The Night Watchman

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary fragments · Year: 1883 · Authors: Olivia M. Stone

The British traveller of Irish origin Olivia Mary Stone undertook a journey through the Islands between September 1883 and February 1884. From this stay arose the book: Tenerife and its six satellites , published in England in 1887. It is a work that occupies an exceptional place in the extensive travel literature about the Archipelago due to its engaging narrative, its incessant curiosity and the account it contains about various aspects of the culture and social reality of the Canary Islands at the end of the 19th century.

During the first night the writer spent in Santa Cruz, in the early hours of 6 September 1883, she was awakened while sleeping in her room at the Hotel Camacho by the voices of a night watchman. In her literary work she describes the scene as follows:

“While we enjoyed our first sleep last night, both it and the tranquillity were interrupted by a loud shout, and not without some musicality, uttered in the street: «It has struck one, and night watchman». The old guard, who in England belongs to past times, here survives and brings us many memories, despite the sleep we have. […] The guards are officially known as «serenos»; foreigners say it is because here the weather is always serene. Formerly this shout was preceded by a «Ave María!». However, this ceased to be used and, although it was used again later, it has once again fallen into disuse.”

The official body of Serenos was established in Spain in 1836 and their function was that of agents of authority and collaborators of the security forces on night patrol duty. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife it was necessary to wait until 1844 for the first employee of this kind to appear and their service was always very intermittent due to lack of funds. It is known that in 1859 these night workers were under the direction of a municipal police warden and were in charge of lighting the street lamps when it began to get dark. It was customary, as Olivia M. Stone noted in her text, for them to sing the hours adding the atmospheric situation of the moment: “sereno” if there was calm, or “raining” if there was not. The serenos continued to provide their service in Santa Cruz, although without continuity, well into the 20th century, when it was common to see them helping to lower the shutters of shops at the last hour of the day or, somewhat later, dealing with occasional night owls and nocturnal troublemakers.

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