Rotary Club Lanzarote has awarded the business group Cabrera Medina the award 'Conejero del Año'. The family of Mamerto Cabrera Medina, creator of this group, received on the night of this Saturday, June 4, the highest award given annually by the members of the Rotary Club Lanzarote. A sculpture by the artist Paco Curbelo, a replica of the monument to the entrepreneur that the Rotarians of Lanzarote donated to the island of Lanzarote and which is permanently exhibited in the roundabout near the Cabildo of Lanzarote and in front of the Reducto beach, on Fred Olsen Avenue, in the capital Arrecife.
The Rent a Car company Autos Cabrera Medina was born in 1967 with the modest fleet of 5 vehicles to meet the needs of tourism, which at that time began its development on the island of Lanzarote. The beginnings of Cabrera Medina were very hard, since the resources were scarce and it was necessary to devise ways to have the vehicles ready and be able to offer a quality service. Years later, as a result of the work done and the development that the company has acquired, the Cabrera Medina Group has about 10,000 vehicles and generates direct employment for 1,200 families in all the Canary Islands, where it is present through the multiple companies that make up this important business group born in Lanzarote and currently one of the most solid in the Canary Archipelago. The institutional act was presented by the journalist and member of Rotary Club Lanzarote, Severino A. Betancort, and was attended by the mayor of Arrecife, Eva de Anta, and the accidental president of the Cabildo conejero, its vice president, José Juan Cruz Saavedra. Representatives of all the City Councils of Lanzarote were also present, including the mayor of Haría, and parliamentarian Marci Acuña, as well as the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Lanzarote, José Torres.
On behalf of the Cabrera Medina Business Group, all its owners and direct relatives of Mamerto Cabrera Medina attended. His widow, Nieves Cabrera, his daughters and sons, Nieves, Pedro, Mamerto and Ángeles Cabrera Cabrera, grandchildren of the founder and the brothers of Mamerto Cabrera who currently live. During the event, a 9-minute documentary was screened that tells the life of Mamerto Cabrera, a native of Mácher (Tías), a young entrepreneur who initially dedicated himself to carpentry and who in 1967 would found Autos Cabrera Medina with 5 cars bought on time, according to the widow of the entrepreneur honored by the Rotarians, Nieves Cabrera. She commented on a great anecdote about her husband's ability: "He cleaned the cars, fixed them and put them at the service of the customers. It was such that at the beginning he assembled a car with parts of a Fiat model and another Seat. In the company that car was called Fiseat ".
The Cabrera Medina Group has a fleet of 10,000 rental vehicles, a staff of 1,260 employees and more than 80 offices. It is present in the seven islands of the Archipelago, where they are leaders in the rental business. One of the companies is Canary Islands Car (Cicar), a company that Cabrera Medina acquired in 1989 to make his desire to establish itself throughout the Canary Islands a reality, and which obtained the Gold Medal of the Canary Islands in 2013. In addition, it owns a graphic arts company in Lanzarote, and several vehicle concessionary firms. All carry the acronym Came (Cabrera Medina) in their names: Autos Cabrera Medina, Orvenca, Graficame and Camemovil, among others. "For us it is a true pride and a great satisfaction to receive this award when we are on the verge of celebrating 50 years of existence as a company." With these emotional words, Pedro Cabrera Cabrera, together with his brothers, Mamerto, Nieves, Ángeles and his mother, Nieves Cabrera, thanked yesterday for the awarding of the Conejero del Año Award that Rotary Club Lanzarote grants every year, since 1992. An event that took place last night at the Castillo de San José before about one hundred and fifty people.
During the turn of interventions, the accidental president of the Cabildo and former mayor of Tías, José Juan Cruz Saavedra, who knows the history of the Cabrera Medina Group and saw it grow as a neighbor of Mácher and mayor of Tías, one of the municipalities that experienced the greatest expansion of the same. He said that: "It is a reference at the island, Canarian, national and international level, they have grown from the effort and family unity that they have extended to each of the staff that makes up Cabrera Medina. I am pleased with this successful award to this great company from Lanzarote".
For her part, the mayor of Arrecife, Eva de Anta, stressed that: "The implementation of the company is admirable, which also offers its great support to sports clubs, culture and many other activities, distinguishing itself by returning part of its dividends to the society of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands. We see the logos of these companies in many sports and social activities of the Island, and that is to be thanked for its great social commitment ".
The president of the Rotarians of Lanzarote, Ventura Acuña González, stressed that "this distinction to the Cabrera Medina Group, recognizes the contribution, dedication and great value that the vision of Don Mamerto Cabrera Medina in 1967, almost 50 years ago, has meant for the economic and social development of Lanzarote, to achieve in life, now reinforced by his wife Nieves and his descendants, one of the most important business groups in Lanzarote and the Canary Islands that support culture and sports, in addition to the business aspect and its social commitment ".
Among those awarded by Rotary Club Lanzarote with the Conejero del Año in previous editions, stand out, among others, César Manrique; the Hermanos Díaz Rijo, architects of the first seawater desalination plant; the artist Jesús Soto; the ceramist Juan Brito; the hotel manager José Figuereo Vivancos; the businessmen Juan Rosa Perdomo and José Calero - both promoters of the great urban and tourist developments on the Island; the psychiatrist Julio Santiago Obseo; and the Societies La Democracia and El Torrelavega, as well as Kenneth Gasque, the architect of the Ironman Lanzarote, the artist Santiago Alemán and the Palliative Care Unit of the General Hospital of Lanzarote Doctor Molina Orosa.
Coinciding with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Rotary Club Lanzarote, this year's award has been given to one of the most outstanding business groups in the Island and the Canary Islands that have contributed to the development and progress of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands in the last decades of the last century XX and the first of this XXI. The Cabrera Medina group received a scale replica of the work of the artist Paco Curbelo that since last February has been exhibited in the central area of Avenida Fred Olsen, in front of Playa del Reducto, in the capital of Lanzarote, which recognizes the work of the entrepreneurs of Lanzarote. From now on the name of the Cabrera Medina group will be engraved on the plaque that accompanies all the distinguished people and institutions.
At the award ceremony, and subsequent gala dinner, at the International Museum of Contemporary Art MIAC Castillo de San José, authorities and representatives of the cultural, sports, economic and social sectors of Lanzarote attended, as well as those awarded by Rotary in previous editions. Ildefonso Aguilar, creator of the image and pennant of Rotary Club Lanzarote in 1991, was present at the event together with the artist Rufina Santana, wife of Paco Curbelo. The widow Nieves Cabrera received from the sculptor and the president of the Cabildo, a miniature sculpture of the work Emprendedor that the Rotarians donated to the Island in the year in which the 25th anniversary of the presence and creation of the Rotary Club of Lanzarote is celebrated, a philanthropic and cultural entity whose members include prominent people from the society of Lanzarote.
