Source For a Social History of English Sport in Gran Canaria

THE CANARY ISLANDS REVIEW (1903-1904) SOURCE FOR A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLISH SPORT IN GRAN CANARIA Although the geostrategic position of the Canary Islands is well known, over the last century it has grown steadily due to the need imposed by steam navigation, which requires ports of call to carry out the coal and water of the ships. The presence of foreign colonies, mainly English, responds to the commercial, mercantile and tourist interests that are generated through the ports. The British will contribute to the modernisation of the islands, introducing the telephone, electrification, tourism and also controlling the major shipping lines. This advance generated a profound transformation in the society and economy of the Archipelago. The consequences were significant: a revaluation of the geographical position as a platform on the European trade routes to Africa and America; rapprochement with Europe and facilities for the arrival of visitors to the islands, initiating the tourist flow; increased exports of agricultural products, etc. As Morales Lezcano has indicated, the naval demands of the British Empire in West Africa and Europe's communications with America were the cause that led England to polarize its interests in Funchal and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. However, trade contacts between these two archipelagos are not new. In the mid-sixteenth century, several English traffickers from Bristol used to anchor in the roadsteads of Las Isletas, Garachico and Funchal, the first exporter to traffic wine in Tenerife being the firm Hickman & Castlyn (Morales, 1970, p. 53). It was precisely from the beginning of the construction of the port of Refugio de la Luz in 1883, when the English pounds began to circulate strongly in the Canary Islands, more specifically on the island of Gran Canaria. Coal supply companies, dry docks, small shipyards, warehouses, etc., were soon established around the Port of La Luz. In 1884 Alfred L. Jones established The Grand Canary Coaling Station in the Harbour. In addition to this, he opened a branch of Elder Dempster, a company specializing in consignment, banking and fruit export functions, under the direction of Arthur Doorly. Local historiography has been extensively concerned with analysing the transcendent English participation in the subsequent economic development of the islands. However, relations between the Canary Islands and the British went beyond the mercantile. Professor Quintana Navarro highlighted this circumstance: The Port of Refuge had been a new creation; New docks, new ships, new shipping companies, new buildings, new capital, new businesses... As take-off took place, the feverish port activity completely transformed the old image of the Bay. These processes could not go unnoticed by the islanders' mentality. Because not only did products and merchandise enter through the port; New men, new customs, new habits, new ideas also penetrated... Through the port, the city was cosmopolized; old customs and social habits were combined with new elements (Quintana, 1985, p. 67). This new social group, formed by a foreign bourgeoisie, will initially behave as a closed group in most cases, with its own meeting spaces and institutions, such as recreational clubs (British Club, Las Palmas Cricket Club...); Anglican Church, British cemetery, etc. As the generations go by, they will be integrated into Canarian society, transmitting a strong impulse to society as a whole. Social spheres such as education were also the object of foreign interest. In 1896 the vice-consul Allan Maclean of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria reported: An excellent opening is offered here or a good college or public school on English lines, as the climate is very suitable for the children of English parents, particulular so if they have been born in the colonies or India, and find the English winter too severe, as well as for growing boys and girls who are showing the first symptoms of weakness in the chest, and to whom a residence of two or three years in a suitable climate wouldd mean a life of usefulness in the future instead of a lifetime of misery. In view of the importance of the study of living languages to the young Englishman, an excellent opportunity would be given to affiliate such a public school to some of our large scholls at home, and ample opportunity given for a conversational instruction in all modern comercial tongues –spanish, french, italian, portuguese, german and arabic–. I fancy such school would find good support in England, as well as be of enormous advantage to the 300 resident British subjects, and permit of children accompanying invalid parentes to this health resort in the winter, who have at present to remain at home for want of school accomodation here (Martín, 1990, p. 23). The English colony established in the islands practices its customs, its traditions, its values, its education; in short, their culture. This Anglolization brings with it the introduction of a number of sporting activities with a long tradition in Great Britain, such as cricket, croquet, tennis, golf, football, etc. At first, it was the foreign subjects who practiced it, later extending its spread to the local bourgeoisie. Based on the analysis of the sources used for this work, we have determined a series of physical spaces where English sports will be put into practice in the Canary Islands. First of all, the open spaces near the ports of the islands, They will be the first suitable framework for the implementation of some sports, mainly football. On these "spacious plains" the residents of the colony on the island originally played with their compatriots or British officers who stopped at the ports of the Canary Islands. The island's population will be the exceptional spectators of a new sport that will soon be part of their leisure and recreational activities. As a second point, the presence of an English colony on the island produces the visit of travelers who seek in the benign climate of the archipelago a remedy for their physical ailments. This brings with it the publication of travel guides and the development of an incipient tourism that seeks convenience and comfort in its stay. Hotels such as the Metropole, the Santa Catalina and the Quiney in Las Palmas, offered among their amenities sports courts to play lawn tennis, croquet, golf, as well as billiard rooms. Thirdly, we can point out the new spaces inhabited by the British. Residential segregation was a way of structuring the comfortable living position of the English bourgeoisie. The ideal middle-class home was a built-up country house, villa or cottage, with a miniature park or garden and surrounded by green space. In these gardens, the English practiced their sports, not only for leisure, but as an important element for the formation of a new ruling class according to the British bourgeois model. In addition to the authentic colonial settlement in Alcaravaneras (Gran Canaria) with the Santa Catalina hotel, an English club, an English hospital, an Anglican chapel and the corresponding cottages (Hernández, 1995, p. 196), the residence of the Miller Family, a Canarian mansion bought in the mid-nineteenth century in Tafira, had tennis and croquet courts in its gardens. The English house thus became a meeting place for the different families, where in addition to having tea, they practiced their favorite sports. Finally, the English rushed to found a whole series of sports clubs in the city. In this way, they expanded the small family and social circle, and through the clubs, it was possible to create a social universe outside the autonomous family nuclei. These recreation centres were not so much a luxury as a necessity, a means of maintaining the morale and sense of cohesion of the British (Holt, 1989, p. 208). Among the major sporting institutions founded in Gran Canaria were Las Palmas Golf Club, Las Palmas Lawn Tennis Club, Las Palmas Cricket Club and Las Palmas Football Club. From these centres, the Canarian bourgeoisie created sports clubs in the likeness of the English, not only as a complement to a markedly intellectual education, but also as a social differentiator of an emerging class in the economic and social panorama of the islands. As Hobswban has pointed out, there is no doubt that sport "served to create new models of life and cohesion in the middle class" (Hobswban, 1990, p. 183). One of the main historical sources for learning about the establishment of English sports in the islands at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century is the press, which will record the intense British influence exerted on the Archipelago.