More than a hundred schoolchildren from Lanzarote paid tribute this Tuesday to the life and work of Rafael Arozarena, in an educational event organized by the Ministry of Education and Universities of the Government of the Canary Islands within its 'enSeñas' project, of Canarian content, to start the activities that will be developed throughout the Archipelago to commemorate the Canary Islands Literature Day.
During the event, the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, highlighted the importance of "our children learning who our cultural references were and are and what our roots and the values of those who have forever marked the culture and history of the Canary Islands are." Similarly, the Canarian president praised the work carried out by the students, especially from CEIP Mararía, to learn about one of the greatest writers of Canarian literature, whose work has also served as inspiration for cinema and music. "It is exciting" -said the president- "to be in the middle of Plaza de Femés remembering how 60 years ago Rafael Arozarena imagined Mararía in it".
In collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports, promoter of the Canary Islands Literature Day throughout the Archipelago, the educational team of 'enSeñas' proposed a project that would begin in the place of reference for Arozarena's best-known work.
Femés, Arozarena's town
Assigned to Femés as a Telefónica worker to install telephone antennas, Arozarena resided in La Atalaya in the forties of the last century, a time he always remembered in his anecdotes. The writer recounted, with some irony, the hardships he went through in that place; but at the same time how the landscape and the locals captivated him to the point of serving as inspiration for his work Mararía, a song to Lanzarote, its lands and its people.
In collaboration with the Island Council and the Yaiza City Council, it was possible to involve 150 students from the six schools in Yaiza and the local institute in the event held this Tuesday, together with the students of the Social Integration and Early Childhood Education cycles of the IES Teguise, who acted as part of the organization of the event, within the practices of their training specialty. The event began with different workshops in the same Plaza de Femés in which, separated by levels of Infant, Primary and Secondary, the students were able to learn about the life and work of the author with different degrees of depth.
Later, a reading recital of various fragments of Arozarena's work was held, in which the vision of the twenty-three students of the Center for Early Childhood and Primary Education (CEIP) Mararía, from Femés, who prepared a presentation about the author, had a special role.
With this act, the commemoration of the Canary Islands Literature Day begins, which will continue on February 21, with an institutional act to be held at the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.