Photos: Sergio Betancort
Lanzarote's only palm and pírgano basket maker, Eulogio Concepción Perdomo, received an emotional tribute on Saturday afternoon where a sculpture was unveiled next to the Craft Workshop in Haría. A work made in bronze by the Cuban sculptor based on the island of Fuerteventura, Rafael Gómez González, an artist who managed with great professionalism to capture the image of the craftsman sitting in his chair doing his work with a basket in hand as he usually does in his family workshop.
Eulogio Concepción was very supported by his children and grandchildren, by the mayor of Haría, Marciano Acuña, the first deputy mayor and councilor for Heritage and Crafts, José Pérez Dorta. Both congratulated the honoree and encouraged him to continue with the crafts. They also announced that they will continue to recognize the work of other artisans, projecting other ways to carry it out without having to saturate public spaces with sculptures.
Several councilors from the City Council and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Isaac Castellano, also attended the event, since the sculpture was paid for by said ministry. Eulogio Concepción in his speech was very excited about the recognition he was receiving and seeing himself very supported by his family, authorities, neighbors, friends and students and with a broken voice, he addressed the mayor to ask him to bring the palm leaves to his workshop because he can no longer do that work and thus be able to continue with his craft work until his health allows it.
Eulogio Concepción Perdomo has combined crafts with agricultural work and as a concierge at the La Tegala Socio-Cultural Center in Haría because he could not cope with family maintenance with crafts alone. In those early years there was much more artisanal work than now, as there was no machinery. In fact, all the work was done by farmers with the pírgano baskets that he made to transport the grapes during the harvest or the stone to make the walls. Today it has been replaced by plastic boxes.
Throughout these 60 years as a palm and pirgano craftsman, Eulogio Concepción has received many distinctions in many of the fairs in which he has participated at an island, regional and European level. The Cabildo of Lanzarote distinguished him as Craftsman of the Year, in December of last year he was distinguished at the Canary Islands Craft Fair, the Order of the Canarian Puppy distinguished him with the "Puppy of Honor", and the Haría City Council awarded him the highest award with the "Haría Award 2015".
Eulogio Concepción Perdomo, the only basket maker currently in Lanzarote, for many years had to cut the palm trees due to a lack of pruners in order to supply himself with the raw material. Today, a very difficult panorama of continuity is presented by the generations to come in the face of a very hard work, that of molding the pírganos of our palm trees with low economic profitability.
