The Municipal Theater of Tías hosted on Tuesday night the presentation of the book 'The Volcano of Tourism' by retired professor Juan Cruz, which addresses the economic, labor and social transformation of Lanzarote during the second half of the 20th century.
This new book by Cruz, also author of 'Postigo de Tías' (2014), has had Professor José Juan Romero as documentation coordinator for this 285-page volume. 'The Volcano of Tourism', which has been released this week as part of the events for the 50th anniversary of the birth of Puerto del Carmen as the first tourist area of Lanzarote, includes the direct testimonies of almost 200 professionals linked to the economic, tourist, cultural and social life of Lanzarote since 1962, when the construction of the Hotel Los Fariones, the first tourist establishment on the island, was launched.
In addition to the author and the content coordinator, the presentation was attended by the mayor of Tías, Pancho Hernández, the deputy mayor, Amado Jesús Vizcaíno, and the professor of the University School of Lanzarote, and son of Tías, Pedro Calero.
Almost 200 interviews and more than 300 photographs
The work 'The Volcano of Tourism. Origins of the transformation of Lanzarote' was presented to society before a hall of seats filled with more than 400 people, many of them protagonists of the 285 pages of the book. This work contains almost 200 interviews and more than 300 photographs and makes a detailed follow-up of the contribution and contribution of many professionals who saw the landscapes of the island as a claim and attraction to turn it into what it is now. It includes references from 1890 onwards, making it easy to differentiate the times when adventurous travelers came before moving on to the mass tourism of these days.
During his speech, Juan Cruz focused on the life of a conejero emigrant, son of Tías, Nemesio Rodríguez Borges, who made a fortune in the Americas in the 18th century and returned to Lanzarote setting up a hotel in the current area of La Plazuela, in the capital of Lanzarote. This establishment, one of the pioneers in accommodating visitors, was known as the Hotel Inglés. Cruz detailed that this emigrant was a landowner of the time and managed to amass a fortune through his famous stews and accommodation, which he used to buy many properties in Lanzarote.
"Today is a special day for several reasons. A book, very well documented, which has been brewing for several years to compile the history of tourism in Tías and Lanzarote, sees the light," said the deputy mayor and councilor for Tourism of Tías, Amado Jesús Vizcaíno, who began the round of speeches, recalling that at the beginning of January of this 2017 the institutional act of the beginning of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Puerto del Carmen as the first tourist area of Lanzarote was held, "which was born next to the fishing village of La Tiñosa, which saw me born". "In that act I said, as Councilor for Tourism of the City of Tías, that this 2017 would be special because we were going to commemorate half a century of economic and social transformation of Lanzarote, thanks to tourism. Thanks to that first construction and opening of the first tourist hotel in Lanzarote, the Hotel Los Fariones, which opened its doors in October 1966, and marked a before and after of the island," said the mayor. The Councilor for Tourism congratulated the author for "the rigorous and extensive documentation that is provided in the volume, which will allow us to know more about the past of tourism and the process of expansion in these five decades".
Testimonials from the first travelers
"This book starts with the first travelers and the vision that they offered us of that time with their testimonies, Alejandro Humboldt and Olivia Stone, among the great adventurers who passed through our coasts and entered our volcanic island. Before the first tourist hotel, Juan Cruz studied the world that was lived in Lanzarote before 1960, the year in which I was born by chance, and what life was like on an island without water, where the seguía was feared and the rain longed for, because there were, if it was a rainy year, great harvests," said the mayor of Tías, Pancho Hernández.
"This book that sees the light today talks about the arrival of the first Correíllos, how maritime navigation made it possible for travelers to arrive, and the opening of the Parador de Turismo in 1950. Still, in the middle of the last century XX without the presence of drinking water in our taps. The success of the Díaz Rijo brothers made possible, in 1963, the construction of the first seawater desalination plant on the island and in the world for consumption on the mainland. With the arrival of drinking water, investors and the first complexes appeared," added the mayor.
Pancho Hernández also made a parallel about the development of La Tiñosa and Puerto del Carmen, highlighted in several chapters of this volume presented this year. "Very close to here, less than four kilometers from the center of Tías, the construction of the first tourist hotel in Lanzarote was launched in 1962. As Juan Cruz reflects in this book, the Hotel Los Fariones took four years to build to open in 1966. Now, things change, a hotel is made in a year, as we are seeing in the modern and luxurious hotels that are being built in Puerto del Carmen and that will witness a future book that studies the expansion of tourism and its protagonists during this XXI century," he said.
The mayor concluded by encouraging Juan Cruz to get to work and write his third book. At the end of the event, which was presented by the director of the school of Tías, David García, attendees were able to purchase copies of 'The Volcano of Tourism' in the hall of the theater, of which 2000 copies have been published in its first edition.
