ECHENTIVE FOLKLORIC GROUP

The Cultural and Folk Association “Echentive”, from Fuencaliente de La Palma (Canary Islands), emerged in 1975, appearing that same year during the Bajada de la Virgen de las Nieves Festival. The origins of this group are in the Rondalla de “Lo Divino”. Echentive began its journey with a clear objective: The preservation, investigation and rescue of the Traditional Music and Dances of the Island of La Palma.

Fruit of the great work, is the publication of nine L.P. (“Folclóre Palmero”, six volumes of “Traditional Music of the Island of La Palma”, “Christmas Carols of the Island of La Palma” and “Island of La Palma, Oral Culture”), a book for its thirtieth anniversary and a work in DVD format entitled “Cultivation, transformation and weaving of flax on the Island of La Palma”. Also the concern to faithfully recover, not only the dances and traditional music, but also the clothes, has led Echentive’s own members to sow the linen with which they later make shirts, petticoats, skirts, etc. by hand on their looms. ., that you saw this grouping.

Within the Canary Islands, the island of La Palma is the one that has best preserved its traditional clothing. This clothing remained in use for several centuries until the end of the 19th century, at which time its decline began due to the push of fashions coming from abroad.For many years this clothing remained in oblivion until society decided to recover it as a traditional costume. . On our island, thanks to the conservative instinct of its people, there are many documentary sources, and most importantly, numerous garments from that time with which costumes can now be faithfully reproduced.

The textile fibers used to make the clothes were mainly linen, sheep’s wool and natural silk, all of them produced on the island. So much so, that the entire natural silk process is still active on our island, as the only one in Europe where this ancestral work is preserved. We are also fortunate that small manual loom jobs are still active, where textile fibers for clothing are transformed. The Echentive group has in its own premises a workshop where the costumes are made, being able to say that currently most of their costumes are handmade. In addition, the engravings made in the middle of the last century by a painter from La Palma, Juan Fierro, have influenced the costumes of the time with great fidelity, as well as the fact that the first photographers from the Canary Islands settled in La Palma who made in the most isolated reports of great ethnographic value. The quality of the island’s costumes and the materials with which they were made is demonstrated that the costumes that their grandparents wore during the 19th century are still preserved in many families.

You can learn more about this historical complex of Fuencaliente