LUCHA CANARIA
Salto del Pastor
TRADITIONS AND HANDICRAFT
[Shepherd’s leap]
Imagine yourself coming down the mountains with the help of a long stick, fixing the end at a lower point help you slide down! The aboriginal inhabitants of the islands would use this mean of transporting themselves safely across the island ravines. Later on, the shepherds in the island continued using this technique and preserved it for centuries, and today, there are various organized groups continuing the tradition.
If it is a Sunday [between April and October] and you are in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, get to the Avda. Marítima in the Capital City, where you will see various vela latina lovers looking from more closely at the regular competitions carried out in this discipline [some with binoculars]. What makes vela latina different is the sail boat used for competing: they are replicas of boats used in the olden days for fishing and transport. The impressive measurement of the triangular sail in comparison to the size of the boat is the other distinctive characteristic of this watercraft.
PHOTO: J. Muñiz Padilla
O: Gran Can PHOT ari
VELA LATINA
luchada
Sports and games
Vela Latina [Lateen sail]
a
This form of fight practiced by the ancient settlers of the island [generally for conflict resolving] is today the most representative sport of Canarias. The main distinctive aspect of “lucha canaria” is the elegance in which it is practiced, as the aim here is not to hurt physically your rival. The fight is won by making your rival touch with any part of his body [excepting the soul of the feet] the terrero [the circle field where the fight is carried out]. To knock down the rival, the fighter uses mañas [techniques]. At time you can take advantage of the self physical force of your rival while he is attacking. Go to the Canteras beach [Cícer area] where various teams from the Capital city have training sessions. Try to practice a hand to hand with a friend or family member. Sea sand is the best surface to start trying your skills on lucha canaria!
PHOTO: Rita Risager
LUCHA CANARIA [CANARIAN FIGHT]
Palo canario
[CANARIAN STICK]
Just like fencing, the Canarian stick fighting is a combat with sticks between two players who mark and defend each other through retained strikes avoiding hurting each other. For the antique Canarian settlers this was a way of training for the combat. palo canario
salto del pastor
El silbo We could not forget to talk about the gomero very unique and genuine means of [Whistled language of LA GOMERA] LD HERITAG OR E W
UNESCO
communication used for generations by the inhabitants of the island of La Gomera [it was used at a point of time in Gran Canaria as well]. It consists in the phonetic reproduction of a spoken language [it could be any language] through different whistling sounds. Till the end of the last century, the shepherds of the
56 | Free and practical guide to discover Gran Canaria
island would have fluency in it and would use it to make long distance communication easier, without the need of moving between mountains and ravines. In order to preserve this ancestral tradition that became an Intangible World Heritage since 2009, the “silbo Gomero” has been introduced as a subject in the schools of La Gomera. silbo gomero
Restart Gran Canaria