MASPALOMAS a natural legacy

              4
Publlshed by
Ayuntamiento de San Bartolomé de Tirajana
Concejalfa de Turismo
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Rubén Naranjo Rodríguez
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Historical, documentary and photographic archives
Pedro José Franco lópez
Rubén Naranjo Rodríguez
lllustrations
Manuel Cardona Sosa
Photography
Tomás Correa Guimerá (To+)
Nieves González Henríquez
Inmaculada Gui11ermes Vázquez
Rubén Naranjo Rodrlguez
Carlos Suárez Rodrfguez
Emilio Soler Onis
Octavio Trujillo Ramfrez
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Vicente Escobio García
Pedro José Franco l ópez
Nieves González Hen rfquez
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Carlos Suárez Rodríguez
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Daute, S.L
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Rubén Naranjo Rodrlguez
MASPALOMAS IN HISTORY
The ancient Canary people
Port of call in the Atlantic: conquerors, travellers,
pirates and shipwrecks.
The name Maspalomas
Control of the territory
How the terrotiroy was u sed
Maspalomas and the film industry
A place apart
THE DUNES OF MASPALOMAS, SPECIAL NATURE RESEVE
The physical environment and its evolution
Climate
Flora and vegetation
Nieves González Henríquez
Emilio Soler Onís
Vegetación de la Charca de Maspalomas
Vicente Escobio Garcfa
Rubén Naranjo Rodríguez
Fungi
Rubén Naranjo Rodrlguez
Fauna
Habitats
Carlos Suárez Rodríguez
Short History of the Special Nature Reserve of the Maspalomas Dunes
Rubén Naranjo Rodrlguez
THE MASPALOMAS LIGHTHOUSE
MASPALOMAS AND THE TOURIST INDUSTRY
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• PRESENTATION 9
• PROLOGUE 11
• INTRODUCTION 13
• MASPALOMAS IN HISTORY 15
• The ancient Canary people 17
• Port of call in the Atlantic: conquerors, travellers, pirates and
shipwrecks. 33
• The name Maspalomas 51
• Control of the territory 5 7
• How the terrotiroy was used 69
• Maspalomas and the film industry 85
• A place apart 91
• THE DUNES OF MASPALOMAS, SPECIAL NATURE RESEVE 99
• The physical environment and its evolution 115
• Climate 139
• Flora and vegetation 1 53
Vegetación de la Charca de Maspalomas 1 73
• Fungi 191
•Fauna 197
• Habitats 245
• Short History of the Special Nature Reserve of the
Maspalomas Dunes 249
• THE MASPALOMAS LIGHTHOUSE 259
• MASPALOMAS ANO THE TOURIST INDUSTRY 299
• GLOSSARY 325
• BIBLIOGRAPHY 327
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 341
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+ F or the inhabitants of Gran Canaria, the Charca de Maspalomas is
more than a Conservation Area. This exotic oasis is dear to ali our
hearts, and our affectionate memories of childhood visits to
Maspalomas linger on, form ing an unquestionable part of our
nostalgia for times gone by.
For local people, the Charca represents a constan! point of reference;
bathed in sunlight, with its majestic palm trees, razor-sharp rushes and
dishevelied tamarisks, ali accompanied by the twittering of migratory
birds, the guttural cooing of the doves and the whisper of the breeze in
the reedbeds that sprout along the gully.
For children visiting from further afield, La Charca has always meant a trip
to the South with their parents. On their return, the family wou ld talk
about the visit for several days: the height of the lighthouse tower, topped
by its lightning conductor; the migratory birds that arrived from all over
the world, guided by a benevolent witch whose broom was made out of
palm leaves, and the water which slaked the thirst of traveliers from afar.
The Charca, for those of us who have known it since childhood, is more
than a Conservation Area protected by laws, rules or fences. lts speli can
still be appreciated on sultry autumn afternoons, when shearwaters can
be heard crying by the shore and the sound of the lapping waves rises up
to the highest golden dune, perhaps announcing the sea's intention to
return one day to its former level.
But progress, or what has been interpreted as progress, has stripped the
Charca of its wild virgin quality, its solitary nature, its age-old mystery, that
essence which evokes in all of us a common awareness of the island-dweller's
solitude.
The recuperation of Maspalomas is today an impossible dream, partly
beca use of the current obsession with the economic possibilities of the
area and also because our awareness of its environmental importance has
arrived too late. But one of the aims of this book is to convert La Charca
into the oasis of our dreams, embracing its past with affection and
describing in detail our natural heritage so that we may appreciate ita
little more.
Marcial Franco Vega
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I am very happy to write a few lines of introduction to this book in
response to the kind invitation extended by its authors.
Maspalomas is one of the most interesting, and yet most
threatened areas of Gran Canaria. In their meticulous study and collection
of relevant data, the authors have compiled a comprehensive account of
Maspalomas' history as well as an up-to-date description of the a rea, its
environment and its current importance as a "breathing space" in the
concrete jungle of the south of Gran Canaria. lt is almost the only
remaining haven in the midst of the multinational resort which has
swallowed up many of the natural ecosystems along the southern
coastline, burying them under cement and asphalt, thereby boosting the
island's economy. Maspalomas is a complex ecosystem consisting of
dunes, a natural pool (referred to by the authors as the Charco or Charca)
anda palm-grove. Rushes, tamarisks and seablite, to name but a few,
unique within the archipelago, have suffered the negative consequences
of modern development. The Scottish ornithologist David Bannerman
visited the area in 1909 and published a full description of the wealth of
birdlife found at the Charca at that time. lt is interesting to compare sorne
of his observations with the current state of the island: of the now almost
extinct Osprey, Bannerman wrote "these fine birds are, I am glad to say,
quite plentiful in the south of the As Bannerman watched the local
fisherman at the mouth of the Charca cleaning their fish, he observed that
they were surrounded by "a screaming mass of red kites': The Red Kite is
currently totally extinct in the Canary archipelago. Most of the species
quoted by Bannerman are no longer found in Maspalomas, and sorne
have disappeared completely from the archipelago. Others, however, live
on, and continue to make the Maspalomas Charca and dunes a unique
autochthonous ecosystem within Gran Canaria. Despite the tourist boom
and the development of the south in the nineteen sixties and seventies,
the essence of the ecosystem has survived des pite being surrounded by
hotels, bungalows and other tourist amenities. The most important areas
are currently protected by the Ley de Espacios Naturales en Canarias, which
grew principally out of a movement in the early nineteen eighties aimed
at protecting the Maspalomas dunes, under threat for several reasons: the
extraction of sand, the possibility of a small resort being built in the
centre of the dunefield, and the effects ca u sed by new buildings to the
complex system of wind transportation and sand distribution. The
pressure group ensured that the dunes were declared a "Protected Area';
andan official body in charge of its protection was set up under that
guidance of D. Vicente Sánchez Araña. A team of biologists and
geographers, including staff from the Canary Botanical Garden "Viera y
Clavija'; studied the a rea in detail, and submitted proposals to the
National lnstitute for Nature Conservation (ICONA) regarding the possible
boundaries of the protected a rea as well as guidelines covering the
management and recuperation of the a rea. These proposals were
subsequently extended to include the Charca anda large part of the
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12
palm-grove. In the early nineteen seventies, the Charca's ecosystem was
badly damaged by the continua! opening of the Charca to the sea, and
the drastic reduction in the amount of freshwater flowing into it from
underground wells. As a result, many aquatic plants were lost (chara,
ruppia), as well as sorne of the most interesting terrestrial species such as
Limonium tuberculatum. This species disappeared in 1973, but luckily,
Enrique Sventenius and José Alonso of the Canary Botanical Garden
acted in time. These dedicated workers on behalf of the flora of the
Canary lslands managed to collect sorne seeds during the last flowering
of this tiny population. A few plants have been nurtured in the Canary
Botanical Garden using these seeds, and are producing further specimens
which will be reintroduced in Maspalomas as part of a recently-approved
plan for the protected a reas. This, apart from being a real boon for
Maspalomas, underlines the importance of the Botanical Garden
collections in the quest to conserve our plants. As long as species are
being cultivated in the Garden, they may still be reintroduced into
damaged ecosystems, thus contributing to their restoration. The
recuperation and conservation of "Nature" is currently very popular, and
politicians should respond accordingly, raising public awareness and
educating people about the consequences of the conservation of our
natural resources, both as a source of life for current and future
generations and as a source of income. Thus, we can see that areas such
as Maspalomas can, in the long run, be saved. This book explains in
detail why we need to conserve our natural environment, its links with
history, with culture and, finally, with the survival of the human race. lt
also gives a full account of Maspalomas' history anda review of its current
situation, which represents a challenge in terms of its future maintenance
and recuperation. lt is also a wonderful way of communicating how
important this area is in the natural and cultural history of a part of Gran
Canaria which has seen drastic changes, constituting at the same time an
important contribution to Canary lsland literature. Both the authors and
the Council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana are to be congratulated for their
vision in producing and publishing such an interesting and important
book, to which we extend a warm welcome.
David Bramwell
DIRECTOR OF THE CANARY BOTANICAL
GARDEN "VIERA Y CLAVIJO"
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T oday, as we enter the twenty-first century, Maspalomas is a
world-famous international tourist centre. In the early sixties, not
even the promoters of the Maspalomas, Costa Canaria project
could have imagined the effect that their initiative would have,
changing the face of the southern part of Gran Canaria forever, and
introducing the service sector toan a rea which had hitherto remained
relatively unchanged, but was to become one of the fundamental pillars of
the island's economy.
Development has led to radical economic, social and demographic
changes as well as altering the area's cultural heritage and environment.
The inhabitants of Maspalomas were the first people to feel the winds of
change, both positive and negative, which also affected the environment in
which generations of peasants, shepherds and fishermen had lived and
worked. At the end of the second millennium, the coast of San Bartolomé
de Tira ja na has become a buoyant tourist town which is still growing, with
over 144,000 hotel and apartment beds, and which receives sorne 3,000,000
visitors each year as well as supporting a stable population of over 50,000
inhabitants.
Over the centuries, visitors to Maspalomas have left behind
documentary evidence of what the a rea was like, in the form of documents
and a series of photographs which transport us to a not-too distant past
which has disappeared forever. The sun, sand and blue sky rema in, but the
late Néstor Álamo could not now write a song like Maspalomas y tú on the
crowded southern beach.
However, the tourist industry and environmental conservation are not
always compatible. The dunes, Charca and Palm-grove of Maspalomas
constitute one example among many of the difficulties that can arise. And
it is also true that parts of the a rea now classified as the Integral Nature
Reserve of the Dunes of Maspalomas are often used by the tourist industry
in its advertisements, and are so effective that they have even been used to
promote other holiday destinations. For this reason, we must do everything
we can to stress the importance and extreme fragility of the environment
and the need to prevent it from deteriorating further, as well as to help to
recuperate what has been lost. The future of one of the most typical
landscapes of Gran Canaria and the Archipelago as a whole depends on our
appreciation of and concern for its conservation. This is why we decided to
write this book.
This book tells the story of several centuries of island history, from the
ancient Canary people to the sailors and pirates who put into port here, as
well as that of a number of visitors who stopped here unexpectedly,
shipwrecked sailors needing help and travellers who left curious and
interesting notes about the inhabitants encountered, the landscape and the
way of life. We describe the semi-feudal control held over the land and its
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14
inhabitants, and the way that its natural resources were used, as well as the
construction of one of the most important civil buildings on the island: the
lighthouse of Maspalomas. We outline the changes that started in the
nineteen fifties and have given rise to the Maspalornas we know today. Ali
these factors have played a part in determining the current state of the
environment, which is ofinterest not only because of its scenic value, but
also for its unique flora and fauna. Each topic has been allotted its own
section, in which, forexarnple, we describe and tryto explain the main
geornorphological processes which have given rise to the scenery before us
today. We have also touched on the clirnate, which has a role to play in
determining the abundance of unique and varied fiora and fauna.
The book is in tended to facilitate a better understanding of the
history and natural environment of Maspalomas, combining scientific rigour
with the possibility of reaching a wide readership. We have drawn on
indispensable fieldwork and research together with the bibliography
available on the area, as well as the results of various reports and studies
carried out by different specialists, undertaken as part of the scheme to
recuperate the ecosystern. The Documento Informativo del Plan Director
de la Reserva Natural Especial has been particular/y useful in this respect, as
it synthesizes these publications, as well as defining the plans intended for
the Nature Reserve for the near future.
Sorne sections have been elaborated by specialists in the field, who
have in many cases undertaken research projects in their ch osen a rea
within the Nature Reserve, contributing much new information.
We must also mention the collaboration of many people and
institutions, who have either contributed information or documents, or who
have simply helped in sorne way during the laborious process of compiling
the book. We would particular/y like to thank the San Bartolorné de
Tira ja na council for the interest shown and trouble taken to ensure that
Maspalornas, one of its most typical spots, should have a publication which
enables the local inhabitants, island dwellers and millions of holidaymakers
who visit it each year to understand its history and environment .
