INHABITANTS: 1984

This sector was the second settlement in Arucas and the site of the sugar-making devices. It is highly valued today that both El Cerrillo and La Goleta were the birthplaces of a large number of stone workers, with a large number of quarries in the districts. Indeed, many street names refer to aspects of this profession or are a tribute to individual workers. It also has an important ethnographical heritage, largely associated to the use of water, with irrigation channels, water distribution boxes, public laundry facilities, the Pinto reservoirs – built by the Arucas and Firgas Water Owners’ Association in the 19th and 20th centuries, all out of Arucas stone. In this respect, flour mills are also representative of the two districts. In the 19th century, these gofio (toasted and roasted cereal flour) mills, which were driven by the Association’s water, experienced an important boom, with a total of nine in Arucas and Firgas.

Likewise, it is well worth mentioning the artistic heritage of the two districts. The singular Chapel of the Christ of Health, in the Plaza del Calvario, is unique in the municipality. According to chronicler Juan Zamora Sánchez, its history started, at the beginning of the 17th century, with the return of a local family that had emigrated to America. They brought with them a beautiful image of Christ on the Cross, to which the locals soon became devoted, because it was said to have worked several miracles. This lead to the idea of building a chapel where they could worship what they were already calling Our Lord of Health. This mysterious Baroque image, in cedar wood, is known for its hard factions and its thin but strong body. Another outstanding building is the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, built by local stone workers, who laid the first stone in 1946.