Photos: Sergio Betancort
The Mácher Festival Committee and Tías Foro por la Identidad paid an emotional tribute on Thursday night to the town's resident Rafael Cabrera Camejo 'Rafaelín', who stood out in his youth in the vernacular sport of Canarian wrestling.
The event took place in the social hall of the Guardilama Sociocultural Center of Mácher with the maximum attendance of family, friends and neighbors who completely filled the capacity to support him on a day that will go down in history. The tribute also included the contribution of Juan Parrilla as presenter of the event and the president of Tías Foro por la Identidad, Juan Cruz, in charge of polishing with his comments each of the photographs that were projected on the screen installed on the stage, in which some of the moments lived by 'Rafaelín' in his stage as a fighter were collected.
Once the photographic projection was finished, those in charge of directing the event invited the honoree to address the public present there, a request that Rafaelín accepted, although the emotion did not allow him to articulate any words, before which the public erupted with prolonged applause to support him.
Immediately afterwards, Bernando Bravo, connoisseur of the vernacular sport, presented Rafaeló with the book of which he is the author, entitled 'Lucha Canaria lo Nuestro'. Also, representing the Tao Wrestling Club, José Luis Aparicio presented him with the book published by the club on the occasion of the LXXV Anniversary, while a director of the Tías Wrestling Club presented him with a shirt with the club's colors with Rafaelín's name engraved. Likewise, Manuel García, a great admirer, approached and addressed some emotional words to him that the honoree thanked, merging into a strong handshake. For his part, the mayor of Tías, José Juan Cruz, presented him with a sculpture in the shape of a plow on behalf of the institution he represents,
Next, and to ease the tension, the Taboire band performed, which performed an isa and folias, in which they introduced some couplets alluding to the honoree created by Pedro Hernández, to end their performance with popular songs from the Canarian songbook.
About Rafaelín Cabrera
Rafaelín had a short but successful sports career due to his elegant style in the practice of the vernacular sport, both when he knocked down his rival and when he was defeated. He began his sports career as a wrestler in Guatiza with Agapito Curbelo and then became a fundamental value of the Unión Sur Tías Wrestling Club.
His father, Pancho Cabrera, was a famous wrestler from the beginning of the 20th century and he learned many tricks from him. He did not coincide many times in the arena with his brother-in-law, Manuel Cabrera, Pollo de Tías.
Rafaelín was part of Unión Sur Tías since 1966, the year the club was created, participating in all the tournaments organized by the Insular Wrestling Delegation chaired by Agustín Acosta, chronicler of many matches published in the weekly "Antena", where he is mentioned on numerous occasions.
Rafael Cabrera participated in all the wrestling matches and championships of the moment such as the Doctor Molina Orosa Tournament and the Pollo de Uga Tournament, among others, and also formed part of all the "friendly combined", which were organized in the north and south of the island. He had to deal with the first signings of wrestlers who came from other islands as reinforcements for the teams, highlighting Menkara, Pollo de la Trinidad, Verdellada, etc. He also formed part of the Lanzarote team together with other colleagues from the Unión Sur Tías Wrestling Club such as Domingo Calero, Pollo de la Asomada, Andrés Curbelo, Chano Viñas or Francisco Bermúdez among many others.
