The streets of Arrecife honor, or dishonor according to who opines, a total of 283 characters who give it their name. Of these, only 24 are women and the other 259 are men. Few streets bear the name of universal characters. The few honored in this way remember the popes H.H. John XXIII and the square H.H. Pius XII, both in Titerroy, two others to mythological characters such as Apollo and Neptune, both in La Vega. In addition, universal literature brings us Miguel Ángel Asturias (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967 and Lenin Peace Prize in 1966) and Mario Benedetti, a progressive writer born in 1920 in Uruguay, but none bears the name of William Sakespeare. Regrettable. Cervantes does have one, in Altavista, although we frame the most illustrious Spanish writer, without implying that we do not consider him universal, among the Spanish characters. A street in Valterra honors the discoverer of the new continent, Columbus, and in San Francisco Javier, another bears the name of the navigator Magellan, the first man to circumnavigate the world. The apostle San Juan blesses the street behind the Church of San Ginés.
In the field of religion, in addition to the two popes mentioned and the apostle, another 14 streets venerate streets of Arrecife. Curiously, San Pedro was removed and the Virgen del Carmen, patron saint of the city, and of sailors, does not have a street. Nuestra Señora de los Volcanes (La Vega), patron saint of Lanzarote, the Virgen de Covadonga (Argana Alta), patron saint of Asturias, the Virgen de la Paloma (Argana Alta) of Madrid, and the Virgen del Rocío (Argana Alta) of Andalusia do have one, but the Virgen del Pino or the Virgen de la Candelaria, patron saints of the Canary Islands, do not have a street. As for saints, San Marcial (patron saint of Lanzarote) and San Ginés (patron saint of Arrecife) give their name to two small streets near the Church of San Ginés. In Titerroy a street bears the name of the first parish priest of Arrecife, Francisco Acosta Espinosa and another is called Fray Mendo de Viedma, who was the first bishop of Rubicón.
Curiously, Olof Palme (Swedish socialist politician assassinated in 1986), Joan of Arc (French heroine) and Régulo (Roman military nobleman) are the only European characters who name a street in the City, and none from Africa or Asia. For example, Nelson Mandela or Teresa de Calcuta do not have a street in their name. Then 14 characters from Las Palmas, 12 more from the Canary Islands and another 10 from America name other streets. But the palm is taken by the 129 Spanish characters and the 109 related to Lanzarote.
Seen from another perspective, twelve of these characters are aboriginal Canarians, all of them majos, from Lanzarote. Six of them men like the mythical Zonzamas, king of Titerroygatra, his son Guanareme, also king, logically, as well as the son of this, Luis de Guadarfía, king of the island at the time of the conquest and converted after the conquest to the Catholic religion being baptized as Luis. Also Gaire (hero of the Majos during the conquest of the Normans and Castilians), Afe (father of Princess Yaiza) and Tinguafaya (male son of King Zonzamas). Also six women like Princess Ico (wife of Guanarame), Princess Teguise (daughter of Guadarfía and wife of Maciot de Bethencourt), Princess Yaiza (daughter of Afe and wife of Tinguafaya), Princess Arteaga (wife of Guadarfía), Aniagua (queen of Lanzarote before the conquest) and Fayna (wife of King Zonzamas).
Only six characters from science honor as many streets in Arrecife, which are Torriani (engineer from the time of Felipe II who directs the construction of the castles of Santa Barbara in Teguise and San Gabriel in Arrecife) in Argana Alta, Luis Braille (creator of the reading system for the blind known as the Braille method) in Titerroy, Isaac Peral (Spanish who invented among other things the electric submarine) in La Vega, Hipólito Frías (Canarian scientist from the mid-nineteenth century who also stood out as a philosopher) in Valterra, Hernández Pacheco (geologist who studied the formation and origin of the Canary archipelago) in Titerroy and Blas Cabrera Felipe (born in Arrecife 1878, is one of the most eminent Spanish and world physicists. In 1937 he went into exile in Paris and then to Mexico where he died in 1945) in the center, one of the names that the maritime avenue bears. Undoubtedly, Marie Curie's street is missing, among others. Unforgivable.
Art has little presence in our streets. From the world of art in the Canary Islands, saving literature, Felo Monzón (painter and sculptor from the middle of the century born in Las Palmas, also an active militant of the PSOE) has his name painted on a street in Argana Alta since 1990, Luján Pérez, sculptor born in Guía in 1756 (Argana Alta), and the Lanzarote natives Pancho Lasso, sculptor born in Arrecife in 1904 and died in Madrid in 1973, with a street in Argana Baja since 1996, Juan Brito, who in addition to being a craftsman founded the Los Campesinos Folk Group, which gives its name to a street in La Vega since 1990, and César Manrique, who gives his name to the riverbank of the Charco de San Ginés since September 29, 1992. From the rest of Spain or the World, they also paint the corner of some street Rivera (Argana Baja) Mexican painter based in Spain, Velásquez (Valterra), El Greco (Arrecife Center), Julio Romero de Torres (Argana Alta), Berruguete (Argana Alta) and Pablo Picasso (Altavista), but Goya or Dalí do not have a street. Alonso Caso, painter, sculptor and architect born in Granada in 1601, also names a street in the City Center, and the baroque sculptor Martínez Montañés (Argana Baja). But the artists Miguel Ángel or Leonardo Da Vinci, among others, do not appear on the signs of our streets.
Universal history brings 29 characters who bring some adventure to our streets, among them, due to their relationship with Lanzarote, we will mention on this occasion Maciot de Bethencout (Maneje), conqueror of the islands who marries Princess Teguise, Pedro Barba (Center), military man who defended Lanzarote from the attempts to assault it by the former after selling it to the Count of Niebla, and Juan Rejón (Center), Spanish conqueror who founded the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and who was imprisoned in Arrecife by Diego de Herrera.
Spanish politics contributes 15 names to our streets, from those disputed by some José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of Falange and died in the Civil War, or the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, to the communist Dolores Ibarruari or the founder of the PSOE Pablo Iglesias, without forgetting the Francoist minister Fernández Ladreda who on his visit to Lanzarote in 1946, in an intervention from the balcony of the Island Council said: "... you will have water,... you will have a port". Well, although both promises were unfulfilled, in that same year 1946, being mayor José Miranda Topham, his name was given to the street in the center of the City that today is lateral to the Atlántida Shopping Center, which begins in the Charco de San Ginés and ends in Calle Real.
In the next installment we will write about the 109 characters from Lanzarote who honor the streets of the primitive village of Elguinaguraria that was later Puerto del Arrecife and today is the City of Arrecife, especially those mentioned. In another article we will analyze the 129 Spanish characters as well as the 12 from the Canary Islands, the 14 from Las Palmas and the 10 from America who name as many streets.
P.D.: "In addition to the aforementioned William Shakespeare, Goya, Dalí, Nelson Mandela, Teresa de Calcuta, Madanme Curie, among others, they have also forgotten Eintein or Edison, it has no forgiveness. By the way, I think it is more than regrettable that Don Quixote de la Mancha, the most universal work of our literature, does not have a street in his name. Nor do they remember history too much, neither Juana La Loca, successor to the throne of Castile of Isabel la Católica, nor Juan de Austria and much less Agustina de Aragón are characters honored with a street in Arrecife. There it is". Cristina Marrero Morín.
Note: All documentation comes from the book Arrecife. History of its streets, published by the Arrecife City Council in 2002, whose author is Alejandro González Morales.
