Photos: Carlos A. Schwartz – Efraín Pintos

Luta de serpentes (Fighting Snakes)

The piece under the title Luta de serpentes (Fighting Snakes) refers to the fast and accurate movement with which this marvellous animal attacks. Mythologically in the West, Christian and Islamic beliefs identify it with the demon Satan. Both the Bible and the Koran recount its condemnation for tempting Eve and Adam. In the Far East, the snake is considered a sacred animal, divine and protective against negative energies, which also represents strength, energy, and wisdom. But we must also add that it is an animal of great aesthetic attraction due to the sinuousness of its movements when it moves where its scales would be said to be made of stoneware, shining in the incandescent sun.

Retrieved from COA of Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro – Culture – Street Sculptures (I and II edition): https://www.coactfe.org/esculturas-en-calle-primera-edicion/jose-guimaraes-luta-serpentes-fighting-snakes