It was 1977 in Titerroy, a humble neighborhood of Arrecife but full of soul, where children dreamed big among dusty streets, battery-powered radios, and a great desire to create. It was then that two restless souls, Lorenzo Lemaur and Falo Allí, had a crazy idea for that time: to stage the play Jesus Christ Superstar and take it, without complexes and with all audacity, throughout Lanzarote.
No one believed that something so ambitious could succeed. But it only took a few rehearsals in the Santa Coloma Cultural Hall and the enthusiasm of a large group of children and young people who knew no limits for the dream to begin to take shape.
There were Rosi Rodríguez, Ofelia Farray who was Magdalena and her siblings Pilar and Loli, Lola Lasso, Macarena García, Marisol Tavío and Giorgina Álvarez, Paco Lemaur, Richard Tavío, Jesús Barrios, Julito Méndez who was Jesus Christ, César Curbelo who was Judas and his brother Javier playing Caiaphas, José Domingo Morera and Blas Trujillo who played Pilate, José Antonio Lasso Tabares who played all the roles including Jesus, Juanillo and Apa who were Herod.
Salomé Hernández, Leonor Betancort, David Robayna, the sisters Luzmari, Remi and Lorena Gutiérrez, Javier el Trujo, and an army of soldiers with their worker helmets and armed with pellet guns. Tino Noda, Richard Tavío, Emilio de Páiz and Mon García among them.
Also, Juan Cabrera, Juanita Armas, María Rosa, Míriam and Loreti Padrón, Soli Rodríguez, Elsa, Nieves Toledo, Macu Méndez and her siblings Jaci and Richard, Teri, the sisters Elena and Maite Rodríguez, Sally Quintero.
A great technical and props team with Gerardo Saavedra, Goyo García, Jeromín González and Luci Eugenio, among others. And so many others whose names escape among the whispers of time, but who left their mark on every stage gesture and dance step.
All this on improvised stages, with what little they had, in the thirteen performances held between August 1977 and April 1980.
With costumes sewn by hand, decorations made of boxes and with the wooden cross, they toured the towns of Lanzarote, carrying with them not only the work of Jesus Christ Superstar, but the young and irreverent spirit of a humble neighborhood.
Although they acted in playback, for those who saw them they sang for real and acted like professionals. Meanwhile, as children they were, they laughed backstage and, without knowing it, they were creating a story that more than 45 years later would continue to beat.
Time passed. Lives took different directions. Some left, others have stayed. But what has never disappeared is the invisible bond that united them: the shared memory of that artistic and human adventure.
This past Saturday, despite the heat and the orange alert, so many years later, the soul of that social phenomenon met again. In the meeting, among memories, laughter, hugs and contained tears came together. There was no lack of music or memories that sprang up spontaneously: "Do you remember when....?", "And when Morera...!", "... and when we went to Haria that...?"
And as if time had not passed, they put on the songs of the play again, improvising the dances that they brilliantly staged so much. With them, everyone began to move, to dance, as if they were still those children of Titerroy. The body perhaps a little more tired, but the soul..., the soul was intact.
Because Jesus Christ Superstar was not just a play. It was an era. A family. A symbol of what can be achieved when hearts beat together.
And so, between songs and laughter, they closed the afternoon with a silent promise: to continue meeting, to continue remembering, to put the play on a stage again and never let that flame that they once lit together die.
There, in a light that did not come from the spotlights, but from eternal love, were also them: Juanillo, Gerardo, José Ramón, Juan Adón, Juanita, Javier el Trujo and Remi Gutiérrez, who although they no longer walk on the earth, their steps still resonate in the hearts of those who do.