Rubén Naranjo Rodríguez
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MAS PALOMAS
IN HISTORY
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The ancient Canary people.
T he ancient Canary people, the
first inhabitants of what was
known as the Canary lsland
were attracted by the various
resources available at Maspalomas.
The presence of water guaranteed a
stable population, thanks to the various
springs in the a rea of Fataga which flow
down through the barranco (gully) of
Maspalomas and out into the Charca
(lagoon) ofthe same name.
The existence of the ad ja cent villages in
Lomo Perera, and the presumed
settlement of Merentaga bear out this
theory. Following the coast round to the
West, in the barranco of Meloneras, just
behind the beach ofthe same name, the
remains of further indigenous houses
can be found. In all these cases, the
houses, the remains of which can be
seen today, were built following the
usual techniques of the indigenous
Canary people. Thick walls were built on
a base of dry stone with no mortar; the
inside of these buildings was in the
shape of a cross, while viewed from the
outside, they appear curved. Unlike
other aboriginal settlements located in
the mouth of large barrancos, like those
of Arguineguín, La Restinga (Telde), El
Agujero and La Guancha (Galdar) or La
Small ido/ found in a cave in
rhe Barranco de Los Vicentes.
Currently in the Museo
Canario
Aldea, the Maspalomas dwellings are
situated inland, ata certain distance
from the shore.
This does not mean that there were
never any dwellings a long the coast, like
those found on the volcanic sands at
Corralejo and El Cotillo on the island of
Fuerteventura. However, there is no firm
archeological evidence, and the only
documentary evidence which expressly
suggests coastal dwellings is found in a
text by Simón Benítez Padilla:
"The indigenous people built their
rustic homes of dry stone on the delta and
the beach, carrying the material from the
the river bed in the barranco and using the
branches of various trees including palm
trees as roofs. As a watering place, the
Charco (lagoon) of Maspalomas a/so
attracts a selection of birds and animals
who gather there to slake their thirst, thus
exposing themselves to the dangers of
being caught or shot. Al/ this explains the
presence of the primitive Canary
inhabitants in these parts." (Simón
Benítez Padilla, Una breve excursión
científica por Gran Canaria, 1963).
Another archeological site exists in
the a rea of the dunes, apparently
covered by sand. lt is in fact a
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prehistoric deposit of shells, rnolluscs
and fish, in which sorne stone deposits
are also present. This fact, included in
the docurnentation of the Carta
Arqueológica del Término Municipal de
San Bartolomé de Ti raja na, suggests the
existence of other ancient sites in the
dune field, as is the case in
Fuerteventura where ancient
settlernents are located in the sand
systerns, as rnentioned above.
The constant rnovernent of the sand
rnay have buried thern, while the
continued use of the beach and its
environs will have ensured the
disappearance of any rernains of
archeological interest clase to the shore.
Along the barrancos of
Maspalornas, Los Vicentes and Fataga,
there are plenty of natural caves, which
were used as dwellings or for funerals.
Sorne of thern were subsequently u sed
again by shepherds, a cornrnon
occurrence in rnany archeological sites
on the lsland. The structure found at
Punta Mujeres, towards the coast, could
have been a house or a burial rnound.
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Necropolis ar Lomo de Maspa/omas during excavation in 1988
The ancient Canary people may
have occupied this land, starting from
the oasis which marks the end of the
barranco, where irrigation would have
made agriculture possible, leaving the
rest of the space for livestock grazing.
At the same time, the marine resources
(fish and shellfish) guaranteed the
protein content of their diet. Thus, we
can assume the presence of a
community (tribe) in the val ley of
Fataga, taking advantage ofthe three
productive aspects of the ecosystem:
agriculture, pasture and fishing, and
achieving a high level of self-sufficiency
(Grandío, E., 1987:100). lf we accept this
supposition, Eduardo Grandío's theory
suggests that the coastal settlements,
such as those recognizable in
Maspalomas, acted as overspill
communities for the inland areas.
In the archeological excavations
carried out during the nineteen forties
and fifties, Sebastián Jiménez Sánchez
also remarked on the presence of
numerous rema ins of the Canary people
throughout this southern sector of the
island, with particular reference to the
area of Maspalomas (Jiménez Sánchez,
S., 1946). The Primitive History Seminar,
led by Professor J. Martínez Santa-Olalla,
undertook a series of studies in the
Canary lslands during 1948, including
"intensive" excavation in the barranco of
Fataga. The aim was "to obtain a
glimpse ofthe way of life in an area
which is delimited by Nature, and which
has preserved relatively undamaged the
prehispanic Canary remains which are
the object of our searches, thanks to its
isolation from popu lation centres, and
the subdesert and desert conditions''.
The excavations were successful , as is
reflected in the following declarations
about the barranco: "it gets deeper
towards the south, disappearing into the
inhospitable sand dunes of Maspalomas,
eternally whipped bythe wind . We
made numerous discoveries there,
starting with a prehispanic Canary
house, in a good state of conservation,
in the old sector of Fataga, and ending
with number 28 inthe largevillage, also
well preserved, and the large houses of
the "Priest's house"" (Sáez Martín, B.,
1948:125-6). This must be a reference to
what we now call Lomo Perera, also
known as Lomo de los Guarajillos or
Degollada del Cura: the closest
collection of Canary houses to the sea,
within the valley of Fataga.
Historically speaking, several
writers have touched on the
archeological richnessofthisarea ofSan
Bartolomé de Tirajana, despite the
obviousdifficultiesthat reaching it
posed decades ago. René Verneau, the
Fre nch anthropo log ist who travel led
through the whole arch ipe lago in sea rch
of information to su pport his
investigation ofthe indigenous Canary -,, © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
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© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
-22
peo ple, tells of the existence of ancient
Canary remains. When he mentions
what he calls "certain constructions that
in Gran Can aria receive th e name
'goros"; refe rring to the houses of dry
stone, he says that
"they can a/so be seen in Arteara, on
tap ofthousandsofburial mounds
constituting a real necropolis, and, further
down, at the foot of the barranco, near
Maspalomas '. (R. Verneau, Cinq années
de séjour aux lles Can aries, 1890).
A necropolis lay not far from all
these enclaves. Found by chance in
1988, during the construction of the
GC-1 motorway in the south, on the site
currently occupied by the turning into
the tourist development, at kilometre
47. An archeological dig was held
on the site, known variously as
Lomo de Maspalomas, Las Tabaqueras
or Lomo de la Cuesta de los Garbanzos,
and the rema in s found were extracted.
Thanks to this dig, a large site
with a surface area of approximately
2000 square metres was located, in
which nine funeral structures of
differing morphology were located,
with 141 human skeletons being
identified as well as a collective
burial site. (Rodríguez, J.J ., 1992).
The analysis of sediments
and osseous remains confirmed
that they dated from
the period between the year
111 O AD +/- 70 and 1390 AD+/-
80, although writers disagree
as to which culture the site
belonged to.
The presence of water in
precisely the most arid area of
the island allowed the ancient
Canary people to develop a
mixed economy, with agriculture
and livestock.
In order to try to determine
the area's importance in relation
to populations with similar
settlement patterns and a similar
situation with regards to
cultivatable or available resources
(Santa na, A., 1992:289), these
nuclei of indigenous population
are comparable
Aborigina/ strucrure in
Punta Mujeres
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Houses belonging to the indigenous Canary people in Lomo Perera
to those of the other large barrancos of
the island. According to this theory, the
tending of livestock would have been
more extensive in those areas least
favourable for agriculture, while
agriculture would have been maximised
in the area of Maspalomas.
A quotation from the Conquest
Chronicles, referring to a well-known
episode featuring the brave Doramas,
confirms the presence of livestock:
''Dora mas aroused the envy of a
nobleman from Arganeguín called
Ventagaire, who came in search of him.
As he went on his way, he saw some
livestock, which was plentiful in the area of
Maspaloma, ... " (Brebe resumen y historia
muy verdadera de la Conquista de Canaria,
Antonio Cedeño, 15th Century).
Pedro Agustín del Castillo
contributes the following version of the
same facts:
"The arrogance of Doramos, who
considered himself superior to other
people, arousedfeelings ofenvy, found
amongst even the most high -born people
of equal rank. News reached a 'Canary'
nobleman by the name of Bentagayre,
from the town of Arguineguín, that
Doramos, ful/ ofcourage, hadtaken a
large herd of stolen livestock to the open
land at Maspalomas. He was toldthat
Doramos had travelledalone, andthat the
motto on his coat of arms was 'quartered
-23 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
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-26
in red and white'. Bentagayre went to wait
far him on the road a long which he would
have to return; ... " (Pedro Agustín del
Castillo, Descripción histórica y geográfica
de las Islas Canarias, 1737).
Moreover, the favourable
environmental conditions of this area
enabled it to be used for other purposes,
particularly by wild animals and birds,
who laid their eggs here, as well as by
fishes, molluscs and marine crustaceans.
The Charca and the adjacent coast
constituted an important enclave for
fishing, as alluded to in various reports
which describe the practice of this
activity during the following centuries.
The malacolog ical deposits and remains
of fishes found in conjunction with stone
material in the dune area, provide
archeological proof of the same.
The indigenous inhabitants would
also have made good use of the
numerous advantages of the a rea: in fact,
fishing was for them one of their main
resources. This is clearly reflected by
different historians, who tell us that even
the nobility, or the "king" himself, was
given to fishing, a practice common to
both sexes:
"Fishing, sea sports and bathing were
considered good exercise by the nobility,
and even Guanartheme was a famous
fisherman. They captured Jorge amounts
of fish in the pens they made, .... " (Brebe
resumen y historia muy verdadera de Ja
Conquista de Canaria, Antonio Cedeño,
7S th Century).
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Abreu Galindo writes:
"The island peop/e made good use of
the sea. Fish was a stop/e in their diet.
They would kil/ the fishes by beating them
at night, by the light of beacons made of
the heartwood of the Canary Pine, lit
a long the coast. Good shellfish is a/so
plentiful al/ round the island, constituting a
stop/e in the diet of the poor." (Fr. Juan de
Abreu Galindo, Historia de la Conquista de
las Siete Islas de Canaria, 76 02).
The following appears in the
written text attributed to Pedro Gómez
Escudero, chaplain of the Conquest:
"They were excel/ent fishermen, who
u sed hooks made of sheep's horns, made
with hot woter. They were even better than
the Spaniards, and made their fines from
palm tree leaves, which they incorporated
in to the reeds they used as rods. They a/so
made their baskets out of sea rushes, which
are plentiful. They had nets made out of
reeds and sieves of palm leaves. The
nobility caught lots of fish in pools and
pens (made out of stones). (Pedro Gómes
Scudero, Libro Segundo prosigue de
Conquista de Canaria, 7S th Century).
Apart from these techniques, there
is documentary and archeological
evidence to indicate several others which
might have been practised here, such as
the building of stone walls to capture fish
at low tide; the use of reeds as rods, of
fishing line and of hooks; that of reed
matting as nets ar baskets, and even that
of small boats (Rodríguez Santana, C.G.,
1996).
Older generations who worked in
the a rea tell of the festivities organiced in
the Charca of Maspalomas, in decades
past, coinciding with the mustering of
livestock and the end of the harvest.
They ate the fish caug ht there by the
traditional method of envarbasca or
embarbasca (1 ). This consisted of adding
the milk of the Cactus spurge (Euphorbia
canariensis) or oftheCommon Canary
spurge (Euphorbia Regis-Jubae) to the
water, thus drugging the fish, wh ich rose
to the su rface a nd cou Id be caug ht easily.
Although there is no documentary
(1) /nformationob tainedfrom fishermen inArguineguinin the
co urse of rhe inrerv iews carried out as par t of o fie!d s tudy.
Personal con t ributionof D. Jorge Miranda Valer ón.
-27 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
.... ___ _...-
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.. -···
---- - -
... ,. ..... ,, ... _
.... '"':.. ... --- -
_.. .
........ .
-
- · --'=-'--- -. .,-
;:_
-
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-s.
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-·· -------- © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
-30
evidence to prove that the indigenous
Canary people practised this kind of
fishing, the possibility should not be
ruled out. Viera y Clavija mentions thi s
practice in his Dictionary of Natural
history:
"The use of this milk for that
distinctive kind of fishing is well-known; it
is added to the Jorge pools which form in
the reefs at sea, drugging and poisoning
the fish, which subsequently float on the
water's (Joseph de Viera y Clavija,
Diccionario de Historia Natural de las Islas
Canarias, 78 66).
But this is not the only reference
made to fishing in La Charca . In fact,
mention is made of an original technique
for catching eels (Anguilla anguilla), a
species traditionally highly appreciated
and formerly fished in various stretches
of water off Gran Canaria. This technique
has so far only been reported as being
used on this island: (Lorenzo, M.J.;
Jiménez, A.M.; Zamora, J.M., 1998)
"When / was young, around 75 ,
l saw eels being fished in the Charco de
Maspalomas and in the barrancos
of Fataga and Tira ja na; when I was
working in the tomato plantations in the
south, l saw men taking reeds
or rods with snares made from the twine
used for the toma toes, and using
them to catch eels. I never caught any. "
(0. Manuel Luján Falcón, 55, Lugarejos,
Artenara, Gran Canaria, Xl-96).
