Work by Daniel Roque Nuez, it remembers the enormous effort made by the tomato workers, participating in the harvest while caring for and educating their children.
The history of the municipality of Agüimes, like that of the entire Southeast region of Gran Canaria, is linked to the cultivation of tomato. Large agricultural extensions in need of labor, a perfect attraction for thousands of families who settled in the place in the second half of the 20th century, giving shape to many of the humble and simple neighborhoods that today dominate the territory. One of them, Montaña de Los Vélez, has been showing off a new artistic work inspired by this story since Monday.
This is a large-format mural made by the Gran Canarian artist Daniel Roque Nuez in homage to the agricultural origins of Montaña de Los Vélez. Two colors predominate in the work: the ocher of the earth and the red of the tomato. And two groups of people: on the one hand, women, always dedicated to their double task as mothers and sharecroppers; on the other, their children, boys and girls raised among tomato trees and cucañas, learning life from the harsh example of their families.
The mural is a recognition of sharecropping and, more especially, of the rural women, tomato workers who multiplied to help in the harvest while caring for and educating their offspring, thereby forging the culture of effort that distinguished to the people of the Southeast for generations. Even before it was finished, the mural had already become the focus of attention of neighbors and visitors, who came to take pictures of it, proudly showing off their memories, their roots and their own identity.
Located on the exterior wall of the Senior Center, the mural is a double connecting bridge. It acts as an urban link between the original nucleus of Montaña de Los Vélez and the new residential development located in the southern part of the neighborhood. And at the same time it links the generations from the agricultural world with the current ones, more urban, technological and globalized, so that they never forget the historical memory of their mothers and grandmothers.
Born in Gran Canaria in 1981, Daniel Roque Nuez Báez has more than 20 years of experience in large-format public painting. He studied Fine Arts at the University of La Laguna and focused his artistic career on the fusion between graffiti and muralism, painting facades in Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, but also in countries such as Germany, Italy and Uruguay. He is part of the graffiti, mural and visual arts collective 'Back to Back', which promotes the transformation of public space with artistic interventions of popular initiative or inspiration, seeking to create friendlier environments for people.