English book: Primitive arts in the Canary islands

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Naïf Guide to Canary Customs

Ángeles Violán / Rafael Arozarena

45 primitive paintings by Ángeles Violán, customs and traditions of the Canary Isles, 84 colourful pages, hardcover, translated by Nina García, Editorial Zech, Tenerife 2006, ISBN 978-84-933108-8-2 (English), taxfree in the Canary Islands                24,- euros

This Naïf Guide to Canary Customs has been projected and realised by Ángeles Violán, a painter from Tenerife, who dedicates herself to the naïf arts, a naive and popular style, as an artistic form of expression, and who discover as well her literary facet.

Furthermore, she counts with the important and excellent collaboration of the well-known writer, poet and novel-writer Rafael Arozarena, Canary Award for Literature, thus Arts and Literature form a perfect symbiotic relationship. The brush and the nib discover at the same time some scenes of local customs, simply and beautifully shown, charged with emotion, feeling and credible cultural information.

This “Poema Isleño“ is full of beauty, lustre and tenderness – the tenderness of Ángeles Violán’s figures. With these paintings, she pays homage to the Canary woman and to all the Canary Isles. (Paloma Herrero, art critic)

This book acquires the status of a sentimental museum which we can delve into joyously in pursuit of the purest identity of a people, whose pacifism and uprightness have always attracted the attention of scholars of its history and traditions. (Rafael Arozarena, poet)

Review

Through the eyes of the artist

By Clio O'Flynn (Island Connections)

There is a delightful new book on the market which should be of interest to residents and visitors like, and available in English, Spanish and German.

Canarian poet and storyteller Rafael Arozarena Doblado and artist Ángeles Violán Acevedo have combined their talents to bring you the Naïf guide to Canary Customs. From childhood to adulthood, all the customs and habits of the Canary Islanders are told through the (translated) words of the storyteller, from lullabies, through to games and adulthood, and the integral part religion has here, the lives of the resident population is told. Each chapter is beautifully illustrated in the Naïf style, a free personalised and highly colourful form of painting.

Ángeles Violán Acevedo is from Los Realejos and has been painting in the Naïf style for many years, and was a finalist in the 1988 International Naïf Art competition in Jaen. Self taught, she has had numerous individual and group exhibitions. In 1992 she was awarded second prize in the Sala de Cultura in Aranjuez, Madrid with her painting Desgranando Millo.

Rafael Arozarena was born in 1923 in Santa Cruz and has published verse and articles for decated in many literary magazines. He has also published many books of poetry, with a compilation, Poesía Complete published in 2004. His novel Mararía has been reprinted several times and was adapted for the big screen in 1997. He received the Canary Award for literature in 1988.

When Ángeles Violán Acevedo had the idea to create a book of this sort, it was, she says, “perhaps encouraged by a certain nostalgia for a more simple and natural life, that of my early childhood, when I spent long periods with my maternal grandmother in my home town and where everyday life centered on the land”. A time when, according to the painter, “people were happier, perhaps because human values prevailed”. She dedicates the book to “the work of the Canarian woman, to the strong woman, ‘the soul of the house’ to the dedicated mother and kin who fights against all odds”.

The Naïf guide to Canary customs is available in from a number of different bookshops in Tenerife including Libería Barbara in Adeje and Los Cristianos, and in the rest of the Canary Islands, or directly from the publishers.

Books in other languages - Spanish and German

"The King of Taoro" - the most famous historic novel of Tenerife

Bestseller in German

Horst Uden

Der König von Taoro. Historischer Roman der Eroberung Teneriffas, Historic novel, 288 pages., ilustrated, Editorial Zech, Tenerife 2003 (5th ed. in German, ISBN 978-84-933108-4-4) · El Rey de Taoro. Novela histórica de la conquista de Tenerife (Tenerife 2004, 1st ed. in Spanish, ISBN 978-84-933108-1-3)            14,50 euros

History: Time travelling in Tenerife

When the Spanish conqueror, Alfonso Fernández de Lugo, landed with his troops on Tenerife in 1493, the first thing he did was to drive a wooden cross into the ground. Thus the city of Santa Cruz, the “Holy Cross”, was born. The reigning King of Taoro, Bencomo, was joined by his allies from Tacoronte, Tegueste and Anaga in the brave fight to overthrow the foreign invaders….

