Baobab of the Jew's Alley

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

The old Jew's Alley was a small passage, less than two metres wide, that connected Pilar Street with Norte Street (the former name of the current Valentín Sanz), ending at Prince's Square. The alley would today run along the current Adelantado Street. In this narrow passage, in the orchard of a house, there was a spectacular tree from the adansonia family, popularly known as baobab, bottle tree or monkey bread tree. Of African origin, it grew to an enormous size, with spectacular branches from which striking white flowers sprouted. Its fruit, which in Santa Cruz was called "pan de machango", could reach thirty-five centimetres in length and its pulp was the renowned "earth of Lemnos" that ancient doctors used to treat various ailments. The powder from the dried leaves was also used to combat fever. The fibre from the bark was also used to make ropes, due to its strength. 

It was a tree that attracted the attention of many botanical experts, becoming so famous that it was considered one of the most interesting curiosities of Santa Cruz at the time. The tree disappeared in 1881, when it was decided to improve the urban layout of the area by widening the old alley to create the new Adelantado Street. 

There is a famous legend about this baobab collected by Antonio Martí for an article published in the old newspaper La Prensa , which we now transcribe:

«... he told me about the famous baobab, whose disappearance caused so many protests in Santa Cruz, and recounted the anecdote or legend that I am going to relate, just as he heard it narrated by the little old lady with white hair and gnarled hands, many years before, on a winter night, beside the red embers of the hearth...

—It is no fable or tale, my son —she said—; it was told to me years ago and they even gave me the names of the people it happened to [...]

And it was, according to her story, that in the house on the corner opposite the "pan de Machango" [...], at the entrance to the Jew's Alley, lived a family who, as an exotic gift from a relative or friend, kept in the backyard, securely chained, a large monkey, which, according to people, was fierce and excessively untamed.

There was also a young child in the house, whom every day a maid would take out to the yard to sunbathe and then place in his little white and warm cradle in a neighbouring gallery when it was time to sleep.

Day after day, the monkey watched the maid’s comings and goings and her handling of the little one with curious looks. Until one afternoon [...]

One afternoon, it is not known whether by unfortunate forgetfulness or by the mischief of some wicked person, the chain holding the monkey slipped from the ring where it was fastened, and the creature found itself free...

They say the first thing it did was what it had seen done many times before. There was no one in the yard at the time. Only the little one sleeping in his little white and warm cradle, in the sunniest corner of the corridor. The monkey went to him, took him in its arms, and climbed, without letting go, up to the roof of the house. Someone noticed what was happening and quickly raised the alarm. Soon people gathered at the scene, following, with natural emotion, the movements of the quadruped. The child's mother despaired seeing the danger he was in. No one dared to climb where the monkey was, nor was there any way to catch it without endangering the child's life.

Suddenly, something curious was seen: running along the edge of the wall, the animal jumped to the corner facing the baobab, and with a leap crossed the alley, climbing, still holding the child, to the top of the tree. It stayed there until, by trickery, they managed to lure it to the orchard and capture it again, freeing the child by a truly miraculous chance.

And the little old lady said at the end of her story that we will never know which part was history and which part legend:

—They say that the monkey, when climbing the tree, tore off a fruit, and opening it with its nails and teeth fed the child its white and soft pulp. As it was a tree from its land, the cursed animal perhaps believed it was carrying its own offspring».

Finally, we will say that at the corner between Pilar and Suárez Guerra streets, just a few metres above where the old baobab once stood, a specimen of the same species was planted not long ago.

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