Cuyás Circus

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Authors: Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre

Among the male leisure offerings in the city, there were two sports that stirred passions: cockfighting and boxing, and the Cuyás Circus, now a theatre, was for decades a prime venue for their fans and enthusiasts.

In 1932, the so-called "Circo Gallera Cuyás" was built and inaugurated on Viera y Clavijo street, classified as the best cockfighting ring in Spain, designed by Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre, brother of the painter Néstor, with a capacity for 1,500 people. The scholar Pérez Corrales, like many others, described the Cuyás Circus cockfighting ring as "the best cockfighting stage that has ever existed".

From that era, Mr José Plácido Suárez told us that when asked if he frequented the cockfights at Cuyás, he replied: "Yes, of course. I gave up cockfighting because I tried everything when I got married. Once I moved to Telde, I stopped. I went with a group of people from there, older people for my age. With them, I went and we bet: '20 on the red one!'. It was at midday, on Sundays. And boxing on Saturday nights".

As with other sporting events, and as Francisco González Díaz points out in Cultura y Turismo , it is a widely held belief that "Cockfights would lose most of their interest if betting were stopped", with betting being a fundamental part of this sport. As Mr Plácido recalled, once the fight ended, the loser would get up and approach the winner to settle the bet.

In 1966, to the dismay and helplessness of many citizens, the Cuyás Circus cockfighting ring was demolished in the name of progress.

Cockfighting arrived in Gran Canaria more than 500 years ago. Cockfights were classified at the beginning of the 20th century by Francisco González Díaz as "our regional spectacle par excellence, which shares with wrestling the preference of this audience". Its establishment in the islands dates back to after the conquest as a sporting spectacle imported by the Castilians. The author Pedro Cárdenes Rodríguez mentions in his work, Peleas de Gallos , that "in the year 1856 or earlier, the cock house was located at number 5 of the street where the Casa de Colón (Columbus House) is today"; while the fights "were held in a venue on Callejón de San Francisco". Prior to these dates, cockfights also existed but were not characterised as public spectacles. The fights were held in the courtyards (or even inside the houses) of wealthy families and for a limited number of spectators.

After the disappearance of the cockfighting ring on Callejón de San Francisco, one was built at number 15 Santa Bárbara street, also in Vegueta. The venue was used until 1899, the year the Cuyás Circus cockfighting ring was inaugurated. Until 1906, the fights were held in the circus ring, which offered "adequate comfort to watch the spectacle", with the stands filling every Sunday at midday. In 1907, after a year without a cockfighting ring in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the construction of a new wooden cockfighting ring with a capacity for one thousand people was completed, built on a slope (allowing the fights to be seen from any seat) on Bravo Murillo street, at the current site of the Palacio del Cabildo Insular.

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