The José Saramago Hall at the César Manrique Foundation, in La Plazuela de Arrecife, hung the "sold out" sign this Thursday to hear the lecture Lanzarote through NO-DO: propaganda and memory, which was given by Mario Ferrer and is the first of the four that make up this year's program for the Memory of Thursdays 2026 cycle, now in its third consecutive edition.
One hundred people packed the capacity of a hall where they could see and analyze the content and evolution of a NO-DO (Newsreels and Film Documentaries) that, from the beginnings of Francoism until well into the Spanish democratic Transition, reflected the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa on numerous occasions.
The historian and journalist Mario Ferrer Peñate dissected the form and substance of a newsreel that was shown in cinemas across Spain before film screenings and which was one of the main vehicles of communication and propaganda for the Franco dictatorship. Thus, the conference detailed how they moved from a desolate and sad image of the Montañas del Fuego in the 1940s to an idyllic image in which they tried to sell the singularities of a landscape unique in the world in the 1960s and 1970s.
Similarly, the talk examined how NO-DO highlighted and emphasized only the regime's good points and positive aspects, as well as the investments made, while omitting the problems and hardships the population of both islands was going through.
The talk concluded with a debate in which the audience asked the speaker questions and many of the aspects discussed during the hour-long conference were expanded upon and delved into.
The counselor of the Lanzarote Island Council's Data Center, Ascensión Toledo, was in charge of presenting the cycle and this first conference, and in her speech, she highlighted that "Thursday's Memory is already a consolidated event and demonstrates that photographic and audiovisual archives are not just repositories of the past, but living tools that allow us to reflect on who we are, how the narratives about our island have been constructed, and what memories we want to preserve for the future."
Likewise, Toledo thanked the César Manrique Foundation for its collaboration in the cycle and the entire team of the Lanzarote Data and Memory Center for their efforts in bringing the project to fruition.
Memory of Thursdays 2026
The "Memory of Thursdays" lecture series is organized by the Lanzarote Data and Digital Memory Center, departments of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, and has the collaboration of the César Manrique Foundation. Its main objective is to reflect on the role of photographic and audiovisual archives in today's society, as well as to make the public aware of the collections, content, and work developed by Lanzarote Digital Memory.
The rest of the program in its 2026 edition is as follows:
Thursday, January 22: Lanzarote's rock memory
Roundtable moderated by José María de Paiz, with Óscar Pérez, Mame Spínola Neftalí Acosta and Elio Pérez Morales
Thursday, January 29: A visual tour of love in Lanzarote
Lana Corujo and David Machado
Thursday, February 5: Island of Cinema. The Cinematic Memory of Lanzarote
Saúl Rojas
The Thursday Memory lecture series is organized by the Cabildo de Lanzarote through the Data Center, with the collaboration of the César Manrique Foundation. It will take place on Thursdays, January 15, 22, and 29, and February 5, 2026. Always at 7:00 PM and in the José Saramago Hall of the César Manrique Foundation, in Arrecife.
Regarding admission, it is free and open to the public, until capacity is reached. The maximum capacity of the room is 100 people. It is advisable to arrive well in advance to secure a seat.
If you are unable to attend, the five conferences will be streamed on the websites: www.memoriadelanzarote.com and www.memoriadelosjueves.com
For more information, you can visit the event website.
