As tradition dictates, the municipality of San Bartolomé began its patron saint festivities in honor of San Bartolomé with the reading of the proclamation by Dr. Elisa Corujo. The event was held in the municipal theater last Saturday night with a full house, everyone eager to hear the speaker. Alexis Tejera, mayor of the municipality, was in charge of inviting the residents to participate in each and every one of the events programmed by the City Council and introducing Corujo, giving a broad overview of her.
Elisa Corujo looked back in time, taking a broad tour through the different stages of her life from her childhood, youth and maturity. From her childhood, she remembered how, when the San Bartolomé festivities arrived, it was important for its inhabitants to embellish their houses inside and out, tidying up the surroundings. She also recalled how the return of family members who arrived during those days was awaited to enjoy the theatrical performances, the performances of the rondallas and the traditional parade of floats on the eve of the Patron Saint, and how could she not! She also remembered the special food and homemade desserts.
Elisa also kept in mind the difficult times that the residents of San Bartolomé had to live through, highlighting the scarcity of water, the plagues and diseases, epidemics such as tuberculosis that caused significant losses of young people. In addition, her closest family members were very present, such as her grandmother Matilde, whom she accompanied on more than one occasion in the early hours of dawn to the fields, taking care of the animals, and she still remembered the creaking of her mattress made of corn shirts, which she prepared with great care every morning.
The speaker kept her mother Irene very much in mind, who instilled in her the value of arsenals work, highlighting her needles with which she skillfully worked crochet, a tradition that she still practices today. Another of the stages that marked her a lot was her school stage with her teachers Juanita, Angelita and Don Manuel who were in charge of giving her the first lessons. A stage where her parents Eduardo and Irene worried that her education would be more extensive, thus guaranteeing her professional future. She chose medicine and practiced her profession as soon as she finished her studies at the Insular Hospital in the branch of geriatrics and currently continues to practice at the José Molina Orosa Hospital.
In this year that commemorates the centenary of the birth of César Manrique, the speaker kept him very much in mind. Of Manrique she said that he has been, and is, the person who invited us to think of the nature of this land as a great economic resource and progress. Elisa dedicated the last words to her nephew Eduardo, a very important person in her life, the one in charge of continuing to transmit the values of her family that has its origins in San Bartolomé, her town. Giving thanks to life that has allowed her to be by his side and see him grow. With a long live San Bartolomé! she finished her proclamation.
After the reading, the mayor and the Councilor for Festivities, Isidro Pérez, went on stage to present Elisa with a framed parchment that accredits her as the speaker of the festivities this year 2019. Then all the councilors elected in the past elections went on stage to take the protocol photo that is always customary in San Bartolomé. Later, the secretary of the jury of the Historical Photography Contest in its XVIII Edition called "Traveling in Time" went on stage, announcing the name of the three winning photographs.
Immediately afterwards, singer-songwriter Maru Cabrera, guitar in hand and accompanied by professional pianist Johans Barini, gave their best. Maru Cabrera is one of the great voices of the Canarian music scene, in her short but intense musical career, wherever she goes, she easily gets the public to enjoy her show.