Arrecife hosts in 18 public spaces of the municipality some showcases occupied by suitcases and other types of packages inside. These objects are similar to those commonly used by many Canary Islanders who, for centuries, were forced to emigrate to the American continent in search of a future.
These showcases will remain in these spaces from last Saturday, November 19, until Sunday, December 10, framed in the exhibition The packages of emigration, organized on the occasion of the celebration of the 13th Lanzarote Film Festival by the non-profit association Tenique Cultural, and sponsored along with other entities by the Arrecife City Council, chaired by Mayor Yonathan de León Machín, through the Department of Culture led by Abigail González.
Both were present at the opening of the exhibition last Saturday in the square of the Insular Cultural Center El Almacén together with the president of the association and director of the Festival, Javier Fuentes Feo, and other municipal representatives including the first deputy mayor of Arrecife, Echedey Eugenio.
The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León, highlighted to the media the "good work of the Councilor for Culture, Abigail González, which makes it possible to revitalize the cultural program in the city." For the mayor, the 'Lanzarote Film Festival', with its theme this year, invites us to reflect on what emigration has been for Lanzarote and the Canary Islands in the first decades, in a hard way, of the last century."
"Seeing these suitcases in many public spaces of Lanzarote is taking a trip to the past of many families from Lanzarote who saw their relatives leave in search of a better future," added the mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León.
"Human stories"
For her part, the Councilor for Culture of the Arrecife City Council, Abigail González, said: "In Lanzarote and the Canary Islands we are very aware that behind the migratory movements are human stories loaded with heavy suitcases, and not only in the physical sense; may this exhibition serve as a tribute to the people who are the protagonists of these stories."
In this sense, Javier Fuentes Feo pointed out that "the purpose of The packages of emigration is to try to give emigration a certain dimension of personality; for this reason, the elements chosen have been bought in different markets and stores around the world for their proximity to those to whom allusion is made in each of the chosen stories."
