Ánimas. Los Cantadores de Arbejales (2017)

Once a year, the singers of animas of Arbejales and Valsequillo (Ranchos de Animas) are in the rural district of Madrelagua, Valleseco, Gran Canaria to pray for the souls of purgatory, creating a cathartic atmosphere of their own time. In this ritualistic process, the alms-giving given to enable the songs, acts as an invisible thread between the world of the living and the memory of the dead. The Rancho de Animas of Arbejales (los Cantadores) has in this process a great task: to keep alive a tradition without breaking any of the bonds that give meaning to the annual ritual cycle by the Animas. This document tries to reflect, from a sociological and ethno-anthropological point of view, the whole world, unknown and hidden for the great majority of the inhabitants of the island of Gran Canaria and the Canarias. These groups of soul singers are almost the only vestige left in Europe.