The mayor of Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort, opened the institutional act of awarding the Gold Medal posthumously to César Manrique, welcoming the artist's relatives, representatives of the César Manrique Foundation and the attending authorities, as well as the media and residents who witnessed the recognition that the Teguise Corporation has granted to the Lanzarote artist for his universal work, "and especially, for the affection and appreciation" towards the municipality.
"Today's recognition is an acknowledgment of an attitude and a philosophy of life: that of valuing our island, integrating his work into the landscape itself," said Betancort. "Referring to the essayist and professor Estrella de Diego, I would like to rescue today the idea that with the celebration of the centenary of his birth, something different about César Manrique is being vindicated, which is why I congratulate the Foundation and all the public and private administrations that have been involved in the event," he added.
"Indeed, Lanzarote is a portrait of César Manrique, but Teguise is also a portrait of the artist and, as our official chronicler, Francisco Hernández, has related, César's genius is indisputable in artistically reconstructing nature, the landscape and architecture into a work of art."Today we are recognizing and also showing his real and palpable passage through many points of the municipality of Teguise that some are unaware of, projects that have his imprint and that are not those that are officially part of his work, but rather stand as concepts of urban landscape, a magnificent example of how he knew how to give an artistic touch to the architectural prints and the arid nature of the island and be unique in his approaches, and yet, extraordinarily respectful of the environment," continued the mayor.
Oswaldo Betancort highlighted how "his genuine seal has been marked in many iconic spaces of Teguise." "From this Historic Site of the Royal Villa de Teguise, which celebrated 600 years since its foundation in 2018, to the Pueblo Marinero of Costa Teguise or in the flagship of tourism development, as was and still is the Meliá Salinas hotel," he said.
Maintain and enhance the work of César
The mayor of Teguise recalled in his speech that the Villa de Teguise has just received the award as one of the most beautiful villages in Spain. "All honor that we also have to thank his intervention and the vigilance that César carried out at all times in our beloved Villa, like that day when, having news that a wall was going to be demolished next to the convent of Santo Domingo, he came quickly in his car and asked the palista to stop the work until he spoke with the Mayor," he related.
"It is up to all of us to maintain and enhance the work of César in our municipality, and to comply with one of the requests of the César Manrique Foundation for the street where it is located to be named El Taro, a name that César wanted to perpetuate by giving the same to his residence. In honor of César and everything he represented for Teguise, for Lanzarote, for the Canary Islands and for the world, from here we will do everything in our power to access his will," he concluded.
A "fair, unique and endearing" tribute
For his part, the director of the César Manrique Foundation, Fernando Gómez Aguilera, described this new act of recognition to Manrique as "fair, unique and endearing", and stressed the fact that "César lived a second life since he settled in Teguise, in the Taro de Tahiche, a site of formidable beauty, as he called it, where he developed his fullest life from a professional point of view and a new life personally, turning the Taro into a living focus of art and a cultural embassy from where he projected the image of Lanzarote."
Likewise, Gómez Aguilera highlighted the admiration that Manrique had from very early on for the Villa de Teguise "for its ethnographic and patrimonial value, and which he considered a monument in its entirety, which today is a patrimonial reference for the Canary Islands and for the rest of Spain," and reiterated his gratitude to the mayor of Teguise and the entire Corporation, "because honoring honors those who are remembered, but ennobles those who remember, and sustains the flame of absent life," he declaimed.
The event ended with a toast by all the attendees in the Patio de Los Leones of the Spínola Palace, among whom were island and local authorities, as well as residents of the town of Teguise and relatives of César Manrique. Representing the honoree, his brother Carlos Manrique collected the Gold Medal and thanked on behalf of his family "the emotional gesture of the City Council with his brother, who always felt a special predilection for Teguise."