After May 30th, I want to reflect on what "Canariedad" means to me, a complex term where debates about its meaning go on forever and it seems that the different parties do not agree. From my point of view, feeling part of the society of the Canary Islands, or what is the same, being Canarian, implies a series of considerations.
First of all, we have to understand that feeling from a place is not something exclusive but inclusive: all the people who inhabit, live and make their lives in these eight islands are Canarian.
Secondly, "Canariedad" is linked to contemporaneity. It is a concept in perpetual construction where updating, revision and addition generate a heterogeneous and living identity.
Third, being Canarian is being a democrat since democracy is what has forged us as a cohesive people, being able to generate institutions that manage and understand our social and territorial reality.
And fourth, being Canarian is looking at the sea. We have always been a people who have struggled for their survival. In past stages, our ancestors had to emigrate to new ports and that is why the Canarian people understand the migratory reality, being this solidary and showing great humanity by welcoming people who want the most basic thing: to have a dignified life.
All societies with cultures that settle in a territory, assume ideal precepts that conform in a more or less cohesive way through their historical episodes an identity construction. If we look at the table of population of law of Lanzarote according to nationality and municipality of residence of 2020, made by the data center of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, we can perceive how in our island inhabit citizens whose origin is of more than 30 different countries. Thus, the population from the African continent is 5735, the population from the American continent is 8051 people, from Asia 2929, from the European Union 11930 and from the United Kingdom 6415. The total population of the island to 2020 is 155,812. Therefore, the citizens of Lanzarote originating from other countries, cultures and geographical contexts different from those of the Canary Islands is 22.50%. Almost a quarter of the island's population comes from other environments and cultural realities, can we affirm without a doubt that the island culture is multicultural? To that 22.50% of the population of law not originating from Spain, we must add all those compatriots who have beliefs, customs and different ways of seeing the world, that generates a whole link of exchanges that enriches the very meaning of "Canariedad". Apart from the population reality, we can also observe a map, where are the Canary Islands located? No, we are not located in a little box next to the South coast of Andalusia, Lanzarote is 127 km from Tarfaya (Morocco), 522 km from Funchal-Madeira (Portugal), 1082 km from Cadiz-Andalusia (Spain), 1635 km from Dakar (Senegal), 2750 km from London (England), 5500 km from New York (United States of America) and 5900 km from Caracas (Venezuela). We are located in an intercontinental crossroads. Therefore, it is completely normal and logical that our island is a world full of small worlds, as it is a port and meeting place for thousands of people.
Our history, and not only the recent one, is multicultural. If we look at the different eras of our archipelago and listen to anthropologists, sociologists, historians, archaeologists and experts in genetics, the Canary Islands have always been a port to take refuge in. From the Canarian natives from North Africa, passing through the ancient Mediterranean cultures as well as the successive European and later American waves, until our days where globalization has made people from all over the planet make these islands their home.
Thus, I believe that the Canarian people are a society that grows, evolves, develops empathy, solidarity, where progress, justice, democracy, equality and solidarity can make our future not uncertain, but on the contrary, promising and fair.
I leave you this drawing that I have made to commemorate the day of the Canary Islands, where the anniversary of the first session of the Parliament of the Canary Islands based in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, held on May 30, 1983, is celebrated. That was the beginning of our self-government and entry into a stage of democratic strengthening. There is much to build and much to advance. Nobody has said that the road is easy but it is a challenge, the people of the Canary Islands are fighters, we fight together. We have demonstrated this by saying no to oil exploration through the largest mobilization and demonstration that has been seen in the history of the islands. Also saying no to the destruction of Tindaya and its indigenous legacy, we have been able to repel the toxic, anti-democratic, racist and exclusionary ideas of the forces of hatred that are spreading through Europe among many other achievements, giving us a hand to move forward.

They are the echoes of the Eras that surround the Monument to the Fertility of the land of Lanzarote, which shine in Tindaya next to the ancestral Podomorphs of the Maxie Culture in Fuerteventura, which sing in the Opera of Tenerife launching their voices to the Trade Winds, which impregnate the stones of the construction and indigenous science expressed in the Cenobio de Valerón of Gran Canaria, which caress the Sabina that has seen thousands of lives pass in El Hierro, which rise by the Roque de Agando that sustains the world in an eternal harmony and that fly towards the Roque de los Muchachos to scrutinize the sky in search of the meaning of the word "Canariedad". They are eight stars in the firmament, eight stars in the form of land that illuminate the path towards fraternity, equality, solidarity, welcome and progress of this land where we all fit.