The mountain of Teguise is celebrating in honor of Our Lady of Las Nieves. Last Friday at 6:00 p.m. the first celebration of the Eucharist began, presided over by Juan Manuel Molina, parish priest of Teguise, who was assisted by Norberto Medina, parish priest of the municipality of Haría and La Graciosa. Once the Eucharist was over, the parish priest Juan Manuel Molina introduced the speaker Mari Nieves Méndez Perdomo, a resident of the town of Teseguite.
Mari Nieves began her proclamation by singing a song to the Virgin with Canarian airs accompanied by three folklorist friends, Antonio María, Alfredo and Rafael, a song that was greatly applauded by the public that packed the hermitage. The speaker recounted many of her experiences, such as that every morning with the crowing of the rooster everyone at home got up to work on agricultural tasks and when they arrived home while the men rested, the women continued working, some with household chores and others making rosettes to contribute to the battered family economy.
Mari Nieves also said that when the festival of Las Nieves was approaching, the wind that came down from the top of the mountain where the hermitage is located brought the smell of celebration and if the harvest in the field had been good, that year a new dress was premiered and when August 5 arrived with the first lights of dawn everyone at home was preparing waiting for Don Alfonso Tolosa's car. According to the speaker, it was a movie car and to start it they did it through a crank. She also recalled that in those years there was no seat belt or the number of seats was taken into account, the whole family got in the car to reach the mountain along dusty and very bad roads, but the illusion of seeing the Virgin of Las Nieves those obstacles were not taken into account.
Mari Nieves said that in the surroundings of the hermitage the stalls were installed where only men over 18 years of age could pass and women could not enter. The older women were very aware of paying their promises to the Virgin, many of them made the entrance to the hermitage on their knees until they reached the image. The young women walked from one side to the other very close to the stalls to see if the boys were encouraged and accompanied them to the edge of the cliff where some families who brought their food from home sat down to taste it.
As the afternoon fell, the timples and guitars were heard and some singer threw an isa or folía in the stalls and the youth moved to Teguise to enjoy the dance. These are some of the anecdotes that Mari Nieves Méndez shared on the first day of the festivities in honor of Our Lady of Las Nieves to be held in the Mountain of Teguise.
Juan Manuel Molina, parish priest of Teguise, presented him with a diploma that accredits him as a speaker and a rosary, the mayoress of the Teguise City Council presented him with a lithographed sculpture with the image of the Virgin. Immediately afterwards, the music started with the Villa de Teguise Polyphonic Choir directed by Professor Nuvi Tavio. They performed three compositions for polyphony ending with the Ave María by Franz Schubert, an performance that was greatly applauded, thus putting the finishing touch to this first day of celebration dedicated to Our Lady of Las Nieves.
