Gofio Mill of the La Salud Neighbourhood

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Industrial architecture · Year: 1943

Gofio, the quintessential Canarian food, was already obtained by the aborigines of these islands by grinding, with rudimentary mill wheels and basalt stone mortars, wheat, barley, lentils and even fern rhizomes. Later, after the Conquest, new ingredients such as rye and corn were incorporated. The grinding moved from those basalt stones to windmills.

In the 20th century, mills powered by internal combustion engines, both explosion and diesel compression, began to be installed, with the first licences granted in 1911 to Manuel Franchi and Felipe Rodríguez, in the El Toscal neighbourhood; in 1929 to Enrique Trujillo Santos, in Cuatro Torres; and in 1938 to José Fumero de la Rosa, at Rambla de Pulido no. 10; the latter already powered by an electric motor. 

By the mid-20th century, we know that there were about sixteen gofio mills operating artisanally in Santa Cruz; thirty years later only four remained active. Currently, the one in the La Salud neighbourhood is the only one that endures in the urban centre.

The La Salud Gofio Mill is located in a building with a curved façade built on the corner of Venezuela Avenue with Princesa Guacimara Street, in the lower part of this populous Santa Cruz neighbourhood. It was founded in 1943 by Celedonio Pérez, when this area, previously dedicated to banana cultivation, was beginning to be urbanised and gradually populated by people of humble origin. After the worst years of the post-war period, in 1955, the milling passed into the hands of José García and his wife, parents of the current owners.

Various types of gofio are produced in this mill (wheat, corn, mixed, barley...). The grain process is determined by its reception, sieving, roasting in the oven at different temperatures and, finally, after cooling, grinding in the two mills that the facility has. 

Names such as “Molienda La India”, which scented the entire El Toscal area where it was located, and other establishments located near the market, are now a thing of the past. Today, in the urban fabric of Santa Cruz, we only have this La Salud milling, which faces changes in eating habits, trends of "healthy" products and new intolerances. But, despite everything, this establishment offers us a magnificent local and traditional product, very nutritious, minimally industrialised and which constitutes a true hallmark of all the Canary Islands.

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