Juan Quintero

Juan Quintero, associated with Tao in the municipality of Tinajo, Lanzarote, was a singer and the founder of Los Campesinos de Lanzarote, one of the most important folkloric groups on the island and a central figure in the preservation and promotion of Lanzarote's traditional music throughout the twentieth century. His name represents the collective effort to keep the island's popular music alive during a period of accelerated social and cultural transformation.

Founding a folkloric group is far from a trivial act: it requires organising musicians and dancers, establishing a repertoire, defining interpretive criteria, and creating a stable space for public performance and internal transmission. Quintero took on that task with the dedication of a preserver, aware that the dances, songs, and peasant rhythms of Lanzarote risked being lost in the face of mass tourism and the growing urbanisation of the island.

Through Los Campesinos de Lanzarote, the island's popular music found a stable channel for performance, the preservation of repertoires linked to agricultural labour, everyday life, and communal celebrations, and the transmission of dances and songs to new generations. Quintero represents the fundamental role that founders of folkloric groups have played in defending local musical heritage and in constructing a recognisable and living cultural identity for the people of Lanzarote.