In short, ali this information reveals
the continued use made of this area, and
the conservation of sorne fishing
techniques in use since the aboriginal
era. What's more, we can draw a certain
parallel beween the Charca de
Maspalomas and, for example, the
Charco de La Aldea in sofar as the
practice of collective fishing, today
considered a sport, is concerned. In the
case of La Aldea, this collective fishing
continued many years after the
colonization of the island, no doubt
beca use of its isolated setting.
The Catholic church did not
approve of these practices and it took
action against them. In 1766, Bishop
Delgado y Venegas imposed severe
punishment on those taking part, given
the tu rmoi l resulting from men and
women jumping into the Charco "ali
together and almost naked':
In order to avoid the punishment but at
the same time ensure that the tradition
continued, the villagers decided to jump
in fully dressed.
Of the aquatic species which grow
near the Charca, the ancient
Canary people could make
use of the rushes (Scirpus
holoschoenus, synonym of
Holoshoenus vulgaris)
(Ga lván, B., 1980:45-50),
from which they made
various different items for
different uses. Their use for
medicinal purposes has
even been reported. Among
the articles made using the
reeds there are
documentary or
archeological references to
matting, articles of different
shapes and sizes, bags or
bowls, t wisted or plaited
tw ine and items used to
adorn or dress the person,
such as ribbons or
underskirts.
They made even more
extensive use of the
abundant palm trees in
Maspalomas, wh ich
provided them w ith the raw
material to make different
objects, from matting to
containers destined for
different uses, ropes,
underskirts, boards for their
homes.
They also made w ine,
vi negar and honey were
made from the fruit of the
Canary palm tree and the
date palm tree. In fact, the
presence of two different
species, the Canary date
palm (Phoenix canariensis)
and the date palm (Phoenix
dactylifera), has given rise to
the hypothesis that they are of anthropic
origin (Montelongo, V., 1992). The theory
suggests that th e ancient Canary people
planted the first date palms, brought
from their native Africa, or that they were
planted by sailors visiting later in order
to take on water and firewood.
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-31 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
Port of call in the Atlantic:
conquerors, travellers, pirates
and shipwrecks. e élso Martín de Guzmán, in an
extensive study of the problems
posed by sailing in the waters
around the Canaries and the
Atlantic lying between the islands and
the Sahara in pre- and proto-historic
times, considers the excellent mooring
conditions offered by the coast of
Maspalomas, and shows that there a
significant number of archeological
remains of the ancient Canary people:
"Between Punta de Taoza (27°,45'N. y
75 °,40'W.) and Morro Colchas, the coast
gives way to two bays. Anchoring is
possible in both, Santa Agueda to the West
and Meloneras to the East, as they are
sheltered from the wind. These are the
landing stages of Arguineguin, used from
an early date by Europea ns, near which
numerous signs of aboriginal dwelling
structures are located. From Maspalomas
Tenefé, for about 1O miles, the coastruns
clean and calm" (Martín de Guzmám, C.,
1985).
References to these places can also
be inferred in Le Canarien, the story of
the expedition undertaken by Juan de
Bethencourt, from Normandy, at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, in
order to conquer the islands. When he
travelled to Gran Canaria with the aim of
negotiating with the island people and
claiming the territory, Gadifer de la Salle,
Bethencourt's partner, records that they
put into port ata large port situated
between Telde and Agüimes, which
must be Gando Bay. After staying for
two days, the report tells that:
"Gadifer sent Pedro el Canario to talk
to the king, who was five leagues away. As
he did not return at the expected time, the
Spaniards, who owned the boat, did not
want to wait any longer and set sail,
moving four leagues a long the coast. They
wanted to take water on board, but the
Canary people did not Jet them disembark.
No doubt they will oppose any small party
that arrives, as they are numerous':
Although this account does not
actually state that they went to
Maspalomas, and translators have noted
other possible places of reference, such
as the mouth of Barranco de Tirajana to
the south, or that of Guiniguada to the
north, it seems probable that they would
try to take on water at the place where
water was most abundant. Historians
such as Rumeu de Armas (Armas, R.,
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-34
1947:17) support this idea, and Viera y
Clavija wrote:
" ... , but, as our messenger took too
long and the Spaniards who cammanded
the boat did not want to wait any longer,
they weighed anchor and went to take on
water in the cave known as
(Joseph de Viera y Clavija, Historia de
Canarias, 1783).
J. Montero reflects the same
att itude in his account of the same
episode in his Historia Militar de las Islas
Canarias:
". .., they spent two days without
disembarking, under the pretext of
exchanging sorne trinkets far local
products, although they were real/y
gaining the loca Is' canfidence, in arder
subsequently to land suddenly in the cave
of Maspalomas, situated in the south of the
island. However, they met with a less
friendly welcame there than they had
anticipated, and they had to turn back"
(Juan Montero, Historia Militar de las Islas
Canarias, desde la Conquista a nuestros
días, 1847).
The historian Pedro Agustín del
Castillo contends that the conqueror
Pedro Fernández Cabrón's unsuccessful
landing took place in this part of the
island, meeting with the resistance of the
local people:
"Pedro Cabrón sailed to the south,
stopping at the ports of Maspaloma and
Arganeguín, where his people
disembarked, with a view to moving inland
to Tira ja na. The local people reacted
swiftly, and he encauntered the 'Fayacan'
(local leader), who fought Pedro Cabrón
without any help from anyone e/se. The
invador, not used to the hostile terrain, was
hit by one of the stones thrown by the
'Canaries' in one of the first fights, and was
badly in ju red in the mouth. Man y of his
men were ki/led and he was forced to
return to his ship. He was able to set sail
and return to the Real de Las Palmas port':
(Pedro Agustín del Castillo, Descripción
histórica y geográfica de las Islas de
Canaria, 1737).
Later, in 1502, the name of
Maspalomas was linked to one of the first
European expeditions to South America,
with the evidence that Christopher
Columbus passed through on his fourth
and last journey. On
the 6th of May of that
year, "four sailing ships
with weapons and
supplies, and 140 men"
set off from the port of
Cádiz, to be joined
subsequently in
Portugal by several
more knights. Chapter
LXXXVIII of the account
written by his son don
Hernando reads as
follows:
"We set sail that
same day, and on the
20th we arrived at Gran
Canaria; on the 24th we
went to Maspalomas, on
the same island, to take
on the water and
firewood we would need
far the journey; from
there we set off towards
India, enjoying a good
journey, as it pleased
God, and without
taking down the sails,
we arrived at the island
of Matinino on the 1S th
of Ju ne in the morning,
with a heavy sea and
strong winds': (Historia
del Almirante Don
Cristóbal Colón por su
hijo Don Hernando).
Reference is made
to other explorers
visiting the area during
the years in which
Renaissance Europe
started its world
expansion. In 1504,
Juan de la Cosa put into
port in Gran Canaria, at th e head of a fleet
of ships. After taking on provisions in the
Real de Las Palmas port, he continued on
to Maspalomas, where he took on meat
and water. (Álamo, N., 1956).
During th e following years and
centuries, Maspalomas, its Charca and
palm-grove, wou ld give shelter to other
sa ilors, in differing circumstances, in an
era in w hich pirates and corsairs
abounded in the archipelago's waters. In
fact, the construction of the castle of
Casa Fuerte de Santa Cruz del Romeral,
authorized by Royal Decree on March
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22nd 1677, was partly designed to
protect the local sa ltworks, as well as to
provide
"immediate protection for the whole of the
southeast of the island, previously open to
and unprotected from the continua/ attacks
of pira tes. The south of Gran Canaria, from
Gando to Malapalomas, has thus been
protected from the pira tes used to taking
on water in this a rea. This fortification
enables the fishing and commercial fleets,
as well as the local inhabitants, to feel
considerably safer than in the post"
(Bruquestas de Castro, F., 1994:498).
The last decades of the sixteenth
century witnessed a particularly large
number of feats of arms, resulting from
the power struggles among the leading
European countries, which led to fighting
further afield. In May 1586, an English
pirate ship, called El Faco, tried to land on
the beaches of Maspalomas, after having
tried unsuccessfully to do the same on
other islands of the archipelago and
Madeira. In the south of Gran Canaria, it
was driven back by the Canary people,
who managed to free an islander who
had been taken hostage as well as captu-ring
one of the English crew members.
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I
/
l
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Ten years later, in June 1596, five
English boats anda frigate approached
Maspalomas in order to take on water. A
column of men leapt ashore, only to be
caught in the ambush the local people
had prepared. One English sailor was
killed and another was taken prisoner.
In 1599, a Dutch squadron made up
of 74 boats and sorne ten thousand men,
commanded by Van der Does, put into
port in the bay of Las Isletas. They
disembarked on Saturday, Ju ne 26th
after various unsuccessful attempts in
which the Canary people defended their
land tenaciously. The invadors
conquered and plundered Las Palmas
and it was only after the defeat suffered
at Monte Lentiscal that they abandoned
the capital of Gran Canaria, on July 4th,
after setting fire to it.
The Dutch account of this event
describes the route taken by the invading
navy, circling the island until they arrived
at Maspalomas (Santoyo, J.C., 1979):
"On the morning of 9th Ju/y, most of
the boats set off towards the coast in
search of fresh water. They took with them
the body of Jan Cornelesson, son of the
Senior Admiralty Officer in Rotterdam,
called Zwartekeys, who was properly
buried on dry land. Then we set fire to
some heaps offirewood piled between the
trees on the shore. We did not see any
Spaniards there. (Th e Conqvest of the
Grand Canaries, Michiel Joosten van
Heede, 1599).
The diary of the standard bearer of
the Dutch fleet, Johann von Leubelfing,
also recounts the stopover made in
Maspalomas, made in calm weather and
in arder to stock up with water:
"On Ju/y 9th we stayed put there, as
some boats took on water, which ron down
from the mountains': (Travel diary of
Johann von Leubelfing, standard bearer
for the squadron of the Dutch Admiral
Van der Does).
This information includes the first
direct, written evidence of changes made
to the natural conditions in this area,
with the fire lit by the invadors. Apart
from that, the Dutch presence is marked
by the large stones they placed over the
tombs of their dead, near the beach. The
shepherds in the area who saw them did
not da re disturb them, and the Dutch
accounts accordingly show that they did
not see any local inhabitants during their
stay, right up to the moment they left the
island's waters, on Saturday July 1 Oth
(Armas, R., 1992).
The Dutch presence in the area
would seem to have given rise to the
naming of Playa del Inglés (the
Englishman's Beach), in the same way as
in Tafira, the battle site was named Cruz
del Inglés (the Englishman's Cross), as the
identity of the attackers was mistaken
(Herrera Piqué, A., 1987). The fact is that
for many years, the Canary peo ple called
any foreigner "English'; when they did not
know his exact origin. However, the
historian Manuel Lobo does not agree. In
his "book on place-names in Gran
Canaria" he states that the naming of the
beach in the South "corresponds to the
passing of the English pírate Francis Drake
through the area", in October 1595
(Suárez Betancor, J. et al., 1997:251).
However, after the defeat suffered by the
English pírate Francis Drake in his
unsuccessful bid to conquer the island's
capital, the fleet under his command
took to the coast of the south of the
island, taking on water and firewood and
dropping anchor in the natural bay of
Arguineguín. Once on land, he was
attacked again by the Canary people and
was forced to abandon the island's
waters quickly.
As for the place-name given to the
beach in the south of Gran Canaria, today
so full of people, the theories that link the
na me with the first tourists to visit the
area are groundless: "Playa del Inglés -
thus named for over fifty years, when a lone
Frenchman, who they called 'El Inglés; built
himself a house in the middle of the dunes-
, ... " (Morales, J.L., 1991 :157). Apart from
possibly the ancient Canary people, there
is no reference to any building in the
middle ofthe dunes, and the name del
Inglés dates back several centuries even if
the foreigner in question was not exactly
British.
This was not the last time that the
isolated and peaceful waters of
Maspalomas received visitors who
approached the islands in search of
booty. In 1685, a little-known feat of
arms was recorded, in which a French
pírate confronted the islanders in his
desire to take on provisions orto plunder,
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leaving seven dead among the locals, and
an unspecified number on the other side.
(Méndez, J., 1981).
In 1821 , the Dean of the Cathedral
of Peru and a Member of Parliament
for the Province of Chiapa were
flung onto these beaches, stripped of
their clothes and belongings,
after being attacked by American pirates.
