Guanarteme Tenesor Semidán

Tenesor Semidán was the guayre — king — of the Gáldar district in northern Gran Canaria, the most powerful of the city-states into which the island was organised. He ruled over a people that had achieved a remarkable level of social organisation, with stone houses, barley agriculture and a complex legal and religious structure. When the Castilians launched the definitive conquest of Gran Canaria in 1478, he led the resistance alongside the faicán Andamana and other chiefs.

In 1481 he was captured in battle by the troops of Pedro de Vera. Rather than being executed or enslaved, he was sent to the court of the Catholic Monarchs in Seville. His encounter with the monarchs and the grandeur of Spanish civilisation made a deep impression on him: he converted to Christianity voluntarily and was baptised with the name Fernando Guanarteme, in honour of Prince Ferdinand.

On his return to Gran Canaria, he acted as mediator and intermediary between the conquerors and the resistant Canarian population. He also participated in the campaigns of La Palma and Tenerife, using his prestige to persuade other leaders to surrender without bloodshed. His figure is profoundly ambivalent: a hero to some, a collaborator to others, he embodies the human drama of a disappearing world.