Culture

The island of La Gomera has a rich ethnographic heritage, which is a result of the adaptation of its inhabitants to the unique island environment of spectacular beauty, but which has never made life easy for its inhabitants. To all of this, we must add historical circumstances, such as its condition of an island of Lordship until well into the 19th century. This fact made that many of the changes, which took place in some of its neighbouring islands, barely occurred in La Gomera. Therefore, there is a strong fragmentation of land ownership, situation that creates internal structures of power less favourable to development and worsens the difficulties in communications, both internal and by sea and its status of "smaller island". The society of the island has been marked by a forced isolation, interrupted only two decades ago with the arrival of tourism and the improvement of communications. For this reason, the adaptation to the environment has been first and foremost a necessity. It is needless to mention the vital role that the mountain has had as a supplier of resources and as social space. The results of this adaptation are reflected both in culture and in the landscape: crop terraces to make the most of its arable surface, hamlets located in the safest places in case of floods and landslides and with less vocation for the crop, a great oral tradition which is reflected in stories, legends, narrative poems, prayers, décimas (style of poetry with ten lines and octosyllabic rhyme), songs, etc. As an escape route to conditions of life that have always been difficult, emigration has always been a necessity in every age. At the beginning of the seventies started the arrival of tourism. This resulted in a progressive but unstoppable change in the social and economic structures of the island and, at the same time, it changed the way of interacting with the environment. However, many of the cultural traditions are still maintained in all their vitality.

Oral tradition and popular music. The forced isolation of the island, interrupted only two decades ago with the arrival of tourism and the improvement of communications, has led to a very rooted oral tradition. It manifests itself through legends or stories about witches and apparitions, or long narratives of events that happened a long time ago. Among the entire oral tradition, it should be noted the stories presented in forms of poetry: romances, quatrains, tenths and popular songs. This constitutes the most extensive and rich of the well-known in the Spanish language. Some parts are real jewels, which had already disappeared from the Spanish ballads and, curiously, were preserved in the island. In other cases, the romances have a local topic or are versions of romances that came from the outside. The romance is sung, accompanied by chácaras (type of castanets from the Canary Islands), drums and dances. The chácaras, drums, songs and dances are inseparable and constitute the so-called Tambor gomero (Drum gomero). For many scholars, this peculiar folklore mixes castilian elements with typical forms of prehispanic nature. Undoubtedly, this is the most representative folkloric manifestation of La Gomera and the one that usually accompanies processions in popular festivities.

The return of the emigrant meant the arrival of new forms, such as the tenth, which is either recited or interpreted in the form of punto cubano (sung genre of Cuban music). Furthermore, it is of great importance the folclore de cuerda (string folklore) in La Gomera, with the incorporation of several styles that are common to the other islands: isas, folías, malagueñas (all of them are typical canary songs and dances) etc. Even some musical forms of folclore de cuerda have acquired an individual nuance on the Island, as it is the case of the jota gomera. A lot of music that came from Latin America some decades ago developed a great popular support. Above all, the most popular ones are the corridos and rancheras, interpreted in the parrandas or by the orchestras in the verbenas, along with merengue, cumbia and other genres.

El Silbo (the hiss). In the context of human adaptation to the environment arises the silbo, an element of communication capable of transmitting hissed messages at a great distance, through the cliffs and valleys of the island. The silbo gomero, unique language brought by the first settlers of the island, survived in the summits of La Gomera, while the human being was living on livestock and agriculture. With the arrival of telephones to the island and the loss of the traditional ways of life, the silbo started to be less and less heard… However, nowadays, and to avoid the disappearance of this language, the silbo is taught in all schools of the island as part of the language subject. The silbo is a form of language, considered as Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.

The canary Palm Tree. It is impossible to understand the recent past of the island without the use the gomero made, and still makes, of this plant. It is so abundant and characteristic of the gomero landscape that it is almost impossible to take a photo outside the mountain and not having, at least, a palm tree in the snapshot. Hives made with its trunk, pastures with its stalks, mats, carpets, fans, hats… but especially the guarapo. It is a very original name, given to the sage the gomero extracts, very carefully, from the palm tree. Once cooked, the guarapo is transformed into palm honey, exquisite sweet syrup, which is nutritious and has a lot of medicinal properties. It is typical of the pastry of La Gomera. Guarapo and palm honey, two unique delicacies of La Gomera.

Handcraft. It is done with the materials offered by the island: the cane (used for cages, baskets… ), the palm tree (hats, rugs, patacones… ), the wicker (basketry), the wood (chácaras, drums, cables, cutlery… ), the leather (drums, foles… … Among all these craft expressions, the one that stands out for its interest, age and rarity is the pottery. Of clear aboriginal origin, the earthenware developed in El Cercado continues to be done as the first settlers of the island used to do it: by lifting up the pieces without a wheel and with different materials collected in the environment. Good samples of this heritage can be discovered in the small museum "La Casa de La Memoria" (The House of Memory), located in the enclosure of the Visitors Centre of Juego de Bolas; in the Ethnographic Museum of La Gomera, located in Hermigua; and in the Interpretation Centre of Las Loceras in El Cercado. Here, in addition, we can see how potters work and acquire the different earthenwares that are carefully elaborated. They are, without a doubt, a very original gift that you can only buy on the island of La Gomera.

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