Guanches (also: Guanchis or Guanchetos) were the Berber aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands. It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago around 1000 BC or perhaps earlier. While it is generally considered that the Guanches no longer exist as a distinct ethnicity, traces of their culture can still be found intermixed within Canarian customs and traditions, such as Silbo, the whistled language of La Gomera Island. The Guanches were the only native people known to have lived in the Macaronesian region before the arrival of Europeans, as there is no evidence that the Azores, Cape Verde, Madeira and the Savage Islands were inhabited before that time. After the Spanish conquest of the Canaries, they were ethnically and culturally absorbed by Spanish settlers, although elements of their culture survive to this day.
The native term guanchinet literally translated means "person of Tenerife" (from Guan = person and Chinet = Tenerife). It was modified, according to Juan Núñez de la Peña, by the Castilians into "Guanchos". Though etymologically being an ancient, Tenerife-specific, term, the word Guanche is now mostly used to refer to the pre-Hispanic aboriginal inhabitants of the entire archipelago.
Can'tcha say you believe in me?
Can'tcha see what you mean to me?
Everyday I think of you
you're on my mind
Some things in the past
are better left behind
Every night I dream of you
the images as clear as day
(chorus)
Can'tcha say you believe in me?
Can'tcha say you believe in me?
You know that where
there's a will there's a way
Can'tcha say you believe in me?
Can't you see what it means to me?
Don't leave me alone tonight
'cause I still love you
We've had our time apart
and I knew right from the start
I could never change
the way I feel about you baby
We can sit here all night long
and separate the right from the wrong
But love won't wait
(chorus)
Oooh, still in love with you
You know I need you baby
to stand by me
Can't you see I need you, baby?
Oooh, I'm still in love with you
(chorus)