Photos: Sergio Betancort.- Tinasoria is celebrating. The peripheral neighborhood of Arrecife, despite having few inhabitants, has been immersed since Monday of this week in popular celebrations in honor of the patron saint of the neighborhood, San Genaro.
The acceptance of the festivities is being certainly modest, because only 70 chairs were placed in the reading of the proclamation, and even so, the sociocultural hall was barely filled with just over 30 neighbors.
This year the director of Radio Ecca, Candelaria González, read the proclamation. The municipal authorities of the capital who attended the event were the Councilor for Festivities and the Councilor for Public Works and Sports, Luis Morales.
LA VOZ contacted the Councilor for Festivities of Arrecife, Encarna Páez, to tell our readers the most outstanding details of the program prepared by the Tinasoria neighborhood association.
Páez described the development of the scheduled events as "good", although she could not boast of an excellent influx of residents from the area either.
Yesterday was one of the most outstanding events. The women of the neighborhood were able to enjoy a party prepared especially for them last night. As the municipal mayor confessed, many pleasant surprises were prepared for the attendees.
Shortly before, Tinasoria hosted the play - back of the Third Age under the suggestive title of "It's Never Too Late If You Set Your Mind To It". The elders unfolded and sang well into the night.
The little ones also had the opportunity to demonstrate their talent to the neighbors of the neighborhood. On Tuesday the children's play - back took place, one of the events that distills the most joy in all the parties, when even the parents have a better time than the little ones and sing the songs to the sound of their offspring. The hall was not filled to the top, but certainly more neighbors from the neighborhood attended than the proclamation itself.
Meanwhile, every day while the festivities take place, the children will be able to enjoy endless children's games, which take place in Tinasoria early each afternoon.
On the other hand, various sporting events and tournaments have also already begun as part of the festive program. On Tuesday there was a bicycle race and an envite championship. Yesterday, for its part, the indoor soccer championship was held.
The proclamation
The festivities began on the same day as San Genaro. The proclamation was read by the president of Radio Ecca Lanzarote, Candelaria González de León, who in the first words recalled the work of her station in the neighborhood and the special link that unites her to the history of Tinasoria. "Tinasoria has been part of my life since I landed here in 1983 representing an institution that after 40 years is still present in the neighborhood by the hand of Carmen Martín Borges. Both of us have been lucky enough to find here men and women with cultural and social needs and in these men and women we have found not only students, but friends with whom we have shared joys, concerns, ideals, smiles and also some sorrows and disappointments that life has imposed on us, creating bonds of friendship and keeping and sharing some secret".
Immediately afterwards, the proclaimer reviewed the history of a working-class neighborhood, initially made up of official protection houses in the 1970s. "At the end of the 70s, the city of Arrecife is looking for other places of expansion, life for the conejeros begins to change, tourism flows more and more on our island and at the same time more people settle in Lanzarote in search of a job, and it is then when the concern arises in the Arrecife City Council to provide shelter to this social demand and thus in 1979 Don Antonio Cabrera, mayor of the City Council, delivers the first 100 official protection homes granted by the Government of the Canary Islands, later another 180 more homes are granted, a total of 280 homes that make up Tinasoria and Las Acacias.
Many years have passed and how the neighborhood has changed!: the economy is much better, those young marriages that inhabited those homes today have sons and daughters who work on the Island and who help the family economy, almost all the homes have been renovated".
As it could not be otherwise, the director of Radio Ecca referred to the neighborhood association of Tinasoria, the one responsible for promoting and organizing the festivities every year. González de León addressed the neighbors saying that "many of you have dedicated a good part of your free time to the construction of this neighborhood association and sociocultural hall, a beautiful place where children, young people and adults have the opportunity to enjoy it".
As it is one of the most needy and isolated neighborhoods in the capital, the proclaimer could not avoid making a reference to the needs of the area. "I do not want to continue this proclamation without remembering Estrella Machín, the first president of this association, an enthusiastic, hardworking woman, excited about her neighborhood and its people. She dreamed of a model neighborhood, but she lacked the support she needed to see her dream fulfilled, and it is up to all of us to continue fighting and asking our rulers for that help and support so that Tinasoria has a hall for the elderly; support for the promotion of workshops and sports activities, since the neighborhood also has facilities for it; that excursions are made and that participation and meeting with young people from other neighborhoods is encouraged".
