AEPA CLAIMS THE ANTIQUITY OF THE DRAGGING OF CANS IN ALGEZIRAS AND ITS PROTECTION.
More than a century after the celebration of the first Arrastre, this tradition has become one of the most anticipated festivities in the city in which tens of thousands of children and adults participate with creations made from recycled cans. Each year, the sculptures that walk the streets are more impressive, and a contest is organized to reward the most original and creative ones.
But the origin of this celebration is not clear. There are three stories that shed light on the origin of this typical celebration of the city. The best known is the legend written in Juan Ignacio Pérez’s short story El gigante Botafuegos. In the work, the author recovers the story of a giant called Botafuegos who lived in Algeciras. He did not want the children to receive gifts from the Three Kings, so he lit a bonfire to cause a smoke that covered the city and prevented Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar from seeing land.
At that moment, the children of Algeciras took to the streets to make noise with their cans to guide their Majesties of the Orient to their homes and thus avoid the fog created by Botafugos. Another story focuses on times of poverty. The children of Algeciras were left without gifts, so their parents told them that the Kings had forgotten the city; so they decided that every year they would make an appeal by making noise in the streets of the municipality.
The last of the three best-known stories relates that it was a way of showing the Three Kings that their toys were old. Children would go out into the street to drag their tin toys and clamor for new ones.
A party that for years was almost forgotten and that in the late 90s is recovered thanks to the initiative of the president of the AA.VV Virgen del Carmen, Pascual Foncubierta, who goes to the mayor of the city, Patricio Gonzalez, who launches this celebration, although the first year the bad weather tarnished the drag attended by about 300 people, as explained Gonzalez in our microphones.
The president of AEPA, the association of entrepreneurs of Algeciras heritage, Roberto Godino said that this is a celebration that dates back to 1900 and that there are documents that prove it, so that next year they could celebrate the 125th anniversary. Precisely to protect this celebration, AEPA, the association of entrepreneurs of the Algeciras heritage registered a letter in the town hall of Algeciras, in order to claim the authorship and antiquity of the traditional dragging of cans of Algeciras.