Apprised of the situation, the
Ecclesiastical Council gave them clothes
and money to continue their journey to
the Court, their destination. The records
of the Council reflect the episode:
(Cazorla, S., 1995: 127-8)
"The Council discovered that don
Fernando Antonio Dávila, Member of
Parliament for the Province of Chiapa and
don Nicolás Alfonso de Andrade y San Juan,
Dean of the holy Cathedral of Puerto Rico,
on their way to mainland Spain, had been
captured by an insurgent pirare who
robbed them not only of their belongings
but a/so of their clothes, and left them on
the beaches near Maspalomas. This
institution wanted to provide the necessary
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
assistance to people of such rank who, as
clergymen and by dint of their noble
character deserve such help, and therefore
resolved to write to them and tell them how
affected the Chapter is by this unfortunate
inciden t. In its desire to alleviate the
situation, the Chapter makes itself available
and offers such help as may be required, to
be provided in the first instance by the
Hacedor de Triana, the priest don Domingo
Pérez, who is to grant them al/ that they ask
for, and secondly by the Ecclesiastical
(Actas del Cabildo, 21 de abril de
1821).
However, Maspalomas is not always
mentioned in connection with feats of
arms. The wild nature of the place and
the overwhelming abundance ofwildlife
in the midst of the dry heart of Gran
Canaria are also mentioned by travellers.
The French scientist and researcher, Sabin
Berthelot, toured the island in the
summer of 1829, noting the
environmental richness of the a rea, but
also the problems suffered and the
effects of the su n:
"The beaches of Maspalomas,
situated two leagues further
south in the mouth of the barranco de
Galga, provided new distractions far me.
J knew the Jagoons along the coastline
to be frequented by African birds,
so I set off to capture sorne at dawn.
This activity affected my already weakened
health. Forced to keep still in swamps
under the burning sun, I returned in the
afternoon to my hospital accommodation
deadly tired; it was impossible forme to
continue my walks. Al/ my provisions had
run out and my poor stomach could not get
used to the ground maize of the
island people. So / left Maspalomas,
headed far the City, crossing the hamlets
of El Carrizo/ and Agüimes. Te/de was my
/ast stop. J returned home after three
weeks' walking, my skin tanned like a
Another French naturalist and
explorer who visited the islands in the
last century, Bory de Saint-Vincent (1780-
1846), contributes sorne information
about Maspalomas, among the
numerous interesting data included in a
study entitled Essays on the Fortunate
lslands. In his description of Gran
Canaria, in which he praises the
freshness and abundance of water
sou rces, he says:
"Only one place has been devastated
by drought; it is situated between the places
called San Nicolás and Maspalomas. The
volcanic eruptions, which look quite recent,
hove altered it complete/y." (J.B.G.M. Bory
de Saint-Vincent, Essais sur les lsles
Fortunées et l'Antique Atlantide ou précis
de l'Histoire Géneral de l'Archipel des
Canaries, 1803).
lt is clear that this French traveller
was mistaken, as the geographical area
mentioned corresponds to the oldest
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geological area of the island; the drought
was caused by its being located to the
south of the hum id trade wind s of the
northeast.
Another illustrious French visitar,
René Verneau mentions the term
Maspalomas several times in his books
on the island. To be exact, in his five-year
stay in the Canary lslands (1890), he
describes the appearance of the dunes
and the Charca. The Charca was then
quite different from now, covering a
much larger surface.
"In this southernmost part of the
island, there are an infinite number of
dunes which are gradual/y advancing
inland, threatening to invade al/ the
cultivated land if adequate measures are
not token.
Along the shore, a jetty has been
built, leaving large pools where fresh water
and salt water mix. These pools now hove a
fairly low salt content, a//owing willows
and large numbers of reeds to grow around
the edge." (René Verneau, Cinq années de
séjour aux les lles Canaries, 1890).
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Different travellers inclu-ded
descriptions of the
paradisiaca/ /andscape
of Maspalomas in cheir
writing
From the beginning of the
twentieth century, more
exactly from February 1912,
we have one of the most
complete and beautiful des-criptions
of Maspalomas
and its Charca, thanks to the
British naturalist and orni-thologist
David Bannerman,
who spent a week here
exploring the area. His
account details not only the
wea lth of fauna in the a rea
but also many other
aspects, like the methods of
communication and activi-ties
of the local population.
He starts as follows:
"In the extreme south of
Gran Canaria lies a Jittle
tract of country quite
unique in character, the like
of which is found nowhere
e/se in the Archipelago.
Situated on the coast, it is
the nearest thing to a marsh
of which the Canary /slands
can boast, consequently
severa/ birds inhabit this
district which are not to be
met with in any other part
of the island. These live in
isolated seclusion,
complete/y cut off by
mountains and deserts from
the country farther north.
This district is known as the
'Charco' of Maspalomas ... "
After describing the long and
hazardous journey that took them to the
area, he continues:
"The owner of the Maspalomas
Charco is a distinguished Spaniard, Don
Pedro Castillo, who, being aware of our
visit, most kindly sent his majar-domo early
the morning after our arrival to assist us in
transporting our tents and baggage to our
next camping ground. For these an ox-waggon
was obligingly put at our disposal,
and we ourselves set out on mu/es to cross
the neck of heavy sand which separated
the /anding-place from the Charco. This
ride, owing to the na tu re of the ground,
and our continuous halts for shooting by
the way, took a good two hours to
accomplish. .. Having crossed the stony
plateau and left the Euphorbia scrub
behind, we descended on to rolling sand-hills
covered with coarse grass and Plocama
pendula, a rubiaceous desert plant with
slender, weeping branches ..... We took sorne
time to cross these dunes, the sand being in
places very soft, and on more than one
occasion a mu/e floundered and rolled over
while scrambling up the crest of a wind-blown
ridge. As we breasted the last sand-hill
the lighthouse of Maspalomas ca me
in to view, and the whole of the "Charco" lay
spread out befare us. lt is a fairly wide
stretch of flat marshy ground, with here and
there pools of almost stagnant water, the
banks of which are thickly overgrown with
low tamarisk bushes, coarse spiky grass, a
species of rush, and severa/ water plants.
On the eastern side of this marshy landa
narrow tidal stream flows from the hills,
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widening a good deal towards the mouth.
From this main stream one ar two smaller
arms wind their snake-/ike way into the
tangled mass ofvegetation - tamarisk
scrub, hummocks covered with coarse
grass, and stunted palm-trees. In the
middle of the Charco a clump of twenty ar
more tal/ palms wave their feathery heads
above the marsh and lend a great charm
to the picture. The Charco is bounded on
the east by the sand-dunes over which we
passed, and on the west by an arid plain
stretching away to Arguineguin. The
plain to the north is covered sparingly
with tamarisk scrub and stretches to the
foot of the mountains. On the south is the
sea, ... / have described the Charco
minute/y, to show how complete/y the
birds here are isolated, living in
surroundings differing greatly from the
rest of the Archipelago':
•.
This part of his account doses as follows:
"We pitched our tents some way
from the sea, e/ose to a patch of tamarisk
scrub, on the east side of the main stream,
which was here very shallow and much
overgrown with reeds.
At the mouth of the charco stands
the lighthouse, a fine so/id building
180 feet in height (in fact, it is higher
than that), by which many a ship has been
saved from running aground on this
forbidding coast. .. When evening fe//, the
Charco, viewed from our camp, looked like
fairyland, the palms contributing in no
small meas u re to the beauty of the scene.
As the sun sank behind the marsh, the sky
would become suffused with /ove/y shades
of salman-link and delicate green, against
which the bare outline of the lighthouse
stood out in bold relief; ... "
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
The •Miano• wos the farge dune near the village
David A Bannerman's camp at
Maspa/omas. (The Canary
/s/ands, their history, natural
history and scenery, 1922)
-45 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
-46
(David A Bannerman, Th e Canary
lslands, their history, natural history and
scenery, 1922).
However, a few years aher the
British naturalist gave this idyllic
description, the waters of the
archipelago, including the south of Gran
Canaria, were caught up in the turmoil of
the Great War. The fact that Spain
remained neutral did not stop German
submarines from searching for prisoners
in the sea surround ing the islands, just
like pirates. This dea lt a severe blow to
the Canary economy, which was
completely dependent on international
trade, particu larly with England;
maritime traffic decreased, and with it
commercial activity.
The presence of German
submarines became more intense,
particularly from the summer of 1916
onwards, thus lending protagonism to
Maspalomas and its lighthouse. The
following words, reported in the
newspaper La Prensa, belong to the
keeper of sa id lighthouse, Juan Verger:
"Last November 30th we saw a
German submarine towing four boats
belonging to the Dutch steamship "Kediri"
(sunk by the same submarine). We gave
them a boat to escort them, and we three
keepers showed them the best place to
This was not, in fact, an isolated
case. The same keeper continues:
" ... they keep us busy ali the time since,
as well as having to help the shipwrecked
sailors, we do not have the necessary means
to communicate with our superiors, so that
they can make the appropriate reports
(quoted in Luis Brito, M., 1994:686).
Twenty-two shipwrecked sailors
from the French yacht "Emma Laurans;
torpedoed by German submarines, also
disembarked in Maspalomas. These
submarines continued to attack or
intercept boats, even those flying the
Spanish flag, creating an atmosphere of
insecurity in the islands' waters. In
another incident, the beaches of the
south of Gran Canaria acted once again
asan improvised shelter to the 24 crew
members of the Greek steam ship
"Salamis': In short, these were difficult
years. As Milagros Luis states, " in spite of
the profuse thanks expressed by ali the
shipwrecked sailors who arrive at
Maspalomas, some, like those of the steam
ship "Kediri" ar the "Salamis ; complain
about the looting that takes place on the
beaches, with provisions being stolen from
their boats"
(Luis Brito, M.,, 1994:694).
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
The rug "Forrunate" extending rhe rowrope ro rhe German submarine U- 167,
salvaged from rhe bottom of rhe las Burros bay (Maspa/omas). January 28th, 1952.
(Pho to by kind permission of D. Fernando Rodríguez Herndndez)
-47 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
-48
There have been other war-related
incidents in the waters of the south coast
of Gran Canaria this century, the details
of which still cause controversy fifty years
later (Suárez G., 1993).
During the Second World War, the
theoretically neutral stance adopted by
Spain did not stop the lslands from
becoming the scene of confrontations
between the two warring powers.
From the early nineteen forties, and
particularly in 1943, the sea constituted
one ofthe main war zones, with German
submarines playing a distinctly
important role.
The Atlantic was a dangerous
ocean, as the German fleet tried by all
means to prevent maritime
communications between Great Britain
and her Empire, and to stop American
supplies reaching their European allies. A
German submarine, the U-167, which
had taken part in the sinking of 15 boats
and 8 submarines, was attacked on April
6th in the waters off the Canary lslands
by two British Royal Air Force SQU-233
seaplanes. lt has been suggested that
the planes in question took off from
Fuerteventura, which would call into
question the supposed neutrality of
Franco's Spain, although this suggestion
does not appear very likely. According to
Manuel González Quevedo (2), the
seaplanes that attacked the German
submarine set off from the American
bases on the African continent. Allied
planes frequently carried out their
observation duties from these bases,
even flying over the Puerto de la Luz.
(2) lnformation provided by D. Manuel González Quevedo, token
from his hisrorical research of the Puerto de lo Luz y Las Palmas.
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
The German submarine was hit
twice in the attack, and was seriously
damaged off Arinaga. lt carried on
towards the south guided by the lights of
the Maspalomas lighthouse, until it
arrived at Playa de las Burras.
Here, after abandoning and sinking
the submarine, its 48 crew members
were rescued by the fishermen of that
beach - a fact supported by
photographic evidence. They would later
walk to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
where they embarked on an Argentinian
steamship, and fourteen days later they
were on another German submarine.
Nothing was published in the press,
strictly controlled by Franco's censorship,
about this incident, in which the
fishermen of the south played an
important part. Today only the memory
remains of the last feat of arms to take
place on the south coast of the island.
Five decades after the event, the
shipwrecked sailors and their families,
like ordinary tourists, met up again with
the fishermen who took part in their
rescue.
As to the sunken submarine, which
lay 16 metres deep on the bottom of the
bay of Playa de las Burras, the Spanish
Navy salvaged the U-167 in December
1951 , hiring the services of the company
Recuperaciones Marítimas, S.A, for the
purpose. Once refloated, in January
1952, it was taken to Puerto de la Luz,
where it was moored. Years later it was
scrapped, together with the three
torpedoes placed inside it for immediate
launching (Ferrera, J., 1996).
Alleged UFO sighted in Maspolomas (21-Vl-77)
lfthe German submarine
disappeared from the waters of
Maspalomas as silently as it arrived, other
evidence of the conflict remained on the
south coast. Here, on the Maspalomas
shoreline, as on all the islands' coast, a
series of casemates were built, for fear of
a possible allied invasion during the war.
Over the years, the ruins of those bunkers
have constituted asad and absurd
reminder of the war.
