Act of the Bufadero

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1464

In 1464, thirty years before the foundation of the city, when control of the Archipelago by European powers was not yet clear, Diego García de Herrera, husband of Inés Peraza, feudal lady (nominally) of the Islands, landed at the mouth of the Bufadero ravine with the purpose of taking possession of the island of Tenerife before the nine Guanche menceyes. And to record this, a document was drafted by the public notary Hernando de Párraga and signed by Bishop Diego López de Illescas. This document is known as the Act of the Bufadero.

With the Act, Herrera achieved, apart from having a paper that attested to his "virtual" ownership of Tenerife, to secure the friendship of the aborigines to whom he promised protection against raids by other European visitors, especially the Portuguese. Both parties, Castilians and Guanches, benefited from these legal ceremonies which left the indigenous people indifferent.

The landing took place on Saturday 21 July 1464 at the mouth of the Bufadero ravine. There, near what is today María Jiménez, according to the document, the nine menceyes of Tenerife met with Diego García de Herrera, to whom they pledged allegiance by kissing his hand. The European leader, for his part, performed symbolic gestures of moving stones and cutting branches as signs of respect and friendship. We know that Herrera was accompanied by a baptised Guanche, Mateo Alonso, who acted as interpreter. 

The Europeans, some time later, were authorised to build a tower, to collect orchil, to obtain wood from nearby forests and to other various benefits; the Guanches, almost exclusively those from Anaga, received some protection against foreign incursions and benefited to a small extent from new metal utensils, some fabrics and trinkets.

In any case, the good relations lasted a short time. The document was more protocolary than anything else.

Since the original Act of the Bufadero has been lost, an authorised copy (protocolised transcript) from the 16th century and another notarial copy from 1708 are preserved in the Provincial Historical Archive of Tenerife.

28.494542, -16.22638