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| El Chicharro (German = Bastardmakrele) Koppchen, CC BY 3.0 |
The Plaza del Chicharro, is a small square located in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, near the Plaza del Príncipe. The original name of the square was Alférez Provisional, until it was changed after a neighbourhood initiative, after the emblematic allegorical sculpture of El Chicharro was placed in the centre of it.
El Chicharro, is a bronze sculpture of a chicharro or Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), which has become one of the city's most loved symbols. Chicharrero is a name given to the inhabitants of the island of Tenerife.
The origina sculpture was donated to the city by the "Liqui-Liquis" Venezuelan Cultural Group as a gift to the city and the island, installed in 1979 at the end of Calle San José, near the Plaza del Príncipe. At the foot of the monument a plaque read: "La Comunidad Canario-Venezolana al Noble Pueblo de Tenerife" (The Canarian-Venezuelan Community to the Noble People of Tenerife).
The current sculpture, made of bronze, has an approximate weight of 600 kilos and, since November 2003, sat on a basalt stone base. This statue is a replica of the original made by the students of the School of Industrialists of Caracas. El Chicharro had been the victim of vandalism attacks, but in 2000 it was stolen and taken to Valencia, where it was narrowly saved from being melted down by a scrap dealer. Despite this, the original image was found in very poor condition, so the replica was created, retaining only the wave in which the fish appears to be jumping from the original, to be included in the new sculpture. Sculptors Francisco Javier Rodríguez de Armas and Evelina Martín Rodríguez created the current sculpture, which was officially inaugurated on November 4, 2003.
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| Plaza del Chicharro in Santa Cruz de Tenerife |