But the clear skies of Maspalomas
have seen strange and controversia!
phenomena. On five occasions between
1974 and 1979, strange, luminous objects
were sighted from the islands; for
example, on 22nd June, 1977, a tourist
holidaying in the south of Gran Canaria
managed to take a photograph of what
was originally taken to be an
Unidentified Flying Object, described as
'shining bodies moving at high speed
which left a bright trail as they rose up in
the sky' (Álamo, V.S. 1999). In March
1999, experts from the Fundación
Anomalía, dedicated to investigating
UFO phenomena from a scientific
viewpoint, revealed that they were really
Poseidon missiles launched from U.S.
Navy submarines, basing their
conclusions on U.S. navy records made
public once the Cold War was over. The
missiles were launched sorne 1,000
kilometres to the west of the
Archipelago, but the high temperature
gasses expelled through their jets left a
luminous trail which, viewed at dusk,
gave rise to unusual and, in sorne cases
fanciful, suppositions.
-•• © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
,, ----------- ----------------,
The name Maspalomas.
F or Néstor Álamo, the name
Maspalomas was associated with
a conqueror from Mallorca,
Rodrigo Mas de Palomas, who
obtained land in the area, with the name
degenerating and becoming the current
"Maspaloma" or "Maspalomas" (3). The
linguist Maximinio Trapero, in his study of
place-names in Gran Canaria La toponimia
de Gran Canaria, classifies itas a loanword
from Catalan, derived from the surname
Mas, which he considers "is clearly present
as a lexical element in the compound place-names
Maspalomas, Mascuervo and
Masamoya" (Suárez Betancor, J. et al.,
1997:200). However, there is no further
documentary or oral evidence to show
that anybody with these surnames put
into port in this part of the island, either
as a conqueror oras a holder of any
property. What's more, this land in the
south was not divided aher the Conquest;
it remained under the direct control of the
Crown, i.e. ownerless. This is clearly
documented in the book Repartimientos
de Gran Canaria, in which not only is there
no account of any division of land or
water in this region, but there is no
(3) Taken from the information obtained by D. Pedro J. Franco
López in a wide-ranging inrerview of D. Néstor Alomo Hernández,
Official Chronicler of Gran Canaria.
/ /" .
mention of any such surname in the list of
beneficiaries.
References can be found to one
Francisco Palomar, a rich merchant from
Genoa who was "a resident of the city of
Valencia" (Rumeu de Armas, A., 1952:87).
He was in Gran Canaria in 1494, and was a
friend and partner of the conqueror
Alonso Fernández de Lugo, from whom
he bought 87 aboriginal slaves, captured
in Gu'lmar and later sold in the aforemen-tioned
city on the east coast of Spain.
This Francisco Palomar or Palomares had
sorne properties in Gran Canaria, but
these were situated in the opposite side
from Maspalomas. In 1494, he bought, at
a very good price, a sugar mili and land in
Agaete from Fernández de Lugo. He later
had to sell these properties in order to
fund his conquest ofTenerife (Rumeu de
Armas, A., 1952:89).
As far as the surname Mas is
concerned, Antonio de Viana mentions it
in his Antigüedades de las Islas
Afortunadas , written at the beginning of
the seventeenth century, although he links
the na me with three conquerors of the
island ofTenerife (Viana, A., 1991 :289), as
does the historian José de Viera y Clavijo
in the second half of the eighteenth
century (Viera y Clavijo, J., 1982:844,850).
Leonardo
Torriani's map of
Gran Canaria,
sixreenth cenrury
-51 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
-S2
However, this place-name is clearly
chronicled from an early date:
"The Spaniards found the island
divided in to two feudal estates: one in Te/de
to the East, situated between the Isletas
and Maspalomas point': (Libro Segundo
prosigue la Conquista de Canaria, Pedro
Gómes Scudero, fifteenth century).
The historian Marín de Cubas' 1687
account of the Spanish conquest of the
island also mentions the place-name:
"From the Real de Las Palmas port, the
coast descends to Maspalomas and
Tirajana. Clase to Aguimes, in the barranco
de Guayadeque, Pedro de Vera carne across
a Canary inhabitant with livestock who did
not run away. On being questioned, he said
that he was a Christian, that he was called
Juan Maior and that he was from
Lanzarote ... " (Tomás Arias Marín de Cubas,
Historia de las Siete Islas de Canaria, 1687).
Sebastián Jiménez Sánchez, in his
unpublished Diccionario etimológico y
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-54
Bureaucratic idleness delayed this
suggestion until 1806 when the Supremo
Consejo de Castilla commissioned
Ossavarry to produce a cartographic
description of Gran Canaria as part of the
research needed to carry out the plan.
The interesting part of this map is
the "red fine which marks the inhabited
part of the island. The pink a reas represent
inhabited a reas and the umber part (which
is actual/y blue) the uninhabited, desert
a reas, punctuated only by La Aldea de San
Nicolás, a small settlement in the west; ... "
(Béthencourt Massieu, A., 1994:672). The
mentioned red line crosses the island
from the La s Mujeres crag in the west to
the mouth of the gully of Amurga in the
southeast. Further down to the south we
can see the "P. of Maspalomas ", at the tip
of the a rea of this name, located in the
"uninhabited, desert" part of the island.
In the Atlas de España y sus
posesiones de Ultramar (1849), Francisco
Coello offers an inaccurate map of Gran
Canaria including the place-name
"Lagunas de Maspalomas" on the coast, as
well as Maspalomas, situated further
inland. Punta de Mas-Palomas and a bay
of the same na me also appear on one of
the copies of the Map of the West Coast of
Africa drawn up by the Englishman W.
Arlett and published in 1853.
On the map printed by the
Falconer Press of Paris which
accompanies Estudios históricos,
climatológicos y patológicos de las Islas
Canarias (1876) by Gregorio Chil y
Naranjo, Mas Palomas can be seen on the
map of the archipelago, while the Gran
Canaria map shows Maspalomas and
Punta de Maspalomas.
And at the end of the century, the
map included in the Descripción de las
Islas de Canarias written by Juan de
Puerta Can seco shows Punta de Mas
Palomas in the south of Gran Canaria.
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
This map also shows the different
lighthouses or beacons throughout the
Archipelago, classified in order of
importance, as well as a detailed
description of the state each one was in:
working, under construction, at the
planning stage etc. The lighthouse at
Maspalomas is classified as the most
important of the island, andas working.
There have been attempts to link
the place-name with the abundance of
birds found in the area. José de Viera y
Clavijo (1731 -1813) says in his
"Diccionario de Historia Natural de las Islas
Canarias" of the wild pigeons (palomas):
" .... they are plentiful in the islands,
especial/y in Canaria, where the Charco de
Maspalomas is famous for the wonderfu/
flocks that nest
In the same vein, David A.
Bannerman said that
"Maspalomas is the Spanish far 'more
pigeons' (Mas = more, palomas = pigeons),
and the name is singular/y appropriate, for
the rock pigeons simply swarmed and
provided most excellent
Claudio de la Torre wrote of the
Eastern lslands of the Archipelago that:
"The na me of Maspalomas derives
from the pigeons that fly over from the
Sahara in order to assuage their thirst in
the palm-grove lagoon, returning to Africa
at night. The small pool attracts a large
number of birds from the desert, which
deposit different seeds on the land, giving
rise to a luscious oasis with rare examples
of palm
Alejandro Cioranescu writes:
"Historically, it has been an
anchorage for sailors or pira tes, attracted
by its water. lt has a/so been a resting place
for numerous pigeons en route to Africa,
who have given the place its
Leoncio Afonso Pérez, in his Origen
y rasgos de la toponimia canaria states
that:
"the name may derive from the large
number of birds that frequent the
freshwater lagoon in the delta, which dates
back to the sixteenth and seventeenth
century, during which period it rained a
great deal and water was not extracted
from below ground':
Even if we disregard the inaccurate
references to the birds' daily movements,
the origin of the vegetation or the
formation of the Charca present in these
texts, not everyone admits that the name
of this a rea of the south is necessarily
related to the abundant pigeons and
other species.
While the place-name corresponds
to the southern tip of the island, in the
past it referred to a much larger than
than today, covering the flat a rea
beyond Juan Grande up to Arguineguín.
In the licence granted by Charles 11 of
Spain in 1677 for the construction of the
Castle del Romeral, reference is made to
the spot "in the calm woters of the
Maspaloma coast'' (Cazorla León, S.,
1995).
Although the place-name appears
mainly in the singular form in the oldest
documents, it does occasionally appear
in its current, plural form. Sometimes it
appears in both forms in the same text,
as is the case of the will of Mateo Pérez
de Villa nueva of October 21st,171 O
(Suárez Grimón, V., 1987:167), in which
he includes among his belongings:
"a farm called Maspalomas, accorded
to me by Royal Decree by His Majesty, of
about two hundred "fanegadas " (318
acres) of flat land and the charco called
Maspaloma, ... "
In other instances, the place-name
is divided into Mas Paloma or Mas
Palomas, this latter version appearing in
sorne present-day publications as a
mistake oras a result of ignorance.
Today, we have a resonant, distinctive
place-name for which no definite origin
can be established.
-55 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
Control of the territory.
B y virtue of the right of Conquest
which the Spanish monarchs
allocated themselves,
all the island territory became
their property. Although the Conquest of
Gran Canaria did not officially
end until 1483, the Royal Decree of
February 4th 1480, in Toledo, granted the
Governor Pedro de Vera the
right to distribute land and water among
the European conquerors (who had either
taken part directly
or had financed the conquest), the island
people who had collaborated with them
and the Catholic Church.
Thus, the Cabildo (lsland Council) was
born, the institution covering the island
which dealt with all administrative matters
in Gran Canaria during the "Antiguo
Régimen" (old regime).
"Don Fernando and doña Isabel send
greetings to Pedro de Vera, Gobernador,
Capitán y Alcayde of the island of Gran
Canaria. We have received reports that
sorne noblemen, squires and sailors, as wel/
as other people from the island and people
who have visited it, are desirous of settling
and making their home there, together with
their wives and children, or without them.
These people want to establish themselves
ond have a living there.
To this end, we authorise you to divide up
the pasture land and estates of this island
between al/ these people, apportioning to
each one as you see fit, according to their
worth and needs. We a/so require you to
namethe necessary government and legal
officials for the island ....
Signed in the noble city of Toledo, on the
fourth of February, A.O., 1480."
The division of land thus partly
constituted material compensation for the
different conquerors mentioned, as well as
helping in the colonization and settlement
of the new territory. Most of the recipients
settled at first in the lower a reas of the
northern half of the island, and they
decided to apportion for themselves the
waters that descended from the tops of
the mountains and the foothills.
This division and apportionment of
land, started by the sinister governor
Pedro de Vera, whose actions gave rise to
complaints about the unfair,
unmethodical way in which decisions
were made, continued under successive
governors, following various Royal
Decrees. However, the land at
Maspalomas remained ownerless, being
excluded from the divisions; neither was it
-57 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
-58
declared common land (on which the
locals had to pay taxes to the Cabildo for
being allowed to use it).
The population growth and demand
for further agricultura! land caused a
series of sustained conflicts during the
following years, once the process of
apportionment of land had concluded. As
was logical, the land which had remained
unoccupied in
the years following the Conquest started
to be used for agricultura! purposes,
specifically the uncultivated land and
mountains which constituted common
land or belonged to the Crown.
However, this originated numerous
complaints by the locals who had been
using the common land up until then. In
1760, the High Court records show a
complaint lodged by livestock breeders
from Tirajana, complaining about the
damage caused by locals from the Vega in
the common land and grazing areas "of
Mogan, Guaniguin and Maspalomas"
(Suárez Grimón, V.J., 1987:164):
Maspalomas in rhe nineteen fihies
"they take soil to make seed beds, to
the detriment of livestock breeding, the
loca Is and particular/y the maritime ports
of the orea; this soil extraction leaves the
ground bear and open, thus no longer
affording protection to the boats which put
in to these ports':
During the seventeenth century, the
lsland's Cabildo took charge of the
apportionment of land, and proceeded to
distribute land and water to private
individuals, despite not being entitled to
do so. The uncultivated a reas of Tira ja na,
including those at Maspalomas were
among the areas thus distributed. The
occupation of Maspalomas originates
from a Cabildo ruling of 1624 in favour of
Captain and Alderman Simón Lorenzo
Acosta, which includes Maspalomas and
the Llano del Ajulagal, together with the
water that thi s land provided. Six years
later, Captain Lorenzo sold thi s land to the
Pérez de Villanueva brothers for 500 silver
reales (Suárez Grimón, V.J., 1987:166).
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
However, these seizures of common
land forced the Crown to intervene; the
envoy Luis Henríquez, Member of His
Majesty's Council, and Alcalde del Crimen
en la Chancillería de Granada was
dispatched in order to identify the land
which had been illegally occupied and
reintegrate itas Crown Property. All the
land occupied in this manner, in the
north and nouth of the island, including
Maspalomas, was declared public and
ownerless, although the need for
agricultura! land and the existence
of the Cabildo's rulings enabled the
usurpers to maintain ownership.
