San Bartolomé opens three historic houses and puts the people who can explain them inside: Rufina Santana starts on Thursday

There are two ways to talk about heritage. One is a lecture in any old room. The other is to put people inside the buildings being discussed and let the buildings do half the teaching. San Bartolomé council has chosen the second.

Where it happens

Three venues, all three historic:

• Casa Ajei
• the Museo Tanit
• La Molina de Lanzarote, the old site belonging to don José María Gil

The talks are free.

The first two dates

• Thursday 8 — the painter Rufina Santana opens the series, speaking on architecture and art. Everyone who attends is given a print.
• Thursday 15 — on to island genealogy: chroniclers Francisco Hernández and José Hernández discuss the surnames of the island's early inhabitants.

The series then moves to the Museo Tanit for the later dates in the month.

Why go

The second evening, on surnames, is the kind of event that fills itself on an island: in a place where families have been crossing for centuries, finding out where your own name comes from is not an academic exercise. It is the most direct way to work out when your people arrived, and from where.