The south of Gran Canaria was the breadbasket of the island and that required labor. Some of that staff were slaves and many ended up sold in America. The other part stayed in the region and that is why there are areas that have names like Rosiana, Taidia, Los Moriscos or Barranco del Negro. Now it is a thing for foreigners, people from Fataga and passersby but there was a time when the summit of Tirajana was the thing for Moorish slaves from the Sahara. But that caused problems because the islands suffered attacks from Moorish pirates in retaliation. The Canarians came to the Sahara to hunt down every living black person to work in sugar until the end of the XNUMXth century.
Professor Enrique Martín Santiago points out that at the end of the XNUMXth century there were many authorizations to send slaves to America precisely to compete with the Canary Islands. The sub-Saharan community of Las Tirajanas, the so-called "blacks of Tunte", keep alive the trace of slavery in our historical past. "A minority of that population, once they acquired freedom (freedmen), went to live in the region," says Martín Santiago.
There were illustrious blacks who regained their freedom, such as in 1605 the family of Antón Pérez Cabeza and his wife Juana García, from the Señorío de Agüimes, and came to live in the Barranco de Tirajana. He was the owner of the Aguatona mill. In the Orders of the Convent of San Pedro Mártir against D. Francisco Manrique, of 1724, it is noted that "(...) "Let everyone who sees this letter as I do, Marcos de León, ruler of this island and resident of this city of Telde, and for the execution and fulfillment of all the aforementioned, we obligate our persons and assets that we have and that the said Antón Pérez Cabeza, for greater security of this tribute, mortgage by express and special mortgage six hives that I have with their corks in said Tirajana ravine,
In the XNUMXth century, in his book "Historical and geographical description of the Canary Islands", D. Pedro Agustín del Castillo Ruiz de Vergara, when describing Tirajana, said the following: "...; its neighborhood, of four hundred and sixteen neighbors , many of them black, whose color remains as dark as if they now came from Guinea, ignoring the time of their entry; it is only known that they are free from captivity."
In 1817 the blacks of Tunte had a mishap with the town priest, for not having allowed them to carry the image of San Sebastián in the procession that year: "The dark-skinned people of San Bartolomé de Tirajana complain about their priest, because they have always been in possession of holding the function of Saint Sebastian in that position, carrying the Effigy of the Saint, and that this year the Priest has prevented him from doing so, insulting the others of his class.
Professor Enrique Martín Santiago points out that the document mentions the marginality of blacks, when talking about "the others of their class." Obtaining the freedom of his ancestor at no time meant a status of equality with the rest. It is clear that the "whites" did not all have the same social status, from sharecroppers, sharecroppers, to the highest social position, owner. But in that unequal society, the blacks of Tunte occupied a marginal position. Marriages between members of different ethnicities led to the presence of a large group of mulattoes.