With the presence of Ramón Padilla, a famous neighbor who brought numerous Gomeros to Tenerife, and Manolo Lino, as conductor of this tribute
Arona SOS Atlántico pays tribute to the Gomero people who, historically, overcame the isolation of their island by sea
This Saturday, November 19, at 6 p.m., at Usos Múltiples, La Junta, in Playa Santiago (Alajeró), with free entry until capacity is reached.
In the sixties of the last century, in La Gomera, there were no maritime passenger lines like the current ones. They were coastal ships that allowed the exchange of goods, the search for work in municipalities in the south of Tenerife or the transfer for medical reasons. They were hard times, in which a relationship was also established between the fishermen of Arona and La Gomera, which resulted, as a result of this exchange, in the creation of Playa Santiago, a sign that the sea was, for a long time, the only common thread between the Colombian island and the rest of the world.
The ninth edition of the Arona SOS Atlántico Festival [www.sosatlanticofestival.com] pays tribute to the hard-working people of Playa Santiago. The Gomera Human Odyssey, with the presence of Ramón Padilla, one of the Gomerians who transported passengers and goods for years, since his father built three coastal ships, and a key figure in the history of the last decades of Alajeró. This tribute will be conducted by Manolo Lino, this November 19, at 6 p.m., at Usos Múltiples, La Junta, in Playa Santiago, with free admission until capacity is reached.
Arona SOS Atlántico continues to highlight the social, cultural and economic importance of the sea for the islanders, in this special edition in La Gomera. This Festival has the support of the Arona City Council, as the main municipality-headquarters, the Government of the Canary Islands [ICDC and Promotur Turismo de Canarias], Cabildo de Tenerife [Culture and Tourism of Tenerife], Cabildo de La Gomera [through the Biosphere Reserve program] and the six town councils of the island, as well as FAUCA [Canarias Viva].
Ramon Padilla Diaz
Born on November 16, 1940 in Alajeró, Ramón Padilla Díaz belongs to a large family, whose father, with an entrepreneurial spirit, started several projects in which he would work to contribute to the family economy, in very complicated times. Until 1960, he was in charge of working in the small grocery store created by his father, while also carrying out his work transporting passengers and merchandise on the coastal ship built by his father. It was with the so-called Jesus and Mary, with which the island made history by making it possible to travel to Tenerife and El Hierro. Although at first they could only sail to San Sebastián de La Gomera, in 1961 they received permission to travel to Tenerife and vice versa.
In 1971, Ramón Padilla Díaz was named president of the Playa de Santiago fishermen's brotherhood, a position he would hold for twenty years. Within his duties he assumed the presidency of the Carmen festivities for several years and saw how a small cave was built, which housed the Virgin, patron saint of sailors, who had sent a family of Gomeran origin that resided in Venezuela to the Columbian island.
At the beginning of the eighties, and continuing with his father's entrepreneurial spirit, he built the Playa Restaurant, at a time when European tourism arrived in large numbers to La Gomera and which, forty years later, continues with its doors open.
