The People of Lanzarote

"We are the memory that we have and the responsibility that we assume. Without memory we don’t exist, without responsibility maybe we don’t deserve to be".
José Saramago

Long before the first European sailors arrived on the Canary Islands, all seven islands were inhabited. Guanches, ‘guan’ meaning 'man' and ‘che’ ‘white mountain’ – referring to the snow-crowned Teide on Tenerife – in the native tongue, was the name given to those inhabitants. Guanches are believed to have arrived on the islands between the 5th and the 1st century B.C., probably from Africa. According to Spanish historical records, the Guanches were tall, strongly built, white-skinned, blue-eyed and blond-haired.

The Guanches were cave dwellers, which was a logical development with regard to the climate of the Canary Islands. A cave dwelling was the perfect solution for both summer and winter, keeping people cooler or warmer, and also for storage purposes.

But how did the Guanches arrive on the islands if there was no evidence of Guanche boats? Actually, no one knows for sure, although there are theories about pirates having marooned them there or that they had been convicts exiled by Romans or Carthaginians. Another theory says that they may have floated across from North Africa on reed craft.

Although the Guanches learned well how to adjust their way of living to the rocky landscapes and lived in caves or simple huts built out of rocks, their society was not entirely primitive, as they had a relatively sophisticated social structure. This varied from island to island, but most of them had a tribal structure, ruled by a chieftain who was in turn advised by a council of elders. When discovered by the Spaniards, the natives were advanced enough to have pottery. Their main food staples were milk, butter, goat and pork meat and some fruits. Their clothing consisted of leather tunics or vests made of plaited rushes. They left alphabet-like characters and rock carvings and paintings, yet the meanings of which are obscure.

In the centuries following the Spanish conquest, the islands of the Canary archipelago experienced different fortunes. Lanzarote, with no suitable harbour – in contrast to the harbours of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife – did not profit from the transatlantic traffic that had taken off after Columbus’ discovery of the New World in 1492. But instead, buccaneers from Spain’s enemies, such as Portugal, Britain and Holland, often targeted the island and pirates coming from the North African shore have been a threat for centuries.

Deprived of their homes and fields after the devastating volcanic eruptions during the 18th and 19th centuries, many islanders initially fled to the bigger islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife to escape the fate of starvation. Later, their main destinations in search of a better life were Argentina, Paraguay, Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, as comprehensively documented in the Museo del Emigrante (Museum of the Emigrante) in Teguise.

Today, Lanzarote has around 108,000 inhabitants, with almost half of whom living in the capital, as it is the case on almost all the islands of the archipelago. This figure also includes a good number of foreign residents, mainly from Britain and Germany, having made Lanzarote to their home. Lanzaroteños – or conejeros (‘rabbit hunters’), their epithet with the other Canary Islands – are in majority descendants of Spanish colonisers and in a minor number of assimilated Guanches. Generally, they are dark-haired and have an olive complexion.

With mixed feelings towards mainland Spaniards – whom they call godos (Goths) and accuse of taking local jobs away (it is a fact that many Canary employers prefer mainlanders, as they think them more reliable), the inhabitants of Lanzarote take much pride in considering themselves as Canarios rather than belonging to the peninsula, what they call mainland Spain. Lanzarote being so close to the Sahara, many Lanzaroteños even prefer to think of themselves as African rather than Spanish.

Connected to a past poor in natural resources and rich in successful efforts of survival, the inhabitants of the ‘Isla del Fuego’ (Fire Island) have always been living in tight symbiosis with their natural surroundings. This ‘brotherhood with nature’ can be felt in every part of the island, as it can be witnessed everywhere that the Lanzaroteños take much pride in their origins and their island. The intense care they bestowed in the preservation of the island’s landscapes is exemplary and it made them very environment-orientated people, who get offended when seeing someone throwing rubbish on the ground.

Almost 96 per cent of the inhabitants of the Canary Islands are Roman Catholics, who are very tradition-conscious, which can be witnessed on big religious feast days and particularly during the Semana Santa (Holy Week before Easter), when extensive celebrations take place all over the islands.