Garoe

The Garoé (from the insular Tamazight: ⴳⴰⵔⴰⵡ, from gărăw > garoe, masculine word meaning 'lagoon', 'river'), was the sacred tree of the Bimbaches, ancient inhabitants of El Hierro, in the Canary archipelago, as well as one of its symbols, possibly it was a specimen of Ocotea foetens known as til or tilo. The shield of El Hierro depicts a tree with its crown surrounded by clouds from which drops of water fall.

The place where it was located is in the municipality of Valverde in the northeast of the island at 1000 m above sea level. n. m. There is an interpretation center nearby.

History

The chronicles of the Conquest say that on the Island of Iron there was a tree that the natives called Garoé. The Spaniards did not know of another similar tree in the entire archipelago or known land. The fact is that the large leaves of the Garoé were capable of capturing and distilling the water from the fog that reached it, water that was collected in large holes made around the tree by the bimbaches, being the main source of water for this town.. There was no more water in the Hierro than that which came from the Garoé. For this reason, the Bimbache people - then a small population - considered Garoé a deity worthy of all worship. This mythical tree was located in an area near Tiñor, on a slope constantly bathed by the trade wind, and about a thousand meters above sea level. It is known that the Garoé was of impressive size and that its trunk was one and a half meters in diameter.

Upon the arrival of the Spanish, the Bimbaches decided to hide the quality of the Garoé from them so that, not finding water, thirst would make them return quickly to their bases. And they were about to achieve their goal. But Guarazoca, a young Bimbache woman, fell in love with an Andalusian soldier who was part of the expedition and, betraying her people, she led him directly to the tree that provided them with the necessary element. She was punished with death. Shortly after Armiche, the Mencey, was captured and with him all those who followed and defended him.

In 1610, very strong winds devastated that entire area and the Garoé tree was uprooted from the land that so proudly fed it. After him, the aboriginal population of El Hierro, the Bimbaches, also disappeared due to lack of water, among other things. In 1949, a lime tree was planted on the site of the old one.

Nature of the phenomenon

The tree's ability to capture water can be explained by the combination of two effects: the meteorological one, since the leaves of the lime tree are very effective in capturing the moisture-laden trade winds that ascend through the ravine. Another is geological since it was found in a recent porous volcanic soil on top of an older one with impermeable clays that allowed water trapped in pools dug near the same tree to accumulate.

Garoé in literature

• The first text in which the tree is named, referring to it as “A tree that gives water” is in the book of 1525 by Antonio Pigafetta, Relationship of the first trip around the world.
• In History of the Indiaswritten by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, there is also a brief paragraph in honor of the Garoé.
• Abreu Galindo mentions the tree in his History of The Conquest of the Seven Canary Islands (1602): "This place and term where this tree is called Tigulahe. Which is a cane that goes up a valley from the sea to give to a fronton of a cliff. Where the Holy Tree is born in the same cliff that they call themselves in their Garoe tongue.
• The sailor Richard Hawkins speaks of several trees.
• In 2010 the Canarian writer Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa published the work Garoé, whose plot is developed on the island of the Iron, and obtained the Alfonso X El Sabio Historical Novel Award.