 14.
Although El Salinero has swept the vote, it should be noted that the level of participation has not been high, with only 318 valid votes being registered. It should be remembered that these had to be cast in person at the Insular Theater, coinciding with the celebration of the Film Festival.
Possible change to shorten the name
Although the personality that will give its name to the Theater is already decided, now the proposed denomination could be modified. This is how the Cabildo has raised it after the vote count. During that count, a ballot of someone who had voted for Víctor Fernández Gopar "El Salinero" was annulled, but crossing out the name and leaving only the nickname, El Salinero.
Now, the Corporation is studying whether to opt for that option, which would allow giving a shorter and closer name to the Theater. For this, they have announced that the proposal will be taken to the Board of Spokespersons of the Cabildo, before adopting a decision.
Pastor, master salt worker and poet
Although Víctor Fernández Gopar worked as a shepherd since he was a child and did not have the opportunity to go to school, since he was little he had a concern for learning and for the world of letters. For this reason, as there were no schools in the south of the island, he asked the parish priest of Femés, Domingo Casadesus, and the neighbor Juan Estévez, to teach him to read and write. Later, in 1895, he left his job as a shepherd and was hired by Pedro Cerdeña to build the Salinas de El Janubio, where he became a master salt worker.
However, meanwhile he was developing his other facet as a poet. Of course, a popular poetry, away from the intellectual and cultural bourgeois environment of the Lanzarote writers attached to literary Regionalism. El Salinero is the author of poetic compositions in which, with mordacity and sincerity, he denounces or criticizes the social and political injustices that he observes and suffers in his daily life. He composes couplets with a simple, natural and unpretentious style, also being a notable improviser of lyrics of folk melodies (such as isas and malagueñas) that quickly became part of the popular Lanzarote repertoire.
In 1977, Agustín de la Hoz compiled his compositions and published them under the title of "Coplas de Víctor Fernández, El Salinero", using several transcriptions provided by Domingo Casadesus, Bermúdez, José Bethencourt and Vicente Borges. Of these, this is probably the most popular:
"If I have as Mayor
my sharecropper,
it results in the Mayor's Office
what I want.
If the Secretary has been
I who has put it,
what is written is
by my arranged.
And if those of the Board
live with me,
the distributions are made
as I say.
There will be no one to say anything,
they shut their beaks,
respecting the beards
of the rich man.
Because if they do not comply
well my wishes,
they will leave shortly
of their jobs"
