"Translating our history to the new Canarians to combat ghettoization and not to separate them or allow them to be separated from coexistence", creating "channels through which our young people can pass to show their knowledge in the broadest sense" and "all their talent", or forming "an island territory in which simply being happy" is "a permanent task", were some of the messages transmitted by the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés, during his speech at the Institutional Act of Canary Islands Day, held on the night of Friday, May 27 at the Auditorium of Jameos del Agua.
Even without forgetting "the thousands of Canarians and Lanzarote residents who are still going through difficulties and precariousness", or failing to recognize that there is still "much to do and many issues to commit to", San Ginés stressed that "many, inside and outside the institutions - otherwise it would be impossible - have worked hard to resolve many dark spaces that are in everyone's mind". Spaces that he did not want to list "because you know the sad inheritance we found, and today we do not celebrate sadness" but "the joy of being Canarian" and "the pride of being a Biosphere Reserve of reference in sustainable tourism, recycling, energy model change and environmental awareness".
In his speech, the president of the Cabildo encouraged "developing the capacity to be infected with joy, to flee from the permanent political poison that contributes nothing to this society, because these islands possess the spaces, the climate, the conditions and the character that should naturally promote that joy and optimism", although for this - he pointed out - "we must combat the tension that has been artificially installed, due to interests alien to us, to our way of being".
He added that "the islands must be respected, of course, but life and enjoyment on the islands too; because, sometimes, I have the feeling that the excess and tangle of rules prevent not only the materialization of all the little that we have agreed can be done in the Canary Islands and Lanzarote, but have progressively kidnapped us the possibility of enjoying our land as was customary and tradition not so long ago"; and he expressed that "this island, Lanzarote, and this Canarian nation, is the subject that we can never fail in our knowledge program".
San Ginés also highlighted "the beauty and the plastic of these Atlantic islands", offering as "clear proof" the fact that they are a destination "chosen every year by millions of people who practice tourism"; and after reproducing some verses by Agustín Millares Sall, he encouraged to celebrate "the fact of being Canarian" and to be moved "when contemplating the tricolor waving its stars". "Let's be happy and think with the serenity and humility of those who assume and admit that we will do this," he added, concluding by saying: "Believe me if I tell you that I don't think we need much more than that, because the great, the unapproachable, the unconquerable, must be ourselves, the Canarians by birth or adoption".
Fernando Clavijo
For his part, Fernando Clavijo, alluded in his speech to Lanzarote as a "mirror in which to contemplate the values that define all the people of the Canary Islands: commitment, overcoming, solidarity" and as "a reference if we talk about environmental commitment and commitment to sustainability". In this context, he pointed out that it is no coincidence "that the greatest Canarian symbol of environmental commitment was born on this Island", in reference to César Manrique, from whose wake - he added - "the Canarians recovered a very important part of our identity, the one that requires us to work so that our children inherit a better planet".
The Institutional Act of Canary Islands Day, organized by the Cabildo of Lanzarote, through the Culture area directed by the councilor Óscar Pérez, and the Government of the Canary Islands, with the collaboration of the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers and the Arrecife City Council, was conducted by David García and began with the interpretation of the Canary Islands anthem by Siro Corujo. The show 'Amanecer de un Juego', a musical proposal by the Lanzarote artist Toñín Corujo that staged through music, dance and theater different historical moments of the Canarian musical reality, put an end to the event.
