The Others of the Ravine

Abstract

In the society and culture of the Canary Islands, ravines (barrancos in Spanish) are spaces that contain a wealth of meanings and perceptions attached to a collective imagination. These natural scars that mark and characterize the island's geography represent scenes of dissidence, as will be shown through the spatial and geographic stories of various transsexuals and transvestites who lived in Tenerife between 1970 and 1990; the specific character of their testimonials is situated in a specific context: El Cabo, a barrio in Tenerife, as well as the Santos Ravine (Barranco de Santos in Spanish). The state repression, marginalization, and violence against sexually dissident people during this age will be the main context of analysis. In a brief journey through history, these aspects will be placed in relation to key events from the Francoist dictatorship on the islands, a travel journal of the nineteenth century, and passages from the conquest of the Canary Islands in which the ravines, among them the Santos Ravine itself, take on a relevant importance. Finally, this study will mention the existence of a chapel consecrated to the Virgin of Candelaria in this environment as possibly the most significant crystallization of the otherness of the ravine. This study thereby contemplates reviewing these spaces on the basis of their formation as media in which specific Canary Island subjectivities can be located.