When the news broke on Friday of the death a three year old neighbourhood girl, supposedly from child abuse inflicted by her step-father, I was as quick as the next person to believe in his guilt. Like the other mothers standing around, I wondered how this atrocity could happen in our community, to a child that went to the same school as my own, and yet we noticed nothing wrong?

I didn’t stop to consider what evidence had been gathered against 25 year old, Diego Pastrana Vieco, I only knew that the safest place for him to be on Friday was in the hands of the police because there is nothing more vindictive than a mob of mothers looking for blood revenge.

As it happens, the poor man not only had to suffer the pain of the death of a loved one, he also had to defend himself against the most despicable charges that it is possible to bring. The child Aitana’s mother and natural father stood up for Diego Vieco and said he had never harmed her in any way.  At a time when the shock and pain of losing their daughter had not even sunk in, they were at the police station fighting on Diego’s behalf.

How did this horrible story happen? Aitana fell from a swing and banged her head.  She was taken to the children’s clinic in El Fraile but was not sent for an x-ray from there. A few days later she went into cardiac arrest and Diego took her into El Mahon where they treated her and found marks which they thought to be suspicious, possible indicating child abuse and sexual assault.

Aitana died in the early hours of Friday morning and forensic examination confirmed the report by Canadalaria that there had been no sexual assault and no child abuse. Burn marks on her back were likely caused by an allergic reaction to cream and any bruises and scratches likely attributed to the fall that killed her.

Diego Pasterna Vieco’s lawyer has indicated that there may be legal action taken. There is no doubt that the system failed somewhere and what happened to Diego Vieco is something you would not wish upon your worst enemy – but I wonder if the doctors at Mahon are totally to blame.

In cases where a doctor finds marks on a child that may be suspicious he surely has a duty to bring the matter up with the relevant authorities. God knows, we would fall upon them and rip their reputations to tatters if they were to fail in this duty and a child that had passed through their hands were to die of abuse shortly thereafter.

But kids attract scratches, cut and bruises like honey attracts bees. I imagine there must be many more suspicious marks on kids than there are actual cases of child abuse. Surely, there must be regulations in place to protect the anonymity of families or individuals who are under investigation at least until such times as charges are to be brought?

That’s where the system failed this young man and the family of Aitana. Instead of the community pulling together to support a family in its bereavement, it turned instead into an angry mob fuelled by ugly whispers that blew like wildfire through the school, passed from child to child, child to parent, parent to parent.

As one of the parents that stood there in shock last Friday, I have learned a lesson that I will never forget. No matter how vicious the rumour, or ugly the accusation,  it is important to hold tight to the maxim of ‘innocent until proven guilty’.

The Tenerife Design Festival (TDF) is dedicated to fusing the ‘current trends of design with the main features of the Canarian identity’ and focusses on the three key concepts of local identity, landscape contrast and tourism.

Expect the unexpected during that week as designers from around the world get together to turn Tenerife into a ’seething mass of creativity and design’.

Oooo er. I’m not so sure about the seething mass bit. Whoever wrote the English blurb on the TDF website has done so in that annoyingly arty-farty nonsensical wittering beloved of those who think design concepts have to be drowned in a bucket of words before the rest of us plebs can get the point (or lack thereof).

Here slighty toned down are the descriptions of the TDF sections taken from the Tenerife Design Festival website.

TDFSigno – designers, industry and craftsmen collaborating on new products and ways of development which involve both fresh  ideas and traditional Canarian concepts.

TDFAtmósfera – ominously threatening to ‘involve the public’, TDFAtmósfera promises to bathe Santa Cruz in a wash of exhibitions and urban interventions. If you venture into large spaces within the city during this week in October such as the TEA, La Recova or the port itself expect to be pounced on by a creative installation or two.

TDFLab – three-day workshops for professionals, students and general participants to experiment with different ways to  generate new objects, graphics and interventions in different spaces with a focus on the interaction between design and the Canarian environment.

TDFAward cunningly sponsored by Turismo de Tenerife proposes Tenerife Design Paradise, an international prize, which encourages designers to work on elements that will make up a dream beach of the future.  Based on the idea “Design Paradise” the aim is the creation of products that may be further developed later by the sponsor to enhance the tourism experience.

TDFSolution brings together different professional approaches to spread and support advances in culture, innovation and design. The Symposium will consist of the presentation of works by businesses, local, national and international designers, stirred into action by a critic or analyst. The point of departure will be TDF’s three central concepts: nature, local identity and tourism.

See the Tenerife Design Festival website for more information including a Programme of Events and a Registration page which showing fabulous international creativity is only available in Spanish. According to the translation it seems registrations will not be open till September:

Inscriptions

To participate in various workshops and activities of TDF, you can simply register by filling out a form. In September the program will be more detailed for you to decide which section is more suited to your interests …

But you should be aware: the seats are limited!

Happily, there have been no reports of Swine Fever in Tenerife or the Canary Islands which is just as well because I don’t know how easy it is to find Strepsils on the islands.

According to Michael O’Leary of Ryanair if you are unlucky enough to be struck down with the malady that has raged through Mexico claiming over 150 lives and has the UK government currently dithering over ordering 32 million face masks “…a couple of Strepsils will do the job.”

Michael ‘Foot-in-Mouth’ O’Leary also commented that it was likely only to be the people in the “…slums of Asia or Mexico” for whom Swine Fever would be a tragedy.

Think of Las Americas in relation to Tenerife and it’s likely you’ll imagine a lively resort town in the South of the island renowned for its nightlife, high-end hotels and tipsy tourists. Well so far, so stereotypical but did you know that Tenerife has very close connections with the Americas?

Settlers from the Canary Islands founded the city of Montevideo, capital and largest port of Uruguay. The US Library of Congress provides this description in a study of the Pre-Columbian Uruguay:

In 1680 the Portuguese, seeking to expand Brazil’s frontier, founded Colonia del Sacramento on the Río de la Plata, across from Buenos Aires. Forty years later, the Spanish monarch ordered the construction of Fuerte de San José, a military fort at present-day Montevideo, to resist this expansion. With the founding of San Felipe de Montevideo at this site in 1726, Montevideo became the port and station of the Spanish fleet in the South Atlantic. The new settlement included families from Buenos Aires and the Canary Islands to whom the Spanish crown distributed plots and farms and subsequently large haciendas in the interior. Authorities were appointed, and a cabildo (town council) was formed.

Canarians were also founding fathers of San Antonio in Texas and San Bernard in Louisiana. In a beautifully precise recording the Texas branch of the Canary Island Descendants Association notes:

On eleven o’clock on the morning of March 9th, 1731, sixteen families (56 people) from the Canary Islands arrived at the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar in the Province of Texas. By royal decree of the King of Spain, they founded La Villa de San Fernando and established the first civil government in Texas.

In Louisiana the Canarian descendants are no less proud of their roots and celebrate each year with a Canary Islands’ Day in May. They are an active group and maintain a museum and Canarian expos and performances throughout the year.

Looking at the passenger lists of these long ago journeys it is hard to imagine how excited and nervous these brave adventurers were. Leaving the shores of their island homes and taking off into the unknown…

So whether you live in Tenerife or are planning a holiday here, the next time you think of Las Americas, think of a handful of families to whom that phrase meant not a holiday destination but the adventure of a lifetime as they gathered all the possessions they could take with them on the ships across the ocean to the New World.