The celebration of Canary Islands Day will have a special symbolism for all Lanzarote residents this year, coinciding with the highest honorary distinction, posthumously, that the Cabildo of Lanzarote is giving to Don Federico Arrocha Hernández, ICO ARROCHA, as Favorite Son of the island.
Declaring Ico Arrocha as Favorite Son of Lanzarote is a well-deserved recognition to someone who is a reference for the island's folklore and one of the best singers in the Canary Islands; a fair recognition to a simple and humble man, deeply in love with his family, his friends, folklore and traditional music... Music with capital letters.
From a grandfather and father who were postmen, it was foreseeable at that time that Ico would end up taking over the postal service in La Tiñosa. However, no one imagined that this small child, with lively eyes, would end up becoming one of the best voices of folklore in the islands; a pride for his colleagues, for the many friends that Ico made throughout his life and also a pride for the conejera society as a whole.
What Ico did have in his favor is living surrounded by a family in which there was no shortage of players, singers and echoes of revelry. Thus, Ico absorbed the folklore since childhood; first at home and then in the Cantina “del Cojo”, where at twelve or thirteen years old he learned to play the guitar and started with the first songs.
And if folklore is land and countryside, in Ico Arrocha it is also the smell of saltpeter and tide... To long afternoons in front of the calm sea, between timples, guitars and good friends; it is starlight and endless dawns between chords of isas, folias, malagueñas and seguidillas. Of course, ¡seguidillas, of the good ones!, of those of a lifetime, of those of 3 and 5, as his brother-in-law and friend, Tito Perera, director of Guadarfía, likes to clarify.
The tiñoseros who knew him remember yesterday as if it were today. They keep fresh the image of Ico with the group of friends in the teleclub where they went to spend time between touches and songs, when not on the terrace of the Casa Roja. It still shakes those who verbalize and remember how, on long May afternoons, while the sun was setting, Ico's voice sounded throughout the dock.
And Ico was a great voice, with a serene style, but above all he was a great person. With a noble face and heart and know-how. A contained, affectionate man, always with his kind smile and lively eyes that danced to the sound of his voice.
His life and his art were adapting to the ups and downs of life and to the transformation of the island itself. From the canteen, which was also a barbershop and dance school, he went to the Trío Lanzarote with Gerardo Cancio and Vicente García. And so, while in the morning he distributed letters, packages and postcards among his neighbors, at night Ico wasted his talent in bars and hotels in the tourist area. “I have a good time and they pay me on top of that,” he used to say.
Then came the Agrupación Ajei and the Agrupación Folclórica Guadarfía, from which he never separated. Ico Arrocha spread his love for folklore throughout every corner of our island and far beyond Pechiguera and La Bocaina, from the peninsula to Venezuela.
His voice was unmistakable and clean, like his soul. Ico was voice and was person. A great person who made us feel and relive in each performance the pride for our folklore, for our peasant essence and for our roots.
A people without memory, without culture and without references is a lost people. And to face the future, now more than ever, we need to rely on the legacy of our references and Ico Arrocha is one of them.
The man who when he sang gave flowers to everyone. His voice and his singing soul will always accompany us.
