Loss can be understood as the absence of what was previously possessed or as the death of someone or something that is loved or has been relevant in our lives. When walking through Arrecife there is a recurring image, that of abandoned historic homes and buildings, facades from which rubble and boarded-up windows or doors are falling. On the narrow sidewalks of the capital, the population and tourists make their way through a city that is uninhabited in sections. The backdrop is the loss of the city and its identity.
Arrecife has more than 70,200 inhabitants and an average of 2,894 residents per square kilometer, a population density greater than that of all the municipalities of Lanzarote combined and nine times the average for the Canary Islands. It also has one of the most deteriorated architectural heritages in the archipelago, despite being the capital of the island with the most unique landscape in the Canary Islands.
"What it means for a city to lose its historic buildings depends on how heritage is internalized and whether there is an atmosphere of appreciation and respect for memory," says Arrecife-born archaeologist and Doctor of Prehistory Nona Perera, who has built her career defending the protection of Canarian heritage.
One of the essential elements for defining a city is its historic buildings, pieces that recall the political, cultural, commercial, or religious life of each place and that make walking through the streets of La Laguna or Santa Cruz de La Palma different from walking through those of Arrecife or Puerto del Rosario (Puerto Cabras). Although they may share a common history, it is not always the same.
Arrecife could not be understood without its relationship with the sea, without its salt flats or its ruined canneries. For instance, the Charco de San Ginés is a reflection of the island capital's seafaring past, with its small boats moored in its waters all year round. It is also a showcase of everything that doesn't work in the city, with recurring problems of wastewater discharge and abandoned buildings.
For Perera, who has participated in numerous studies on Arrecife's heritage, the concepts that summarize the current state of these properties are two: "Disastrous" and "dangerous."
The loss of a historic building, a gap in identity
There are many ways to lose a historic building, explains architect and urban planner María Tomé during an interview with La Voz, who states that these infrastructures are part of a place's identity. "When you are aware of the importance for civic, scientific, social, and economic health -because heritage generates money- and the relevance of all this for living, you experience the loss with great pain," adds archaeologist Nona Perera.
On the one hand, the most visible way is when the property is abandoned (as in hundreds of examples in the capital) or, even, collapses. In 2011, there were 2,742 vacant homes in Arrecife out of more than 23,200 registered. Furthermore, some historic properties were demolished before they were declared protected assets or despite being protected.
For example, in 2006, during the mayorship of the convicted Isabel Déniz, the demolition of a historic property belonging to the ensemble of tall houses, homes built between the 19th and 20th centuries on Calle Real associated with wealthy people, was authorized. In this disappeared building, located at number 33 of the main commercial street of the capital, doctor José Molina Orosa had his practice and Guillermo Topham lived, although it can never be visited again. Even today, Calle Real shows the scars of its loss.
On the other hand, there is also another way to lose a historic property: by ending its traditional use. "If its daily life, the historical use that was given to that building, is abandoned, it is lost," Tomé continues. This situation occurs when franchises replace local businesses, re-signifying spaces and "the idea of the neighborhood," but also when homes end up becoming tourist apartments. In the capital of Lanzarote, there are currently nearly 1,200 vacation homes, according to the General Tourism Registry. Faced with this reality, the city then ceases to be a place to live and becomes a set or a reproduction of other spaces, losing its essence.
An abandonment that began in the 80s and continued with economic pressure
Nona Perera places the moment when the wealthiest population of Arrecife abandoned their homes in the capital to settle in other areas, such as El Cable, in the 1980s of the 20th century. "That dispossession was voluntary and by people with resources; later, other people or companies acquired the homes," she indicates.
To the abandonment of properties by the population, the business pressure of recent decades was added to avoid heritage protection and thus be able to demolish some buildings and trade with the land in central areas of the capital.
Some historical properties in Arrecife have disappeared due to the lack of an updated catalog of heritage assets, despite attempts in recent decades to move it forward. Until now, the island's capital has been guided by a 1991 document, which only recognizes the protection of nineteen properties in the entire municipality.
The Heritage Area of Arrecife announced last December that the new catalog contemplates protecting 220 properties and heritage elements. While this catalog has not yet been approved, in January a Court gave the green light to a real estate developer to demolish another historic building, located at numbers 12 and 14 Luis Morote street, which was contemplated for protection as a heritage asset, due to the lack of response from the council to the demolition request.
A city with boarded-up buildings, a particularly unsafe place for women
The houses in Arrecife have past lives and its soil was once sand and cobblestones, but only the passage of time remains of that. Identity and security are two factors that are inevitably lost when buildings are abandoned. However, in the face of this scenario, not everything is pessimism because knowing the heritage that is being lost is a step towards protecting it.
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