TENERIFE'S CARNIVAL:ANOTHER STEP FOR BLIND PEOPLE'S INTEGRATION-by Leticia Catasús

Tenerife’s Carnival: Another step for blind people's integration

Yesterday, I was watching TV when a news surprised me. A young blind lady is going to participate in the parade to be The Queen of Tenerife’s Carnival.

Tenerife’s Carnival is one of the most popular ones in the world (after Rio’s Carnival).

The Carnival of Tenerife is a very special carnival where people have to costume up following a topic. This year the topic is going to be the 80s. In the Carnival there are lots of parades and people walk all over the streets dressed up singing and dancing. One day of the Carnival week there is a big festival where the Queen of the Carnival is chosen. The contestants walk over the stage wearing wonderful and colorful dresses created by professional designers. These dresses are beautiful but they are so really heavy!! (500 kg).

This year, for the first time in the world, a blind young lady is going to take part in the contest to choose the Carnival’s Queen. She is Lucía Hernández, she is 31 years old and her dream is to participate in the contest with one of the magic and heavy dresses.

She declared:”You just win if you dare to try what you really want, even facing the risk of being wrong, not working or not being perfect”. Her disability wasn’t an impediment to participate in the contest; she walked alone directed by the voice of a dancer that led her around the stage. She had prepared for the parade thoroughly playing sports to strengthen her muscles and rehearsing a lot.

I think that it would be great news to hear that Lucia has won and has been crowned Queen of the Carnival. Carnival is a party that has no labels and people can dress up freely, as they may wish; no one will look strange, because everything is normal. Concerns about crossing barriers and a huge personal effort have made a blind lady enjoying the opportunity to be crowned as Queen. And if she is not crowned she will have won a lot anyway as she has succeeded in her personal goal and at the same time she has won the respect and admiration of a lot of people.