Juego del Palo (Canarian Stick Fighting)
Traditional Canarian stick game in which two players show attacks and defences without hurting each other. Gran Canaria's large stick has been protected cultural property since 2025.
Quick Facts
SpainCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Juego del Palo (Canarian Stick Fighting)
Juego del palo is a traditional stick game from the Canary Islands in which two players perform attacks and defences without trying to injure each other. The official annex to the 2025 cultural property declaration distinguishes three modalities by stick length: short, medium (vara) and large. A variant of the large stick is the Juego del Garrote Tradicional de Gran Canaria, which the Canarian government declared intangible cultural property (Bien de Interés Cultural) by decree 133/2025. According to the same annex, the sources cannot establish with certainty a purely indigenous origin of the game, although indications point that way, chiefly its link with pastoralism. The chronicles of the conquest of the islands mention indigenous warriors with swords of fire-hardened wood. The game was passed down in families, and styles bear the names of families and masters. In Lanzarote, cultural property proceedings were opened in 2026 for the style of maestro Cristín Feo, and in July 2026 the Canarian government, according to the press, approved the Quintero style on El Hierro as cultural property.
History
The official annex to the 2025 decree on cultural property cites the chronicles of the conquest of Gran Canaria, according to which the indigenous leader Doramas led five hundred Canarian warriors armed with spears and broad swords of fire-hardened wood (palo tostado). Marín de Cubas described in 1694 wooden montantes of acebuche and sabina wood, wielded with both hands. The annex adds that the written sources do not allow a purely indigenous origin of the game to be determined with certainty, although the indications, chiefly the link with pastoralism, point in that direction.
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The Spanish Wikipedia places the first mention of the sticks of the indigenous people in the chronicle Crónica Bethencouriana (1402), concerning the Bimbache of the island of El Hierro, and the second in the work of the Italian engineer Leonardo Torriani from 1590. According to the English Wikipedia, Torriani described how opponents first stood on stone elevations, dodged thrown stones without moving their feet, then came down and fought with sticks. The English Wikipedia also mentions a report by the Azorean chronicler Gaspar Frutuoso (c. 1522–1591) about scorched sticks used against the Portuguese. The official text on the proceedings in Lanzarote states that in the countryside the game was played by camel drivers and above all by shepherds, who practised and challenged one another in breaks, and that several families had their own styles. According to it, a certain secrecy helped the game almost die out. According to the 2025 annex, the revival of the large stick in Gran Canaria began in the eighties of the 20th century and built on islands such as Tenerife, where stick play was already practised and the Déniz, Acosta and Morales families stood out. The key figure was the Telde shepherd Francisco Santana Suárez, known as maestro Paquito, who died in 1985 and learned from José Calderín, known as Pispi. According to the annex, all of today's players of the traditional large stick essentially descend from the Calderín family of Valsequillo and Telde.
How it differs
The official annex of 2025 distinguishes the traditional Juego del Garrote from Lucha del Garrote. According to it, the latter lost its playful character and became a kind of Canarian martial art with its own vocabulary and a competitive regime under a special sports federation. A press release of the Canarian government on the week of traditional sports, which identifies palo canario with lucha del garrote, says of it that it has no competitive element and no winners and losers. The Spanish Wikipedia classifies family styles by island and stick length. For the medium stick it names, among others, the styles Los Morales from San Andrés, Los Acosta, Los Verga of the Díaz family and Los Déniz, the Vicente Vidal style on La Palma, palo conejero on Lanzarote associated with master Cristín Feo and Quintero Zamora on the island of El Hierro. The English Wikipedia lists nine main styles. According to the English Wikipedia, juego del palo resembles the Portuguese jogo do pau and the Venezuelan juego del garrote. The Canarian Juego del Garrote with the large stick is not the same as the Venezuelan juego del garrote. The Spanish Wikipedia adds that for the short stick that survives in South America, a Canarian origin cannot be claimed without error, because its players recognise only a Venezuelan origin.
