The Festival Atlántico Sonoro has closed its twentieth anniversary with one of the most emotional events of this year's programme: the presentation of the Award for work in favour of the dissemination and conservation of popular Canarian culture, to Isidro Ortiz Mendoza who, at more than ninety years of age, continues to defend the romance, traditional instruments and the silbo gomero. The Mayor of Vallehermoso, Emiliano Coello, the Councillor for Social Services, Culture and Education of the Island Council of La Gomera, Rosa Elena García Meneses; the president of the Silbo Gomero Cultural Association, Estefanía Venus Mendoza; and the director of the Festival, Carlos Prieto, presented the award to the man who is considered one of the best artisans in the construction of chácaras and maintainer of the whistled language, this past Saturday, 20 July, in the Plaza de la Constitución in Vallehermoso, La Gomera.
The 20th edition of the Festival Atlántico Sonoro has deployed a series of activities, from different artistic disciplines, to show, in Tenerife and La Gomera, the talent of Canarian creators and the fusion of traditional and contemporary elements. In this respect, tributes were paid to the elderly and to rural women in the Casa de la Cultura in Tacoronte. In Vallehermoso, the Festival held Chácara y Tambor and Silbo Gomero workshops; a dramatised route by Burka Teatro, entitled Doblones para la eternidad; the creation of a large-format sculpture with recycled wood by Luigi Stinga at the Mirador del Almendrillo; the concerts Timples y otras pequeñas guitarras del mundo, by young timple players; Furte; and the show Amor Infinito by Luis Morera; as well as the presentation of the Atlántico Sonoro 2024 Award to Isidro Ortiz.
All these actions are added to the projection of the Canary Islands Latitud de Vida brand, in a twentieth edition of the Festival, created and produced by Cauproges, which has been financed by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, integrated in the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (‘Next Generation EU Funds’). It has also been supported by the Government of the Canary Islands, Promotur Turismo de Canarias S.A. and Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural S.A., Cabildo Insular de Tenerife, Cabildo de La Gomera, Ayuntamiento de Vallehermoso, and with the collaboration of Ayuntamiento de Tacoronte, Asociación Cultural Silbo Gomero and Fundación Foresta.
Canary Islands Prize for Popular Culture
Born in Temocodá (Chipude, Vallehermoso) in 1930, Isidro Díaz Mendoza worked in agriculture from an early age and, as in the case of many other families, the lack of opportunities forced him to emigrate to Venezuela, only to return years later to his native island. During the first democratic legislature (1979-1983) he was a councillor on the Vallehermoso Town Council. Considered one of the best artisans of chácaras, he is also a founding member of the folkloric group Magos de Chipude. Díaz Mendoza is known for being a great singer of Gomeran romances, as well as other musical genres, those considered to be typical of the natural cycle of life (wakes, births, New Year's Day or peasant work).
In the field of the Gomeran silbo, he created a teaching method called silfateo, which he uses to teach in the island's educational centres, making him a fundamental figure in the rescue and conservation of the whistled language. Thanks to his determination to defend it, a Gomeran whistled language that, at certain times, was in danger of disappearing, has been preserved.
In 2008, Isidro Ortiz Mendoza was appointed member of the Canarian Academy of Language, while in 2009, he was awarded the Canary Islands Prize in the Popular Culture section.
Winners
The creation of the Atlántico Sonoro Award corresponds to the need to reward those who, from different disciplines, preserve and disseminate the richness of the Canary Islands' cultural heritage. So far, the Festival has awarded this prize to the following personalities: Isabel Medina (2018), Cecilia Domínguez (2019), Domingo El Colorao (2020), Olga Ramos and Blanca Hernández Quintana (2021), Jonathan Rodríguez (2022) and Olga Cerpa and Mestisay (2023).
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