In an edict dated July 29th, 1635,
the envoy Henríquez declared the
Cabildo's rulings null and void, and
forbade the private use of the
aforementioned land, which was to be
considered public and ownerless. But,
given the fact that if the land was no
longer cultivated, the local people would
not have enough food, the envoy had to
issue a new edict allowing cultivation to
continue.
So the brothers Baltasar and Juan
Pérez de Villanueva kept the land at
Maspalomas, subsequently inherited by
Mateo Pérez de Villanueva, incumbent
priest ofTirajana and Agüimes anda
Royal Chaplain.
However, the matter was not
settled; the Prosecutor of the High Court
tried to have the lands declared public
and ownerless alleging that Mateo Pérez
lacked legal title deeds. Mateo Pérez had
to apply to the King, Charles 11, who
confirmed the Cabildo's findings once
and for all in his Royal Decree of October
14th, 1680.
The High Court, on presentation of
the Royal Decree, ordered Pérez de
Villanueva to take possession of the land
at Maspalomas in February 1681.
On the 26th and 27th of February,
Lieutenant General Fernando Peraza
Ayala undertook this task, which gave
rise to a series of strange incidents.
On the first day, they started with the
"huts at Merentaga and the Charco
of Maspalomas, where Villanueva sprayed
himse/f with water and walked round the
Charco, continuing
with the land and water of the barranco of
Ayagaures and returning to the Lezcano
huts': On the following day they
continued with "the huts between
Merentaga and the sea, where he opened
and shut the doors" (Suárez Grimón, V.,
1980:274).
While this was happening, the now
legal owner sold part of the land to
Captain Gotardo Calimano of Las Palmas .
./
•.
59
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
60
This information is particularly
interesting as it tells us that the land was
uncultivated. Mateo Pérez himself
records this when he says that, without
the money received from the sale, he
would not have been able to cultivate
the remaining land, as it was nearly all
mountainous and could only be used for
grazing.
Up until then, two irrigation
channels had been built in the Barranco
de Maspalomas, with their respective
sources in los Vicentes and below la
Palma. Another was in the process of
being built above the place called
''Almassigo; near to the Charca.
However, the problems relating to
the ownership of the land were far from
over. Disputes continued in the form of a
lawsuit over boundaries and the
application of the Cabildo's rulings by the
locals, as well as controversy over the
water which in theory belonged to the
land. Finally, in 1679 a new Royal Decree
was issued, confirming the contents of
the previous one.
At the same time, the reduced
nature of the Propios (income obtained by
the Cabildo from rent and
duties levied in order to pay
for maintenance), motivated
the application in July 1795 "to
the King and his Council, for the
necessary means to attend his
expenses, castles, equipment,
arms and ammunition" (Suárez
Grimón, 1980:261). In answer
to this request, a Royal Decree
was issued on August 22nd of
the same year, in which,
among other things, the Law
was allowed ''permission and
authority to break down and
give over to cultivation such
uncultivated, ownerless landas
is not irrigated in that Jsland,
together with hills and
mountains, so that they can be
sold and Jet out on ten-year
Jeases" (quoted in Suárez
Grimón, 1980:261). The
boundaries of all uncultivated
land were marked out during
the following years, with a
view to proceeding to its
division and subsequent sale.
Between the end of May and
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
the beginning of June 1706, the
boundaries were fixed in Tirajana,
affecting the land at Maspalomas,
which had been left out of the Cabildo's
ruling adjudicating the land to Pérez
Villanueva. Thus, various different areas
are mentioned, including, among many
others, the Tabaibales land, "which
adjoined the Charco of Maspalomas on one
side, the Barranco de Gitagana, Charco azul,
Andén Bermejo in the dirction of Lomito
Colorado on another anda boundary stone
built next to Andén Prieto" and ending up
with " ..., further down the barranco, from
Chira to the Barranco de 'Ganiguín; towards
the sea, where Charco de Maspalomas
borders on the shore" (Suárez Grimón,
1980:266).
Pérez de Villanueva's will, made on
October 21 st, 171 O, mentions, as part of his
estate (Suárez Grimón, J.V., 1987:167-8):
"a farm called Maspalomas, accorded
to me by Royal Decree by His Majesty, of
about two hundred "fanegadas " (318
acres) of flat land and the charco called
Maspaloma, according to the boundaries
specified in said Royal Decree, on
presentation of which at the High Court, I
was ordered to take possession of the land,
together with the water at Maspalomas,
which originates in Fataga ...
Given this and other information
contained in the will, it seems that the
aforementioned sale of land to Captain
61
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62
Calimano did not in fact take place, as no
division of the land is mentioned where
the boundaries are referred to. Neither
did the building of houses anda
hermitage actually take place.
Mateo Pérez de Villanueva willed
the land at Maspalomas to his niece and
nephew Isabel Suárez and Juan Pérez de
Villanueva and, in a lesser proportion to
his other niece and nephews, Pedro and
Catalina Pérez and Mateo de Quevedo.
The Charco, in turn, was made over
to Francisco Amoreto Manrique, by virtue
of his friendship with Pérez de Villanueva.
Isabel Suárez sold her portian to
Fernando Vélez, notary of the High Court,
who subsequently sold the land and
corresponding water, together with the
right of use of the Charco to Francisco
Amoreto, who had also bought Juan
Pérez de Villanueva's share. The land at
Maspalomas was thus annexed toan
entailed estate which represented the
largest prívate property on the lsland.
When Francisco Amoreto
Manrique's daughter, Luisa Anton ia de
Amoreto del Castillo married Fernando
Bruno del Castillo Ruiz de Vergara, the
island's richest families were united.
Charles 111 awarded them the title of
Conde de la Vega Grande de Guadalupe
in 1777. With the forming of these
estates, a clear control of the land was
established. The estates grew larger and
larger as new tracts of land were added
to them, thus impeding the free
circulation of land in the south of the
island. By the nineteenth century, the
Condado de la Vega Grande controlled
98.8% of registered land in the
municipality of San Bartolomé de
Tirajana (Suárez Grimón, V.J., 1987:867).
Between the end of the eighteenth
century and the first half of the
nineteenth century, the incessant
demand for new land for agriculture
caused further ownerless, uncultivated
land to pass into prívate hands, by virtue
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
Maspalamas in the early
twentieth century
of a royal ruling in 1795, and the
sa le of Crown land in 1831 and
1872 (Suárez Grimón, V.J., 1987).
destined to help pay off the
enormous national debt which
had accumulated, and was
causing the Crown severe
financia! difficulties.
In 1873, as part of the
Spanish State's privatization of
State and Church property, a
number of pieces of land were
auctioned off, including the
"Llanos (plain s) de Maspalomas;
adjacent to the Charco. Much of
thi s land would subsequently be
classified as a protected area for
environmental reasons. The land
belonged to the state and was
considered "uncultivated and
ownerless" being classified as "dry
land far lt measured a
total of nearly 588 hectares and
was valued at 1 ,680 peseta s.
Fernando del Castillo bought the
lot at auction for 2, 1 00 pesetas
(Ojeda Quintana, J.J., 1977),
together with other
neighbouring properties , in "the
Plains and Va/ley of Maspalomas;
thus increasing even further the
abundant holdings of the Condado. The
properties acquired at auction totalled
1 ,659 hectares were valued at 5,249
pesetas and were bought for 6,002
peseta s.
Thi s particular example of
privatization, called Madoz (instigated by
the Law of May 1 st, 1855), did nothing to
help the free circulation of the land,
contributing as it did to the expansion of
an already existing large property. When
Fernando del Ca stillo Westerling, 5th
Conde de la Vega Grande died in 1901,
his assets included, among other rural
properties in different a reas of the lsland,
above all the south, like the Hacienda de
la Vega Grande de Guadalupe (Juan
Grande) or the estate at Arguineguín, the
Maspalomas estate of "more than 1,443
hectares, valued at 39,795.78 pesetas,
together with the water of the
Heredamiento of Fataga and places such
as Machogorroón and Artigones - 80,000
pesetas, as well as others in the Acequia
Alta and Fuente de las Hoyetas - 7,929
pesetas." (Millares Cantero, A., 1977:277).
During the Second Spanish
Republic, the Agrarian Reform Law
allowed the immense power of
landowners to be limited. However, the
-63 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
Buildings between the pa/m-grove and beach ar Maspalomas
In rhe background, romaro planrs ar Meloneras in rhe ninereen sixries
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law itself included stipulations
which limited its application,
thus making its enforcement in
the islands difficult. Despite
this hindrance, it should be
pointed out in respect of the
large estates owned by the
Condado de la Vega Grande in
the South of the island that
("the estates of Vega Grande,
Maspalomas and Arguineguín,
encompassed 1,769, 1,443.48 and
1,441 hectares respective/y) and
were passed on together with the
title. Tomatoes started to be
planted alongside the traditional
cereal crops. The agrarian reform
was applicable to the Condado in
accordance with the law"
(Millares Cantero, A., 1982:19).
However, this reform never
reached the islands, and
oligarchical control of the land
remained in the same hands.
The rea son for this was the
absence of social pressure,
exploited by the landowners to
avoid applying the reform. The
peasants' fear of reprisals
ensured that there were few
orgnizations to represent them,
Tomoto farming went right up to che shore. El Inglés plain
Early rourisr industry development in the nineteen sixties
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and those that did exist were badly
organized. Once this situation had
changed, it was too late. In 1936 "a
widespread agricultura/ strike in Gran
Canaria demanding, among other things,
the application of the agrarian reform was
truncated by the coup d 'état of Ju/y 1 Bth"
(Suárez Bosa, M., 1996:66).
In the months before this military
uprising, the local press featured severa!
land workers' disturbances. La Provincia
newspaper of Saturday 9th May 1936
carried the headline and four column
article entitled "Unrest in the South of the
/stand continues". The article reads that
"the peasants in tended to take control of
the land belonging to the Conde de la Vega
Grande", adding that "from Saturday until
toda y, the peasants from sorne coastal
areas - among others the Castillo del
Romeral - have tried to take over some of
the land belonging to the Conde.
Groups of unknown size chose their plots
and started to uproot spurges, thyme
plants and 'balos; with the aim of plough-ing
up the land and establishing their right
to settle there". The "apparent calm" sub-sequently
noted by the Civil Guard, who
arrived immediately, was considered by
the newspaper as showing that "it appe-ars
to ha ve been only minor unrest':
lt was not until the mid-twentieth
century, when the development of the
real estate industry, together with the
tourist boom in the area based on the
climate, beaches and outstanding
scenery took place, that the a rea became
more popular, attaining a hitherto
undreamt-of economic value.
However, the fact that the golden
beaches of the South turned into real
"gold'; has generated a dispute, during
the nineteen nineties, between the
family ofthe Conde de la Vega Grande
and the Council of San Bartolomé de
Tirajana, over the property rights of the
beaches, wh ich ended up in th e High
Court. The coastal boundary, which
allows the seashore to be considered
public property and which was enlarged
by the enforcement of the new Spanish
Coastal Law, has also caused controversy.
In both cases, large profits are at stake, as
represented by the varying tourist
industry services, such as hotels and
shops, deck-chair services and stal ls on
the beach.
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How the territory was used.
A fter the radical change produced
by the Conquest, the
colonization process introduced
new ways of using natural
resources, not known to the ancient
Canary people. Thus, existing practices
of agriculture, livestock breeding or
fishing were modified or intensified, and
new practices introduced. Maspalomas
was /eft out of the early divisions of land
after the Conquest, and thus changed
very little during the si xteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
This is demonstrated by the
description that Fray José de Sosa gave
of this part of the island in 1678, in
which, apart from mentioning the good
ports and beaches which he considered
difficu/t to defend from invaders, he
al/uded to its /ow economic value and
sparse population:
"Most of the ports and pleasant
beaches are located in the South, and are
difficult to defend, ..... they would need
many castles and well-paid sen tries in
order to safeguard them. However, these
are not important considerations, as the
a rea is of little commercial interest and has
few inhabitants. " (Fray José de Sosa,
Topografía de la Isla Afortunada de Gran
Canaria, 1678).
The most widespread activity was
that of livestock farming on
unapportioned land, ie. Crown property.
La Charca and its immmediate coastline
a/so provided resources, as did the palm-grove.
The accounts of the various
landings of different pirates in this part of
the coast bear witness to the presence of
herdsmen, as they were the only people
who witnessed the comings and goings
of these pirates. The a rea may have been
only sparsely populated, but it offered
good anchorage and the possiblity of
taking on the necessary victuals.
The herds, mainly goats, were often
left free to roam, causing many disputes
as the animals damaged crops.
Camels, or more precise/y
dromedaries, adapted well to the
conditions of the a rea and formed part of
the landscape of Maspalomas from an
early date.
They were brought up in the wild in
the south of the island, and ca u sed
considerable damage to the fields.
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In 1598, a lawsuit was filed
against three camel breeders from
Telde, whose charges had damaged
crops in Maspalomas.
(Suáre, V., et al, 1995:181).
At the same time, trees were felled
in the woods near Maspalomas
to satisfy the demand for wood, which
was used for many purposes,
but above all to fuel the sugar mil Is in
other parts of the island.