Technique
The official annex defines Juego del Garrote as stick fencing between two players, whose aim is not to injure but to show a wide repertoire of attacking and defensive techniques. Each player uses their mañas to mark a hit or disarm the opponent. Play at a distance (juego largo) is distinguished from play up close (juego corto). Players of the large stick in Gran Canaria face each other and hold the stick in the middle, hands about shoulder-width apart, thumbs pointing the same way. They use both ends and the part between the hands, and hands must not cross. The annex lists the basic movements vareo, cruzado and cambio de manos, the attacking techniques quites, revoliás, enganches, envolvíos and thrusts to the belly or the head, and the defences cambios de manos, escachones, barridos, bloqueos, vacíos and despejes. The Spanish Wikipedia distinguishes the large stick (garrote or lata), longer than the player, the medium stick (vara), usually from the ground to the player's heart, and the short stick. According to the English Wikipedia, it is played without protective gear and safety rests on controlled attacks. According to the newspaper Diario de Avisos, the Quintero style of El Hierro has a closed technical system, and its juegopalo technique tests the opponent with side blows from above to the hips.
Training
According to the official annex of 2025, the garrote stick was traditionally made of acebuche, almendrero or brezo wood, today mostly of eucalyptus. It is cut during the waning moon, dried for six months to a year, straightened over a fire with tallow (sebo), peeled and rubbed with fat. Its length should equal the player's height or slightly exceed it. The game opens with a challenge, locally called echar una pechada.
Today
Decree 133/2025 of 13 October 2025, published in the Canary Islands official gazette (BOC) on 17 October 2025, declared the Juego del Garrote Tradicional de la isla de Gran Canaria an intangible cultural property in the category of traditional games and sports of island scope. An estimate cited in the decree annex gives around fifty players of the traditional large stick, averaging 40 to 50 years of age. The game is kept up by the schools Familia Maestro Paquito, La Revoliá (since 1989) and La Barranquera-Telde (since 1992).
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On Lanzarote, the island administration (Cabildo) opened proceedings on cultural property for the Juego del Palo de Lanzarote in the style of master Cristín Feo, by a decision of 15 May 2026 published in the BOC on 17 June 2026. The application came from Club Deportivo Jugadores de Palo La Era. According to RTVC television, the Canarian government approved on 13 July 2026 a decree declaring the Quintero style on the island of El Hierro an intangible cultural property. Expert opinions of the universities in La Laguna and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria supported the proceedings. According to the daily Diario de Avisos, the Quintero style is now played only in a friendly, demonstrative way. In October 2025, the association Asociación Cultural MAHO, supported by the island administration, organised one-day demonstrations of juego del palo in all fourteen municipalities of the island of Fuerteventura.
Did you know
In the vocabulary of the large stick on Gran Canaria, bajarte el garrote means to mark a hit. A blow that leaves a mark is called a mérito, and a player who collects many méritos is not well liked. According to the official annex of 2025, Miguel Calderín led the teaching of the large stick at the university in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria until the nineties of the 20th century. The Spanish Wikipedia states that the game is also called banot or banod, words of pre-Hispanic origin, and that the Guanche banod meant a throwing spear of resin pine hardened by fire.
Frequently asked questions
Do players of juego del palo touch the opponent with the stick?
According to the official annex of 2025, the aim of the game is not to injure the opponent but to perform attacks and defences and mark the hit. A blow that leaves a mark is called a mérito, and a player with many méritos is not looked upon favourably. According to the English Wikipedia, it is played without protective gear and safety rests on controlled attacks.
How long is the stick in juego del palo?
The official annex distinguishes a short, a medium and a large stick. The large garrote of Gran Canaria should equal the player's height or slightly exceed it. According to the Spanish Wikipedia, the medium stick (vara) most often reaches from the ground to the player's heart.
Is juego del palo protected as cultural property?
Decree 133/2025 declared the large stick of Gran Canaria intangible cultural property. In Lanzarote, proceedings were opened in 2026 for the style of maestro Cristín Feo, and in July 2026 the Canarian government, according to RTVC television, approved cultural property status for the Quintero style on the island of El Hierro.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.