Las últimas dehesas de TenerifeIcod de los Vinos y Buenavista

Abstract

This work analyzes how the communal pastures of the first towns of Te- nerife were forrned and why the Cabildo adopted the decision, in the middle of the 16th century, to grant part of these lands to the usurpers who had occupied them in exchange for a small rent in money. Forgotten by the council administration for more than a century, the pastures of lcod and Buenavista were mostly usurped by the large landowners in the region and when the Cabildo tried to regain control of these properties, in the mid- 18th century, it was unable to cope with the great families who had appropriated most ofthis land. The end of these pastures as com- munal property (rather of the scarce remains that still remained) occurred when the liberal authorities decreed the distribution of wastelands in 1822.