It was "in the war that took place in Maspalomas with the French," according to the records of Lucas Betancourt, secretary and scribe of Agüimes. It happened in 1685, but now the honor of the people of the island's south is forgotten except when it comes to capturing money from tourism. It was a full-blown invasion of Maspalomas , a piece of island land that has barely registered in extensive studies, to the point that it was Juan Méndez Castro, a primary school teacher who passed away in 2021, who was the only one to dare to pay tribute to the people of southern Gran Canaria. There were many deaths, but the people of the island's south, despite the foreign invasion, held their ground, and the French had to leave without achieving their ultimate goal of taking possession of the land that is now the economic capital of the Canary Islands.
This is one of the least studied topics, since in the historiography of the island there are hardly any references to French corsairs: they are always English or Berber. The truth is that in 1685 it is documented that there was a French pirate landing in Maspalomas and that they made landfall. This was before the tsunami occurred in 1755 that caused Maspalomas since before it was a space for stopovers as demonstrated by Columbus's own travel chronicle. In the parish records of Agüimes there are papers that prove the death in acts of combat for the defense of the island of a series of Gran Canarians and this matter has barely been studied given that the blood of the south of the island must be worth less than those who do. They defended Las Palmas when Van der Does attacked in 1599.
The minutes of October 17, 1685, barely a month after this sad event, add the assets of "all the soldiers killed in battle with the French in Maspalomas." And look, from Tenerife Colonel Pedro Nava Grimón was already speaking wonders about the people of the south of the island when he said of the tirajaneros that "these people are very suited to war, because of their daring and great suffering in all kinds of work." , coming to have an advantageous size" for hand-to-hand combat. In the Agüimes archive it is mentioned that "on September 1685, XNUMX, Captain Don Diego Romero, a resident of this town, died and was buried in the payment of Maspalomas for having died fighting with the French and not being able to bring him to the parish.” The mortal remains of the soldier have been since September 9, 1686, along with the rest of the deceased, in the parish of Agüimes.
In the parish archive of Agüimes it is also noted that "on nine days in the month of September of this year, one thousand six hundred and eighty-six, they brought Maspalomas the bodies of Captain Diego Romero, Ensign Sebastián Bordón, Francisco de León, Juan Pérez Macías, Francisco de Artiles, Juan Rodríguez Peña and Juan de Artiles, which were buried in the Maspalomas payment and were buried in this parish all in one grave of the church, which was given to them freely.
At that time people did not live in coastal areas like they do now, full of Las Palmas official apartment makers who undersell the product while living with tourists, but in inland areas. That is why Tirajana is organized from Tunte just like Vecindario up in Santa Lucía or the original town of Agüimes itself. In 1685, the defense of the south of Gran Canaria was in the hands of the Telde regiment, which extended to Veneguera. The French massacre in Maspalomas It was of such caliber that at that time the companies only consisted of between 9 and 14 soldiers based in Agüimes and Tirajana. They all owned their own weapons because the salary was paid by the Cabildo to guard areas such as Sardina, Aldea Blanca, Juan Grande, Arguineguín and Maspalomas.