The written account of the attack
perpetrated by the Dutch squadron
under Van der Does includes a reference
to this fact. After leaving the capital of
Gran Canaria, they sailed round the
island to the Southern tip where, after
burying their dead and taking on water,
they proceeded as follows:
"Once we had finished al/ that, we set
fire to and burnt the wood cut from the
forest, which was lying on the beach
waiting to be sold" (Michiel Joostens van
Heede, Description of the /sland of Gran
Canaria and la Gomera, together with the
conquest of and withdrawal from the
same, 1599).
The apportionment
of land in Maspalomas carried out by
the Cabildo during the seventeenth
century gave rose to conflict, partly
because the Cabildo lacked the legal
authority to share out the land,
and also because the apportionment
was not recognised by those people
who already used the land.
Proof of this can be seen in the
complaints laid before the High Court
by Mateo Pérez de Villanueva, who had
been awarded land in the area by a
Cabildo ruling, and was confronted by
people who considered that the Charca
de Maspa lomas and the surrounding
area were public property.
These same complaints include
various interesting bits of information
about the Charco and the immediate
surrounding a rea: it was a place for
fishing, for collecting honey and for
grazing. Pérez de Villanueva also
complained that very little fresh water
reached the coa st, because the locals
living further up the barranco used most
of it, thus altering the environmental
conditions of the coastal area. (Cazorla
León, S., 1995:130).
"Some people try
to use the water of the
Charco and fish in itas
if it were public.
Some shepherds
/et their anima Is graze
there and drink from
these waters, thus
usurping the right of
possession of the
petitioner and
provoking disputes
with the people and
servants charged with
looking after this land.
They a/so take
the honeycombs of
some of the wild bees.
And the landowners in
the Valle de Fataga
take water, saying that
it originates there.
Theyare
particular/y prone to
doing this in the
summer, when there is
least water available.
In winter, only the
excess water reaches
the coast, when the
gullies and rivers flood
into the sea':
The most
important arable
crops were cereals.
Over the years,
more and more space
was given over
to the cultivation of
these crops,
and the landowners
undertook a series
of improvements,
such as the
construction of walls,
the building of
houses for labourers,
grain stores, reservoirs, the excavation of
water mines, and so on. In 1785, 395
bushels of corn were harvested, together
with 711 of barley and 237 of maize,
thanks to the efforts of 18 labourers, who
were paid either in money or in kind
(Suárez, V., et al, 1995:125). At the end of
the eighteenth century, Maspalomas
numbered twenty-five householders,
giving a total of 100 people, according to
the parish register of Tirajana. The fact
that the population was so small was due
to the fact that the Conde, lord and
.j ·rí • .-
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master of this territory of Mas palomas,
would not allow more houses to be built
or more householders to settle there
(Cazorla, S., 1995).
In 1789, Miguel de Hermosilla,
Capta in of the lnfantry and the
Engineers, proposed that a whaling
factory be installed at Maspalomas, given
the abundance of these animals in the
calm waters off the south coast of Gran
Canaria and the natural advantages of
the coastline with its good ports and
beaches, as well as the necessary wood
to fuel such an industry:
" .... the stretch of sea to the south,
known as the 'calm waters of the
Canaries' is inhabited by numerous
whales. The roaring and bellowing to be
heard from March to August, which
terrifies those who visit that part of the
coast, suggests that there are man y
cetaceans to be found there, swimming
back and forth, unable to find the way
out. Neither is there any doubt that they
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breed there. The situation is conducive to
the establishment of a lucrative business,
with the adjacent stretch of calm water,
the two ports and good beaches of
Maspalomas and Arguineguín in which to
run aground al/ the whales caught, and
the hills nearby to provide al/ the wood
needed to fire the cauldrons in which the
blubber is melted and oil extracted':
Hermosilla added that the
underpopulated nature of the place and
the fact that the land was public
property would make the setting up of
the industry easier, and that it could even
be extended to include fish-sa lting,
leading to a certain increase in the
population of this part of the island.
"The fact that this is the least
populated part of the island, which sorne
view as a significant obstacle, in fact
constitutes another advantage. The land
is uncultivated and ownerless, so we
would not hove to buy it, but could build
the necessary sheds for the workers, and
warehouses in which the whale blubber,
oil and whiskers could be stored. Thus, the
whole process could be carried out on
land without incurring the wastage
produced at sea, as the Dutch and other
countries know to their cost.
Once the factories were set up on
land, this stretch of sea would offer other
possibilities apart from the whales: many
species of fish abound, such as sardines,
anchovies and other species, which can be
salted or cu red.
The fishermen's settlement will
attract other people, andas a result the
population wi// expand in a very short
time ... " (Miguel Hermosilla, Descripción
topográfico, político y militar de la Isla de
Gran Canaria, 1789).
The Estadistica de Las Islas Canarias,
compiled between the eighteenth and
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nineteenth centuries by Francisco Escolar
y Serrano contributes sorne interesting
information about Maspalomas
(Hernández, G., 1983:374). In this broad-reaching
study, the district of
Maspalomas is said to have included 1 O
looms and 14 teams of oxen. When
compared with the statistics for the other
35 a reas of the jurisdiction of San
Bartolomé de Tirajana, these figures put
Maspalomas in second and third place
respectively. This is all the more
significant when we take into account
that Maspalomas had, in 1802, according
to the same Estadistica, only 36
householders (and 126 people), in
comparison to the 954 householders of
the jurisidiction (3,338 people), ranking
in eighth place by population density.
At the beginning of the nineteenth
century, the German scientist Leopold
von Buch's description of the archipelago
(which has been termed "the first
scientific research visir to Gran Canaria in
the history of the islands " Herrera Piqué,
A., 1996:776), gives his impressions of
..
... .
__ '
the population and crops to be found
he re in the summer of 1815:
''After crossing complete/y deserted,
desolare explanades, we arrived at
Maspalomas at night. There we found ten
or twelve houses in a row, like a colon y and
sorne smallholdings planted with maize
and potatoes. The water proceeding from
the barranco of the Crater is the cause of
such fertility. Two more hours across the
same desert and desolation as before, and
we arrived at Juan Grande, the main urban
centre of the land of the Conde del Castillo,
.... " (Leopold von Buch, Physicalische
Beschreibung der Canarischen lnseln,
1825).
Pascual Madoz, in his Diccionario
Geográfico-Estadístico-Histórico de
Canarias (1845-50), considered
Maspalomas to be a district of San
Bartolomé de Tirajana, commenting that
"there is a privare chapel dedicated to San
Fernando and two hermitages". He
included further descriptions, which
covered other a reas of the municipality,
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Maspalomas in the early twenrieth cenrury
Collecting food for livestock
in thedunes
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
su ch as "there are no rivers, but
mony natural springs and streams which
fertilize the land, in the most part
uncultivated and flat, with uninhabited
hi/ls" (Madoz, P., 1986:219). As to the
crops grown in the a rea, he is of the
same opinion as Buch:
"lrrigation has transformed the plain
which constitues most of this swampy coast,
without which Maspalomas would be a
desert. But the irrigated fields now look
different, with cornfields and some farms
bordering the road to Juan Grande" (Pascual
Madoz, Diccionario Geográfico-Estadístico-
Histórico de Canarias, 1845-50).
The following information is
contained in the Diccionario Estadístico-
Administrativo de las Islas Canarias,
compiled by Pedro de Olive and
published in 1865:
"MASPALÓMA. Village situated in the
the district of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, in
the administrative orea of Las Palmas on
the island of Gran Canaria. lt is 27k. 863m.
from the main town of the municipality,
and consists of 45 one-storey and 1 two-storey
buildings, inhabited on a continua/
basis by 46 householders or 261 people."
(Pedro de Olive, Diccionario Estadístico-
Administrativo de las Islas canarias, 1865).
R. Verneau also contributes sorne
interesting information, specifically
about the condition of the crops:
''Just to the south of Mogán, the
coastline becomes less hilly.
There are large plains belonging to the
Conde de la Vega Grande in
Arguineguín, Maspalomas, Juan Grande
and Sardina. This land is not very fertile,
and has been cultivated thanks to hard
work and the costly transport
of water a long irrigation ditches from the
crater of Tirajana.
In Maspalomas the maize grows
taller than the height of a man, but the
kernels ha ve been attacked for over
.- .1."..: .. ...... .
. -.
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twenty years by a parasite which prevents
the corn from ripening. Despite this
problem, they continue to grow it in the
hope that the disease wil/ disappear
spontaneously. " (R. Verneau, Cinq années
de séjour aux les /les Canaries, 1890).
The collecting of eggs laid by the
many birds that nested in the area, and
of sorne species in particular, constituted
an important addition to the diet of the
inhabitants of Maspalomas, as can be
seen from Carl Bolle's comments after
his stay in the area. Eventually, this habit
resulted in the complete disappearance
or considerable decrease in numbers of
several species:
"When we got home and counted
the eggs, there were over 400, some of
which we gladly ate part that same night.
We ate the rest the next day prepared in
various Lent dishes, such as a kind of egg
cake (omelette). The yokes were
surprisingly red and tasted of fish. "
(Car/ Bolle, Mein zweiter Beitrag zur
Vogelkunde der canarischen lnseln, 1857).
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Threshing in Maspalomas
A Maspalomas family depicted by the Charca, with the
lighthouse in the background
In 1876, 43 houses were reported in
the region of Maspalornas. Sorne of
thern appeared on the rnap rnade by the
engineer Juan de León y Castillo as part
of the project for a lighthouse to be built
on the southern tip of Gran Canaria. This
rnap is of particular interest as it shows
the level of habitation of the territory
restricted to the area around the
residence of the Conde, together with
sorne "fishermen's dwellings; thus terrned,
on the coast.
During the first decade of the
twentieth century, L. Proust and J. Pitard
offer a different view of Maspalornas in
their description of the islands, and in
particular in chapter VI, dedicated to
Gran Canaria. They point out the
accessibility of the coast and the
presence of the lighthouse, ernphasizing
the area's beauty and original landscape,
as well as its harshness and the lack of
resources for the traveller:
"Before going down to
San Bartolomé de Tirajana, stop for a
moment to admire the splendid view of this
part of the island at your feet; ... further on,
up to Maspalomas point, where the
lighthouse can be seen: a devastated, dry,
wild landscape."
Of the 4,644 inhabitants of the
rnunicipality, only 388 belong to
Maspalornas. But the account of their
-77 © Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2021
-78
personal version of the landscape is even
more interesting:
"The south of Gran Canaria is a little
less hilly: the small path that goes from
Mogón to Agüimes crosses vast plains,
which have been cultivated with cereal
crops, thanks to the considerable work
carried out in order to bring water from the
era ter of Tirajana. lt is a long, hard, tiring
journey across a landscape in which there is
neither bread nor meat and where you walk
for hours without seeing a single house.
Two or three villages deserve to be
mentioned: Arguineguín, on the shore of
the barranco of the same name;
Maspalomas, ... " (L. Proust y J. Pitard, Les íles
Canaries. Description de l'Archipel, 1908).
D.A. Bannerman also described the
area in 1912, saying that "The small
A hunring scene ar che Charca
village of Maspalomas is situated between
the Charco and the en trance to the
Barranco de Fatarga, almost under the
shadow of the mountains, and in the
neighbourhood of the village a fair amount
of cultivation has taken
Moreover, being an ornithologist, he
commented on the fact that the locals
u sed to take the eggs of the birds that
nested near the Charca, thus putting at
risk the population of the different
aquatic birds such as ducks, herons, coots
and moorhens. In this context, he quotes
the naturalist C. Bolle and his
reference to the abundant colony of
terns who reproduced here by the
hundred, stating that
"The Spaniards from the neighbouring
villages plundered the nests year after year,
and, as we are told, carried away baskets
ful/ of eggs which they ate. These Terns
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were probably ali Sterna hiruno: none were
seen during our visit, and we were told they
haden tire/y disappeared from their former
nesting colony, a fact which is to be very
deeply regretted ". He also mentiones the
presence of fishermen, describing the
small sailing boats which they used to
fish along the coast:
"One evening, as we were 'paddling '
at the mouth of the Charco, we espied a
Rowing was possibfe in the Charca when it was /arger than its current size
whole fleet of little fishing -boats dancing
over the waves, and al/ heading towards
the shore about a quarter of a mi/e down
the coast ....A s the boats touched bottom
the fishermen leapt overboard, and with
their coloured trousers tucked wel/ up their
muscular legs, hauled the boats on to the
sand; the men then set to work to clean
their fish, andina moment were
surrounded by a screaming mass of Red
Kites. " (David A. Bannerman, The Canary
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-80
lslands, their history, natural history and
scenery, 1922).
