A group of people from Lanzarote, including Pablo Betancort, decided to launch a kind of delegation of the Order on the Island two years ago.
- In this time, we have not heard anything about you, and we do not know if you are working silently.
- Currently there is inactivity, but in October we will begin to work to avoid falling asleep because the Canarian people need it. The purpose of the Order of the Canarian Puppy was to rescue and defend our Canarian identity, in a historical moment in which a greater effort is required in the face of the brutal aggression due to the invasion of foreigners that we have. On the other hand, we Canarians have always been very hospitable, but there may come a time when it hurts us if an effort is not made to strengthen, to live and to communicate our roots, our identity and our culture. We run the risk of being absorbed by these other cultures, which are welcome as long as they can enrich us, but never at the cost of the annulment of ours. That is the main function and the basic pillars of the Order.
- You were responsible for bringing the foundation of the Canarian Puppy to Lanzarote two years ago.
- That's right, after twelve years of operation in Las Palmas, with a very important social presence. A few days ago, the Order of the Canarian Puppy of Honor was presented to the Güimes City Council for preserving and cultivating our Canarian culture. That establishment and that roots in Las Palmas is what we want for the rest of the islands. I have always been very excited to implement it in Lanzarote because we are suffering a very strong aggression from other cultures. Multiculturalism is welcome, but never at the expense of our own.
- Why haven't there been any initiatives in these two years, haven't you been heard in any forum?
- Due to a series of circumstances, due to the multiple occupations of some and others... But now we have the purpose of moving it forward and in a week or two we will restart the activity. It is a strong commitment acquired by all the partners.
- Have new partners joined, have more people committed to our culture and our traditions arrived to keep alive what we have inherited or are the same members still affiliated from that start?
- It is still alive, not only are the people from the beginning, but there are many other people who want to participate because they are sensitive to these problems and do not want the identity of their people to be lost. The important thing is that now we start with strength and enthusiasm. The Order of the Canarian Puppy is a non-partisan organization, it is not alien to politics, but it is non-partisan and non-denominational, so all those people who feel interest in what is ours, in what is theirs, have here a platform to be heard and where to express themselves.
- You just said that you are not committed to any political party, and I hope that you do not fall into something as common among politicians as unfulfilled promises.
- Internally it has not been sold, it has not been made public, the work done. We have carried out documentation and information gathering tasks. But I publicly commit that this work will go ahead.
- Now we are living with many cultures, but the serious thing is that those of us who are from here are promoting these cultures while we are leaving ours buried.
- There is a humiliation of our culture and it is up to the institutions to do something about it. Recently the festival of Los Dolores was celebrated and that flavor still remains, we all enjoy seeing our people, because it shows in their faces and in the way they have fun and participate in the celebration. And I want to congratulate you for that fervor and that feeling with which you transmit that citizen participation, let's not lose those traditional festivals of ours. I also wanted to highlight that at the time we will propose to grant the Order of the Canarian Puppy of Honor to the Arrecife City Council for the work it does in maintaining what is ours.
- If an Order has been created and statutes have been drawn up with enthusiasm, it is to work on it and present it. Not only in the Los Dolores festivities, but also in San Ginés, in the Carnival, with the folklore groups, to excite them. These groups are maintained by four romantics who continue to believe in Lanzarote and this is in the process of extinction, even if we don't believe it. Because there are city councils that support more the cultures that come to us from outside, than our own, and that is the mistake. That is why I am making a call from here to the Order of the Canarian Puppy to visit certain institutions and promote our culture.
- What we have to do is precisely that, give meaning to that way of expressing themselves that the peoples have, and ours has to feel proud of its way of expressing itself, and never be ashamed or ridiculed for being Canarian. That is a burden that we have been dragging for foreign reasons, the undervaluing of ourselves.
There are experiences and anecdotes of announcers who have gone to other media outside of here and have to make an effort not to pronounce the words with our accent. We have to feel proud of being what we are, of being Canarian, above all else.
- Tell us about the future projects you have planned.
- The fundamental objective is to be present in all social strata, in the institutions, to force them to support, help, encourage and motivate the organizations and groups that already exist, so that they can move forward. Sometimes investments are made in foreign matters, but each town has its identity, and when I go to Seville, Barcelona or Bilbao, I will like to see their culture, just as they will want to see ours. Sometimes they treat us as xenophobes or racists when we defend what is ours to the extreme, and it is not at all like that. What we want is for other cultures to integrate and adapt to ours, not the other way around.
