In a solemn and formidably decorated ceremony with the performance of the Lanzarote tenor, Pancho Corujo, the Yaiza City Council presented this Friday, posthumously, the Gold Medal to Antonio Armas Curbelo (1899 - 1985). Antonio Armas, born and bred in Yaiza, was the creator of Naviera Armas 80 years ago and a great promoter of the development of a company that since then set the ambitious and exciting goal of uniting the fragmented Canary territory by sea.
The current president of the shipping company, Antonio Armas Fernández, received the parchment and medal, which constitute the highest municipal distinction, from the mayor of Yaiza in front of a large representation of the company and members of the southern Corporation. “It is very exciting to receive this tribute to my father's career and I thank the Yaiza Corporation for remembering a son of this land, which was a small town and is now a great city,” said Armas Fernández, moved and grateful, at the conclusion of the event held in the Plaza de la Alameda, a few meters from where the house where his father was born was located.
Previously, the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, highlighted in his speech the vision of the future and the entrepreneurial talent of the honoree, “a humble man capable of creating an empire at sea. Don Antonio liked to have men from the south of Lanzarote among his workers, not only for their reputation as good sailors, but also for their connection with the Yaiza that saw him born,” a reality that was also emphasized by the son of the distinguished, noting that “he was a man dedicated to his work and to the people who worked with him. From a very young age he was a visionary of the future thinking of uniting the Islands, which was always his greatest dream.”
Óscar Noda therefore confirmed “Yaiza's will to take the step and do justice, to honor the memory of someone persevering and exemplary, first with the honorary labeling of Naviera Armas of the small square located just behind the Plaza de la Alameda, and now granting, posthumously, the greatest honor of our municipality.”
Both tributes have been offered by Yaiza within the commemoration of obtaining the title of Historic City, thus, the Councilor for Festivities and Protocol, Javier Camacho, underlined that “we have organized in two months an extensive program that has contributed to celebrating the title that has been granted to the municipality, an anniversary that will be celebrated by future generations and that has had as its starting point a series of events aimed at honoring those who, in the opinion of the municipal Corporation, deserved to be distinguished among their own, as we also did with the Yaiza Civil Protection Group.”
With respect to Don Antonio Armas Curbelo, it should be remembered that after laying the foundations of the company in 1941, already in the sixties, he became the first shipowner in the Canary Islands, both in number of ships and in tonnage capacity. The generational change came from the year 68 with the incorporation of his son Antonio Armas Fernández, who gave a new direction to the company, being the pioneer in the introduction of roll-on ships in inter-island traffic, one of them, baptized Volcán de Yaiza.
The phrase of the patriarch of the Armas family at the presentation of the Volcán de Yaiza is very popular, exclaiming: “Will we ever fill it?”, and in light of the company's positioning, they have indeed achieved it. Antonio Armas Fernández, however, embodies all the success in the figure of his father: “everything has been thanks to that person who started the company, the merit lies in who started it and not in any of us, who have tried is to follow and grow”, a fact that honors him wrapped in the emotion of seeing and receiving the recognition of his father by the municipality of Yaiza Historic City.