The most important changes in this
area have taken place in the twentieth
century, radically transforming a place
unmarked by the passage of time during
centuries. From the 1930s on, traditional
crops were replaced by tomatoes, which
soon covered ali the agricultura! land,
thereby increasing the amount of land
cultivated (Nadal 1, 1983). Tomato
farmers formed partnerships; and the use
of the land in the south for tomatoes
and, to a lesser extent bananas, for
export brought about a series of
changes. The need for labour gave rise
to influxes of population from other
a reas of the island, thus producing new
urban centres set apart from the farming
land, and labourers' quarters were built
for the agricultura ! workers. Morever, the
irrigation channels criss-crossed over the
land, bringing the necessary water to the
fields. The water carne either from newly
dug wells, new reservoirs or was
channelled from traditional sources.
Finally, the mass tourist boom
which started in the 60s, together with
the subsequent growth of property
speculation in the area, overshadowed
tomato-farming, w hich has become
merely incidental in the area in which it
had formerly been most extensive. The
tourist industry introduced a series of
economic, social, cultural and
environmental changes which
determined once and for ali the destiny
of Maspalomas.
From the ninereen thirties until the sixries,
romoro forming was che main activity of
rhe inhabitants of Mospo/omas
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Tourism chonged fife ot Mospolomos forever
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Maspalomas and the film industry.
F ilm-makers have been attracted
by the multiple possiblities of
the landscape of Maspalomas, as
well as the excellent weather
condition s throughout the year.
Numerous documentaries have been
..
shot in the area, as well as several films,
sorne of which form part of the oft-repeated
yet unsuccessful attempt to
create an adequate infrastructure for a
local film industry.
Maspalomas always features in
those documentaries and
short films destined to promote the
tourist and natural attractions of the a rea.
This is the case of, among others,
Gran Canaria (1946), directed
by Martín Moreno, En la luz de Gran
Canaria (1955) directed by Christian
Anwander, Atlántico edén (1965), directed
by Juan lsasi and Gran Canaria (1967),
directed by Jerónimo Mihura (Morales
Quintero, S., eta/., 1997).
These and other productions
dating back over several decades are of
considerable historical interest
as they show aspects of the islands which
have either changed or disappeared.
The documentary directed by David
J. Nieves, corresponded of yhe News
Agency EFE and NO-DO for the
archipielago and one of the most prolific
directors of documentaries of his time,
Paraíso en el Atlántico is of particular
interest. Produced and financed in 1965
by Alejandro del Castillo, promoter
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of the project Maspalomas Costa Canaria,
it shows the details of the tourist
development of the same na me which
spelt the start of the tourist industry in
the south of Gran Canaria.
As far as full-length feature films are
concerned, Maspa lomas was used as the
setting for sorne of the most important
films for island society, such as the joint
Spanish-ltalian production Tirma , filmed
in 1954. Based on a play by Juan del Río
Ayala, it tells the story of a series of
historie events taking place towards the
end of the Conquest of Gran Canaria.
However, the script was subjected to
endless changes, thus losing its original
strength, together with any historical
credibility. Nevertheless, it was a major
production in which stars such as Silvana
Pampanini, Gustavo Rojo or Marcello
Mastroianni were directed by Pablo
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An old reproducrion of the Castillo de la
Luz, buift in Maspalomos for the filming of
"Tirmo"'
Moffa. The subject of the film and the
fact that numerous local people took
partas extras assured its popularity on
the island.
The Charca, the palm-grove and the
dunes of Maspalomas constitute a
natural stage on which several scenes
from the film were filmed. To this end, a
replica of the Castillo de la Luz was even
built on the shore of the Charca, which
was also surrounded by the tents of the
Spanish camp. Thi s is obviously one of
the many historical inaccuracies of the
film, as the Castillo, a military building,
was not built until severa! years after the
end of the Conquest. The film also
depicted the presence of the sailing ships
of Colombus in the south, yet another
chronological absurdity. Also lacking in
any credibility are the shots of princess
Guayarmina, played by Silvana
Pampanini, riding through the palm trees
on a white charger. What's more, "the
speed with which the characters,
particular/y in the horse-back chases, ride
through the dense/y planted pi ne trees at
Tamadaba and seconds later appear
galloping through the exotic, almost
desert-/ike landscape of the dunes at
Maspalomas, is unexpected, to soy the
least" (Cabrera Déniz, D., 1996:463).
The presence of Pampanini in the
islands caused a sensation in the
puritanical island society of the era of
national catholicism. The fact that the
actress was at Maspalomas spurred
many people to visit the south, and not
exactly to enjoy the natural
surroundings ar a dip in the sea. This
period gave rise to sorne funny stories,
like those included by the journalist José
A. Alemán in his book Crónicas para cuasi
caurentones.
Moby Oick (1956) was better-known
internationally, and was filmed in
the waters and on the coast of Gran
Canaria, including Maspalomas (Díaz
Bethencourt, J., 1996:473). This Warner
Bros. production, directed by the great
John Houston and starring famous actors
such as Gregory Peck, Lean Genn and
Orson Welles, caused intense excitement
in the lsland, and many local people took
part in different aspects of the shoot.
The construction, in record time, of a
huge sperm whale by the carpenters of
Puerto de La Luz was particularly
memorable; the model whale
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subsequently became
the undisputed
protagonist of
Herman Melville's
story.
Parts of the
Spanish-German co-production
La estrella
de Af rica were also
shot in Maspalomas.
This was a war film,
and local historians
record that the
location shots filmed
in the south of the
island were meant to
represent the desert
of Africa.
The British
production When
dinosaurs ruled the
eorth, shot in the
Eastern islands of the
Archipelago, and including sorne scenes
in Maspalomas, was more spectacular.
The film, made in 1971, was directed by
Val Guest and starred Victoria Vetri and
Robin Hawdon (Platero, C., 1981 ), and
depicts the difficult co-existence of
dinosaurs and humans in a completely
hostile terrain, given to natural disasters.
Leaving aside its artistic interest, and its
non-existent scientific rigour, the scenes
showing dinosaurs in the middle of
Maspalomas are extraordinary: a baby
dinosaur playing with Victoria Vetri anda
terrible specimen devouring all the
"primitive" men he comes across. This
was without doubt a forerunner to the
multimillion dollar productions that
Steven Spielberg would undertake
decades later.
Scene from Moby
RICHARD BASEHNU ·LEO 0ENN ·OR&ON Wl!L.L.ES
0
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Shors from rhe film •when
dinosours ruled che eorrh; shor
on Jocorion in Mospo/omos
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A place apart.
T oday, when we travel the fifty or
so kilometres that separate Las
Palmas from Maspalomas,
taking the dual carriageway and
motorway GC-1, it is difficult to
comprehend that this part of the island,
one of the main driving forces of the
Canary lslands' economy, was practically
cut off for centuries, with few or no
communication routes.
In an island with an age-old
shortage of roads, it is hardly surprising
that this southern sector, far from the
areas of agricultura! prosperity, should
have been neglected.
Once the island was colonized, the
new network of communications was
based on the tracks used by the
indigenous people, modified in
accordance with the new demands to be
met. Thus, Maspalomas had no real
roads in the sixteenth century; work only
began on them in the following two
centuries. The first to be built was the
route out ofthe Crater ofTirajana
towards the coast, which fo llowed the
natural course of t he barranco of Fataga
(Moreno, C., 1997).
The road network was really
consolidated in the nineteenth century.
Access to Maspalomas was possible
fol lowing the road from Telde, as P.
Madoz describes in his Diccionario:
"ROADS. Severa/ roads cross this
part, the main one being the Te/de road,
which goes along the coast from Las
Palmas, through the village of Ginamar
and the city of Te/de and reaches the
tip of Maspalomas, a total distance of
eight leagues. This route is flat and
we/1-kept, thanks to the efforts of the
landowners ofTelde and the South,
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Maspafomas was a remate spot until the mid-twen tieth cen tury
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particular/y the current Conde de la Vega
Grande, who has recently decided that he
wants to be able to go to his magnificent
estate in Juan Grande by carriage':
(Pascual Madoz, Diccionario Geográfico-
Estadís tico-Histórico de España y sus
posesiones de Ultramar, 1845- 1850).
In any case, it is important to
remember that the tunnel at Marfea or
La Laja was not drilled until July 1863
(Alzola, J.M., 1997). (This original tunnel
was lost when the cu rrent dual
carriageway was widened). The
perforation of the cliff blocking th e exit
from Las Palmas towards the south was
included in the project to link
Las Palmas and Telde, by means of a
paved road, (Hernández, S., 1995).
Up until then, travelling to the south
entailed either travelling inland
to Telde, or following the old Royal
route up to the centre of the
island, as the cliffs of La Laja could not
be crossed. The onward journey by
road, inland, through Ingenio and
Agüimes, on to San Bartolomé de
Tirajana was only possible later, as part
of a huge plan devised by the engineer
Juan de León y Castillo, destined to link
the villages of the south by mea ns of a
modern road (Hernández, S, 1990:55).
Much later, during the Second
Republic, the road to the quarantine
A dusty road leod to Maspalomas
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;;
- ·::_ _.. .. __
.,..... "'":-
-·.#1> ·.-
.6 .. _ _ • --
centre at de Gando was extended
down to the lighthouse at Maspalomas,
the road from Tunte to Maspalomas
was finished, and the Maspalomas-
Mogán coastal raod was built. Rafael
Guerra del Río, Canary Minister of
Works played an active part in these
developments (Millares Cantero, S.,
1987).
David A. Bannerman's account
gives us a good idea of what the
journey to the southern tip of Gran
. - - . - -
---- - .
- , . .
Canaria entailed, as he even had to
resort to maritime transport:
"lt had long been my intention to
explore the neighbourhood, and with this
end in view we left Las Palmas in the early
hours of the 22nd of February 1912,
travelling by motor from Las Palmas to
Agüimes, where we had arranged to pick
up our mutes. Our tent and heavy baggage
had been despatched by a fruit boat - the
Aguila de Oro - and in this 'con verted yacht'
my wife and two other ladies, who were
-·
---
.....' .:
--
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.. -·
The beaches in the south of Gran
Canario lay ar the end of a long
drive, a real "excursion"
accompanying us on
the expedition, elected
to trave/, arranging to
meet us at
Maspalomas. For the
first few miles after
leaving Las Palmas
the we/1-/aid road runs
along the sea-shore
for sorne distance
within a few yards of
the waves, and final/y
passing through a
tunnel which has been
cut through the so/id
rocky headland which
extends into the sea at
this Ah er
going through
Jinámar and Telde,
they continued
"through Ingenio to
Aguiines, the road stil/
running para/le/ with
the coast, from which
bare, undulating hills
stretched inland to the
foot of the Cumbres.
Our two men and
mutes met usas
arranged at Aguiines,
andhaving
transferred our light
baggage from the car
we soon began our
long ride to Maspalomas. A steep track
leads down from the plateau upon which
Aguiines is built to the plain below, and
from this elevation - sorne 800 feet - we
viewed the country over which we had to
pass ... The ride over this barren country was
monotonous in the extreme; the track was
almost undiscernible, ... As we neared Juan
Grande the country beca me less barren
and in parches was even cultivated. ... An
hour's ride further on the gound beca me
more sandy and in parts overgrown with a
large bushy Euphorbia, ... As we nea red
Maspalomas the track beca me more rocky,
and at times led down within a few feet of
the water's edge. Occasional/y we were
forced to climb sorne way up, as the sandy
scrub gave way to low rocky cliffs. Messrs
Elder & Fyffe have a fruit store just beyond
the cliffs, where the ground again slopes
gradual/y to the sea.
lt was late befare the little steamer hove in
sight, andas the country between the fruit
store and the Charco is best traversed by
daylight, we camped here for the night.
The surf ro/Is in to this little cave very
heavily, so the Aguila de Oro anchored
sorne way out. My wife and the other two
ladies were transferred from the old yacht
to a strong rowing boat, and this was
brought fairly e/ose to shore, when the
occupants were /anded by the boatmen.
The photo of my wife being carried ashore
'sedan-chair fashion' shows this precarious
mode of landing, amusing enough on a
. -
...J
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Part of David A. Bannerman's expedition disembarks on Maspalomas beach
(The Canary /slands, their history, natural history and scenery, 1922)
ca/m day but distinctly exciting when the
surf threatens to sweep one's bearers off
their feet!"
As the text shows, this was a real
expedition, suggesting an isolation
which is difficult to imagine as we cover
the few kilometres of motorway that
separate Las Palmas and Maspalomas
today. As Alfonso O'Shanahan indicates,
"it is strange to think that the south of Gran
Canaria, so easily accessible today, was the
last part of the island to embrace the
'modernity' of communication"
(O'Shanahan, A., 1996). lt should be
pointed out too that, in its rapid
modernization process, the name of
Maspalomas has also been included in
the space programme, with the
installation of an observation station
belonging to the American Space
Agency NASA near the road leading to
the lighthouse, near the palm-grove. This
station played an important part in the
years of the "Apollo" project.
Unsurprisingly, given its
remoteness, a certain ignorance of the
south's landscape has given rise to a
number of stereotypes. The writer
Carmen Laforet, in her novel La Isla y Jos
demonios , clearly reflects this idea of the
south as a world apart within Gran
Canaria. A place w