“The Janubio Marsh is, without question, one of the
wonders that Lanzarote has, one more of the fantasies of the insular
geography, which unveils a canvas with an inhospitable landscape, such a
bad country, among militias of cliffs, more and more whimsical and
implausible ".
Agustín de la Hoz:
Chosen work Lanzarote
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DESCRIPTION
Previous records to present salt marshes go back to the existence of a
wasteland where wheat, corn, rye, and barley used to be cultivated. This
is a piece of information not very well known since Janubio begins
forming as marshes in 1895. The Janubio Marshes construction starts in
1895 with Vicente Lleó Benlliure, and passing the baton on to his nephew
Jaime Lleó Mira, in collaboration with the Cerdeña family and Ginés Díaz,
who carried on his work till the end, approximately in the year of 1945.
Nowadays, the Padrón Lleó family has been developing the marsh activity
uninterruptedly for over 50 years, never letting anybody to exploit them
and developing the economic activity. Due to the fishing decline, cold
techniques and salt competitors from outside, the production has gone
down to about 2,000 tons, compared to the optimum and full performance
that used to be 10,000 tons a year.
IMPORTANCE ON THE ISLAND ECONOMY
The fishing sector has always fed on the marsh activity and until not
long ago factories, traditional fishing ships and the rest of the ships
in the archipelago.
The Janubio Marshes have been linked to fishing and salting industry and
preserved fish. They also commercialize with salting to preserve fish on
board ships until fish are transferred to port. It is also used by the
traditional insular shipping and the traditional Basque tuna shipping.
Nowadays, it is commercialized for the island internal market.
COMPLEMENTARY VALUES TO THE TRADITIONAL ACTIVITY
Heritage, architectonic, cultural, ethnographic, landscaping or
environmental values are the main attractive points of this traditional
marsh industry, centenary industry and one of the oldest on the island.
The landscaping value lies in the continuous salt production and
subsequent commercialization with traditional methods, not admitting,
unlike other industries, mechanization. The ethnographic value lies in
the fact that most of the labour employed by this industry brought about
the foundation of villages around Janubio, such as La Hoya or Las Breñas
. It is very difficult to find in any family of the Yaiza municipality
people who were not attached to the Marshes. The effort, the spirit, the
caress and the laboriousness that all men and women from Janubio and the
other municipalities have always had, has without question been its
greatest capital. |
