Long before Las Palmas existed, Gran Canaria was already home to a society with its own settlements, agriculture, beliefs and traditions. Understanding something about these first islanders adds an entirely different layer to a visit. Caves, archaeological sites and even objects in museums stop being anonymous remains and become traces of people who lived on Gran Canaria for many centuries before the Castilian conquest.
On Gran Canaria these people are usually referred to as the ancient Canarians or indigenous Canarians. You will sometimes hear all the indigenous people of the Canary Islands called Guanches, but that is not historically precise: Guanche is specifically associated with Tenerife.
Where did the first Canarians come from?
Archaeological and other research connects the indigenous population of the Canary Islands with Amazigh, historically called Berber, populations of North Africa. The first settlers reached the archipelago roughly around the first centuries of our era.
Once settled on the islands, communities developed largely in isolation. This is important because there was not one identical “Canarian” indigenous culture across the entire archipelago. Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma and the other islands developed their own histories and identities.
Life on Gran Canaria
The ancient Canarians adapted to a landscape that could be both productive and difficult. Agriculture and livestock were central to life, while fishing became increasingly important. Barley was particularly significant, and grain was stored in carefully constructed communal granaries, some of them cut into rock.
People lived both in natural or modified caves and in settlements of stone houses. Archaeology shows that settlement patterns and ways of using the landscape changed over the many centuries before the European conquest.
Pottery, stone and bone tools, objects made from plant fibres and animal skins, idols and distinctive decorated stamps known as pintaderas are among the surviving objects that help researchers reconstruct everyday life.
Caves, burials and mummies
Caves are particularly important when exploring the indigenous history of Gran Canaria. They were used as homes, storage spaces and burial places.
Human remains, including naturally and intentionally preserved bodies often described as mummies, have provided archaeologists with information about diet, health, burial customs and society. Seeing these remains in a museum can be confronting, but they are also an important connection with real individuals who lived on the island centuries ago.
What happened during the conquest?
European contact intensified during the later Middle Ages, and the Canary Islands eventually became the target of conquest. Gran Canaria was incorporated into the Crown of Castile in the fifteenth century after years of conflict.
The conquest transformed indigenous society through warfare, displacement, enslavement, disease, conversion and incorporation into the new colonial society. The old social system disappeared, but indigenous ancestry and elements of Canarian culture did not simply vanish.
Modern Canarian identity developed through a much more complicated mixture of indigenous, Iberian and later Atlantic influences.
Where can you learn about the ancient Canarians in Las Palmas?
The best place to start is El Museo Canario in Vegueta. Its permanent exhibition is devoted to the indigenous population of Gran Canaria and covers settlements, economic activities, funerary practices and archaeological finds.
The museum holds an exceptionally important archaeological collection including ceramics, pintaderas, idols, tools, plant-fibre objects and human remains.
If you visit Vegueta, I would strongly consider adding the museum rather than limiting your historical sightseeing to colonial architecture. It reminds you that Gran Canaria’s story did not begin when Europeans founded Las Palmas.
Explore the history outside Las Palmas
Once you know what you are looking for, indigenous Gran Canaria appears across the island. Archaeological sites, cave settlements, granaries and museum collections provide opportunities to go much deeper than a single exhibition.
This also makes a rental car more interesting. A journey into the mountains is not only about viewpoints and villages; you are travelling through landscapes that supported Canarian communities long before modern roads existed.
And what about the word “guagua”?
Spend even a day in Las Palmas and you will encounter one wonderfully Canarian word: guagua. It means bus, which is why the city’s yellow buses are operated by Guaguas Municipales.
It is tempting to assume that such a distinctive local word must come from the indigenous Canarian languages. However, there is no good basis for presenting guagua as an ancient Canarian word.
The bus meaning is also strongly associated with Cuba and the Caribbean, and historical dictionaries document connections between Canarian and Cuban usage. The exact origin has generated several theories, but linking the word directly to the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of Gran Canaria would be misleading.
That Caribbean connection is itself interesting. For centuries the Canary Islands had strong migration and cultural links with Cuba and other parts of Latin America, and language travelled back and forth across the Atlantic along with people.
A deeper Gran Canaria
Learning about the ancient Canarians changes the way you see the island. The dramatic ravines, caves and mountain landscapes stop being merely scenery. They were places where people farmed, stored food, raised animals, buried their dead and created communities for generations.
Start at El Museo Canario in Vegueta, then keep the story in mind when travelling around Gran Canaria. The modern island is inseparable from tourism, Spanish culture and Atlantic connections, but beneath all of that lies a much older human history.