« Es signo de Islas”: Agustín Espinosa and the Canarian romancero

Abstract

Agustín Espinosa is one of the most important authors of the Canary Islands. A multifaceted writer, his work as a compiler of island “romances” is little known. In this work we will see what was the status of the Canarian “romances” research at the beginning of the 20th century and we will value the pioneering contribution of the author of Crimen to this field. To do this, we will review what other researchers such as Maximiano Trapero or Diego Catalán have written on the subject and propose a new reading of Espinosa’s research that starts from its context, that is, a reading that derives from a time when literature of the Canary Islands was concerned with establishing its existence by uniting tradition, insularity and the avant-garde.