La Orotava (Tenerife) (EFE) based on Teide soil, with which these artisans are able to obtain a range of 300 different colors.
This Wednesday the carpet makers remain busy in the final touches of the great tapestry that completely covers the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de La Orotava under the supervision of the director of the Municipal School of Art, Domingo Jorge González, who in turn is the director of the great carpet in honor of Corpus Christi.
In statements to EFE, Domingo Jorge González explains that the tradition of rugs on the street for this religious festival dates back to 1847 in the municipality of Tenerife, when the first one was made outside Casa Monteverde.
This gave rise to the fact that they began to make rugs with different flower-based motifs almost continuously until today, which reached a peak in 1919 when, after tiling and paving the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, it was decided to make the large tapestry and That year was the first time “in which the Blessed Sacrament entered” the premises, recalls González.
From then on, the tradition of the great tapestry has continued, which has evolved from occupying only one part, the central area of the square between columns, to covering the entire surface, approximately 950 square meters.
At first, continues Domingo Jorge González, flowers were also used, like the rest of the Corpus rugs in the different streets, but seeing that they deteriorated from one day to the next, different materials began to be tested in search of greater durability.
Among others, limpets, burgados, millet pits and eucalyptus sticks were incorporated into the rugs until, in a year that has not been able to be specified, the idea of using sand and, specifically, soil from Teide arose, which continues until the today “and displaced the rest of the materials”.
With a tradition of over a hundred years, the rug makers of La Orotava have recovered some of these materials in successive editions in the form of “samples” for the images of the tapestry, but the fundamental base continues to be the lands of Teide.
“They are natural, without colorings or dyes, and with the seven basic colors that we can get on Teide, 17 tones can be achieved that are mixed, each one in its own space, so that a range of almost 300 different tones of color can be obtained. colors”, emphasizes the director of the tapestry.
Domingo Jorge González also comments that this year’s tapestry closes a trilogy dedicated to social issues although, unfortunately, part of the images are practically lost after the rains that fell last Monday.
The affected part was the one that wore the tones of the sunset and the colors of the rainbow, which for the carpet makers symbolized the social integration “of all human beings in our context.”
At noon, two pink triangles have just been placed in support of the fight against cancer and, furthermore, emphasizes the director of the tapestry, in the creation of the images recycled materials are used, such as crushed and prepared elements that, in turn, then they recover again to continue working with them.
In this way, the plastic elements used for the figures of the great tapestry “are returned to their place” and the land is recovered to be used for another year, just as in this Corpus they have been incorporated into the images that adorn the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de La Orotava a large part of the sands that embellished the place in 2022. EFE