First Stay in Tenerife (1820-1830)

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary fragments · Year: 1820-1830 · Authors: Sabino Berthelot

Sabino Berthelot (Marseille, 1794-Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1880) was a French naturalist and author of the important work Natural History of the Canary Islands, written in collaboration with P. Barrer-Webb. Berthelot became a prehistorian and one of the pioneers of anthropology in the Canary Islands. After studying Natural Sciences, in his youth he enlisted on several French navy ships and merchant vessels en route to the Antilles. At the beginning of 1820 he arrived in Tenerife for the first time, residing on the island for about ten years. In La Orotava he founded a lyceum, where he worked as a teacher, taking charge of the Botanical Garden of Puerto de la Cruz. He returned to Paris where he published several books about the Archipelago and in 1847 was appointed French consul in the Canaries, living in Tenerife from that date until his death in 1880. Widely integrated into island society, in 1876 he was named an adopted son of Santa Cruz and in 1901, almost twenty years after his death, the city named what was then called Calle de las Flores after him, connecting Weyler Square with Ireneo González Square.

During his first stay in Tenerife between 1820 and 1830, Berthelot wrote Miscellanées Canariennes. It is in this book that the French polymath, in its second chapter, gives a description of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. We highlight a fragment that tells us about how the carnival festivities in Santa Cruz were in the third decade of the 19th century.

«It is carnival. Carnival nights summon the dancers and madness shakes its bells. From all points come groups of young girls heading to the Castillo de San Cristóbal, where the governor holds a party. The brilliant outfits worn by the young women attract gallant gentlemen. By the way they greeted each other, it was clear they all knew each other. The young women were invited to dance and there were bows, sparkling conversations, amorous longings, fiery glances exchanged between them as they passed. An impromptu dance took place right in the street. How charming this was!

Animation reigned in the city: everywhere, parties and groups dancing; guitar players hummed under the balconies and some piano notes, reaching the street, served as a lure for the masked revellers. At that moment a cheerful troupe came down Castillo Street. I had never seen anything more extravagant; a company of amateurs toured the salons where a comedy by our Molière, Amphitryon , translated into Castilian verse by a local poet, was performed. This was worth seeing  [...]».

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