The Guanches won the great battle that was waged in La Matanza but this was followed by a ‘victory’ on the Spanish side. The Guanches were eventually driven to take refuge on the slopes of Tigaiga until the Los Realejos siege forced them finally to surrender.

Why not travel in time and read the exciting history of warfare and clashing cultures on the island of Tenerife? Learn all about the Guanches – their lifestyle, their rituals – and about the Spanish conquerors and the troops they commanded; what drove them to navigate the oceans? As a bonus, delve into the legends that have been passed down through the generations of people that have inhabited these “Fortunate Islands”.

But we are not suggesting you seek out dusty, boring history books on the shelves at your local library. Look for the famous best seller, “The Mencey of Taoro”, written in 1941 by the German author, Horst Uden. As the novel unfolds, its pages are packed with the history of Tenerife, written in a lively and entertaining style from the start to the end. With Christmas drawing nearer, it might make a good present – to yourself, perhaps!

Spanish edition

Roberto Zapperi

El salvaje gentilhombre de Tenerife. La singular historia de Pedro González y sus hijos. Hardcover, illustrated, 216 pages., Editorial Zech, Tenerife 2006, ISBN 978-84-933108-7-5       18,- euros

This is a brilliantly told story of a man from the Canary Islands, whose face and body was covered in thick hair. This takes place in the XVI and XVII century, where the courts of the French, German and Italian princes see the heavily haired man and his sons as a curious freak of nature.

Roberto Zapperi, who has reconstructed this story from various sources, demonstrates for the first time the fine limit between man and animal that proved both a fascinating and terrifying environment.

"The art historian Roberto Zapperi, born in Rome, has undertaken a investigative reconstruction of the lively history of this primeval man and his family, by means of archive material, art collections and libraries.“ (Der SPIEGEL)

Detective novel in German

Irene Börjes: Tod am Teide. Kanaren-Krimi, Paperback, 216 p., Editorial Zech, Tenerife 2006, ISBN 978-84-934857-0-2 (German)     9,80 euros

Simbiosis between primitive art and literature

Ángeles Violán / Rafael Arozarena: Naïf Guide to Canary Customs, 45 primitive paintings by Ángeles Violán, 84 colourful pages, hardcover, Editorial Zech, Tenerife 2006, ISBN 978-84-933108-8-2 (English)

Guía naïf de costumbres canarias, ISBN 978-84-933108-6-7 (Spanish), Galerie der kanarischen Volksbräuche, ISBN 978-84-933108-9-9 (German)

Taxfree in the Canary Islands       24,- euros

The conquest of La Palma

"Vacaguare" (I prefer dying)

Harald Braem: Tanausú - König der Guanchen. Historic novel, 288 pages., ilustrated, Editorial Zech, Tenerife 2005 (3ª ed. in German, ISBN 978-84-933108-0-6) ·  Tanausú, rey de los guanches, 312 pages (4ª ed. in Spanish, ISBN 978-84-933108-5-1)        14,50 euros/each

Parallel to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, the Island of La Palma is conquered by Alonso de Lugo, the last but one of the seven Canary Islands that still was not under the Catholic Monarchs rule. In 1492 De Lugo arrives with three ships to the occidental shore of the island. In Benahoare, as the native guanches called La Palma, the people unite with Tanausú, king of the Acero tribe and guardian of the “Holy Rock“, and prepare their resistance…

In this novel, Harald Braem describes the backround of a completely disappeared culture, recreating a magical world, deeply rooted in the guanche nature.

“Congratulations! That’s the way to make people understand history.” (Offenbach Post)

Under the Dragontree (Unter dem Drachenbaum)

Legends from the Canary Isles, by Horst Uden. 204 pages, 14,50 EUR

ISBN  978-84-934857-2-0 (in German)

Spanish for foreigners:

"Spanisch im Alltag" is a practical language guide for German tourists in Spain, 144 pages, ilustrated, 9,80 EUR

ISBN  978-84-934857-1-9 (German-Spanish)