Portal de Totana
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In the meeting held on March 28, the faculty of the Institute Juan de la Cierva and Codorníu, unanimously decided to award the distinction of Bachelor of Honor 2019 to Juan Martínez Fernández.
This recognition is done annually by the Teaching Staff to distinguish one of our countrymen who collects and represents in a special way our traditions and popular wisdom.
In this way we propose to our educational community and the city of Totana the person designated as a reference and example, while we recognize their special contribution to our culture.
Juan Martínez Fernández, "the Enterraor", is a totanero who has dedicated his efforts, efforts and concerns to promote, care for and maintain unique traditions that are part of the identity of Totana.
One of its main values ​​is its commitment to the horn, its love, dedication and passion for this symbol of Holy Week in this land.
With this task has continued not only a family tradition but also the continuity of a devotion rooted in Totana.
Its delivery has been decisive to preserve the presence and use of the horn.
Thanks to your support and encouragement there are several fraternities and fraternities that currently have a horn.
Juan Martínez, as a good connoisseur of this unique instrument, has participated in Holy Week events, making known the peculiar sound of the horn.
In 1993 he participated in the religious music cycle held in the city of Alcalá de Henares.
Later it has done it in several tourism fairs celebrated in the capital of Spain, as well as in the IFEPA fairground of Torre Pacheco, in Seville and in several processions of Holy Week in the Region of Murcia.
On the other hand, Juan Martínez, linked to the family of the "Enterraores", has exercised this task in the cemetery of Totana and in the cemetery of Alhama.
He knows a multitude of realities related to death and everything that that reality has implied.
From the respect and dedication to these sacred spaces, he has done a major job in his care, maintenance and preservation, while his closeness and sensitivity has helped many families to face the process of this crucial and painful moment.
It is the horn a metallic instrument with which a characteristic sound is emitted that in Totana goes together with its Lent and its Holy Week.
It is approximately four meters long.
It begins in tip to be widened towards the end where it ends with forms that imitate the head of a snake or a dragon.
In the thinnest part it has a mouthpiece with which its peculiar sound is emitted.
In order to extract all its possibilities from it, it is necessary to concentrate because it requires to endure several long sounds, but, above all, to extend and prolong the peculiar cadence with which this touch concludes.
Given its dimensions, it is usually placed in a small car.
Each brotherhood usually accompanies it with a small reproduction of its titular image.
The existence of this utensil in the Holy Week of Totana is linked to its origins.
This structure is intended to resemble "the trumpets or trumpets of large dimensions already used in the seventeenth century and that remind us of the horns used by the Levites to summon the Jewish people to certain religious functions."
The construction, repair or payment of the people in charge of sounding it, dedicated their efforts to brotherhoods and fraternities.
Begins to hear the horn in Totana on the night of each Ash Wednesday.
This sound arises as a moan of the soul seeking hollow in the Lenten nights to awaken from the indifference and lethargy in which sume the lack of solidarity.
Its echoes suggest the possibility of delving into the feelings that bring us closer to that intimate, personal and serene space where tenderness and love are recreated, where memories are hidden, where the values ​​of the Christian tradition are guarded.
Without a doubt, it is the horn, a sweet echo, exciting, but also austere and dismal, but above all it is a whistle of reflection.
The tradition points out that their sounds are played especially, every Wednesday night and Friday at the time of Lent and at Holy Week until three o'clock in the afternoon on Good Friday, when they are silent.
These sounds are for some, echoes of mockery;
of mystery for others, but mysterious for all.
Sounds that go back to the most hidden past but that also have the freshness with which a few totaneros know how to bring them to the present.
There have been several initiatives promoted to enhance and maintain this tradition, among which include the concentration of horns on the night of Ash Wednesday in the Plaza de la Constitución, as well as the incentive to brotherhoods and fraternities to keep their use during the processional parades.
Likewise, it is necessary to consider the convenience of creating a group of people with the mission of transmitting their knowledge and possibilities to the youngest, above all, because the value of these gestures helps to connect with the past, not to lose sight of the horizon, but also to remain alert so that when the vibrating snore of the metal of the horn resounds again in the silence of the night.
With our recognition of Honor Bachelor, we want to recognize this element of our tradition and the role that Juan Martínez Fernández has played in his momentum.
Congratulations.
Source: IES Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu
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