Literary Gatherings

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

Since the 18th century, Santa Cruz had literature lovers and writers who frequently met to join efforts, share opinions, and discuss topics related to their literary interests. Perhaps these early meetings took place in private homes with parlours and rooms containing modest libraries; but throughout the 19th century, literature enthusiasts began to gather in public places, where some deeply rooted literary gatherings developed.

The first 19th-century gathering we have record of was located on Calle de la Noria, where around 1863 Agustín Guimerá, Francisco María de León, Ramón Gil Roldán, Gaspar Fernández, and a very young Nicolás Estévanez met.

In the following decade, the poet José Tabares Bartlett, Fernando del Hoyo, Andrés de Antequera, and Elías Mújica regularly met on the mezzanine of the Richardson Hotel, located on Calle de La Marina, in an atmosphere of literature and alcoholic beverages, known among initiates as the "Curda Club".

During the first quarter of the 20th century, one of the main meeting places for writers and literature lovers was Viera's bookshop, where island personalities such as Ramón Gil-Roldán, Manuel Verdugo, Diego Crosa, and Luis Rodríguez Figueroa gathered in the back room. Illustrious personalities passing through or stopping over in Santa Cruz were frequently invited to the gathering; such was the case of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Eduardo Zamacois, Alejandro Lerroux, Francisco Villaespesa, Federico García Sánchez, etc.

The café La Peña, which we locate on this map, also had its days of splendour and popularity, where Isaac Viera, Jacinto Terry, Policarpo Niebla, Diego Crosa, Ramón Gil-Roldán, Francisco Izquierdo, José Rial, Néstor de la Torre, and Eduardo Díez del Corral used to coincide.

There were also literary gatherings at the café El Guanche and journalists' meetings at the former café El Águila, El Cuatro Naciones, and La Gaditana, where Eduardo Westerdahl, Domingo Pérez Minik, and Julio Tovar, among others, met.

All these establishments have disappeared from the urban landscape of Santa Cruz, with important lively meeting places where culture and artistic interest in general were discussed lost forever.

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