In Arrecife, the echo of the carnival tradition continues to sound when the Parranda Marinera de Los Buches takes to the streets. It has been 60 years since a group of sailors decided to recover the oldest carnival tradition on the island, and thus this parranda was reborn. This group is recognized for its peasant clothes, dressed with a metal mask and inflated fish stomachs in their hands with which they hit those they find in their path.
"They ask us why we are dressed as peasants if we are sailors, to which we respond that this is what carnival is about, dressing up," says the president of the parranda, Juan Antonio Machado.
The Parranda Marinera de Los Buches began in the middle of the Franco dictatorship to commemorate the roots of the old carnival. "Our founders were quite daring people, they decided in the middle of the dictatorship to form an association of parranda marinera, rescue a port carnival and go out into the streets disguised with a metallic mask in the hardest part of the dictatorship," recalled the current director.
"They were quite risky and we have to get that legacy to society in general and in particular to young people in schools so that they know the history of Arrecife and Lanzarote," says the president of the Parranda Marinera de Los Buches
"La Parranda has an added value, we are super recognized, pampered by the population of Lanzarote and in particular of Arrecife, super loved also by the administrations, especially the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the City Council of Arrecife, which are two administrations that are behind us," says Juan Antonio Machado.
The history of the Carnival festival through this parranda born in Arrecife has been awarded the Gold Medal of the Canary Islands, a distinction for which they have fought supported by the world of island culture such as the César Manrique, José Saramago, Mararía or Juan Brito foundations, as well as by the public institutions of the Arrecife City Council and the Cabildo of Lanzarote.
A total of 40 people make up this traditional group, to which are added the hundred people who collaborate with the group as members. Currently, it continues in the search for new members: "Anyone who wants to participate has the doors open," encourages its president. "We need people, men and women, who play an instrument or as a dancer".
"Now everything is very beautiful because we have the award, but it is a costly journey," he says. "If I'm not mistaken, I think that in the history of the gold medals of the Government of the Canary Islands it is the first time that two have been awarded in the same year. One to the Revoltosas and another to us, which also both represent the Carnival of the island in different ways," explains the buchero.
"We represent the traditional old sailor carnival of the port of Arrecife, as our writer Benito Pérez Armas said to those of the port of the gurfines".
"It is true that most of us are older people, but that does not mean that older people are sometimes more active and have more desire to party than young people, but it is also nice to see that meeting between older people, middle-aged people and young people, culturally and traditionally," says the president.
This cultural group is also part of the cast of the César Manrique musical that is being held these weeks on the island. "An agreement was reached, a conversation so that we would give them clothes to copy because they wanted to stage the Buches in the musical. Now we have reached a new agreement in which they asked us that the bucheros who come out were real," he points out.
"It is important to continue acting not only as an artistic and meeting form, but as a form of vindication so as not to forget history," defends the president.
"For the board that I preside over, it is very important to vindicate ourselves, if we do not vindicate history and we do not expose it or write it, we do not know what our elders have done or who we are. Therefore, it is very important that public administrations continue to support initiatives and projects."
Precisely on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, the carnival parranda plans to hold an event in the city of Arrecife and "near the sea" as it cannot be otherwise.
The role of women in Los Buches
"Women have always been in Los Buches, what happens is that they have always been a little relegated" to less visible spaces. In this sense, Antonio Machado narrates when the historian René Verneau highlighted in the 17th century that "around the time of February, seafaring men and women disembarked with strainers and ribbons on their faces, as well as peasant clothes. Therefore, women have always been present in the parranda, although during the dictatorship it was worse," he points out.
In the 2000s, the first women began to become members of Los Buches. "Already then they began to be given visibility, it is true that most of them were partners of some member but these women must be given the relevance they have had in their moment, start the path," he reveals. In this sense, the president highlights that the visibility of women within the group has improved and that they occupy representative positions within it, such as its vice president Guacimara Hernández Machín.
This parranda, although of seafaring origin, attracts citizens from all social classes. It is a space in which workers, businessmen and "many retirees" come together, says this citizen.
In addition, they will once again have the traditional fishing boat that accompanied them in their performances in pilgrimages. "We have contacted one of the best carpenters in Spain, who is the conejero Agustín Jordán. We have contacted him and he is going to make the boat and all that boat construction process will be documented."
