Dear César,
The truth is that today I have a slightly strange feeling. We are in the plenary hall of the Arrecife City Council and I don't know whether to feel happy or ashamed. Because it is certainly a bit embarrassing that this City Council has needed so many years to make you the favorite son of the city where you were born.
You, the most important artist of Lanzarote, born here, next to the Charco de San Ginés in a typical middle-class family.
Why have they taken so long? When this council has declared more or less relevant figures (always male, it must be said) as favorite sons. The policeman Heraclio Niz, the writer Agustín de la Hoz or the journalist Manuel Fernández have had this recognition for years. However, not you. And, between you and me, I don't think it was due to oversight.
Because it also took the Cabildo a long time to name you the favorite son of Lanzarote, which was finally approved after some failed attempts that are best not remembered on a day like today, right?
Luckily, today your figure no longer generates any controversy. Everyone praises you and even idolizes you. But I think that what some people should remember is only César the artist. The one who traveled the world, the one who studied in Madrid and worked in New York and thus try to make the people here gradually forget about César, the defender of his land.
Because it seems to me that the César of consensus that they want to sell us now has little to do with the César that you really were. They want to sell us exclusively César the artist because the other one, César the citizen, is annoying. That one is annoying.
But I think it is impossible to understand one without the other, especially if we take into account that your intervention on Lanzarote was not merely artistic. It also had a strong political component.
Because politics is taking care of and valuing heritage. Natural heritage and also human heritage.
César, you knew how to understand it like no one else and before anyone else. You recognized the beauty that was in those small and modest white houses and said that it had to be protected, that it had to be taken care of. You knew and understood the importance of valuing our city and that is why you left us your works as a legacy. Works such as the Islas Canarias park, the Ramírez Cerdá park; the gardens of the Gran Hotel or those of the Insular Hospital, the Almacén or the San José castle; The murals of the House of Culture or the tourist parador... That's just to name some of your best-known works.
Unfortunately, I have to tell you that your Arrecife of today has very little or nothing to do with that legacy. Arrecife was your city, but it does not represent you at all. Perhaps that is why they have taken so long to make this appointment. Because they were ashamed of what they had done with it.
I am very sorry to have to inform you that some of your most emblematic works, for example the Islas Canarias park that I mentioned before and that people remember so much, was destroyed by some of the parties sitting here, in collusion with insensitive businessmen. What was a beautiful park with leafy trees is today barely the roof of a parking lot, which is completely destroyed and neglected above and only serves as a business for a few people below. That is a real insult to your memory.
I wonder what you would say in this plenary session, if this appointment as favorite son had been made to you in life today, in 2019.
I wonder how many of those sitting here would be able to look you in the eye after their political parties were complicit in what was done here.
I wonder what you would say if you walked through the streets of Arrecife today. What would you think of the dirt, the cables hanging everywhere, the abandoned lots, the destroyed playgrounds, the half-painted facades or our oldest houses completely in ruins. I know perfectly well what you would say. You would ask them what they have done. What have they done with your city these last decades to leave it like this.
In Arrecife there is very little, or nothing, of that pride that you wanted to instill in us. That pride in our history and our nature that drives us to take care of and value what we are and the place where we live.
For too many years this city has been governed by people who did not care about Arrecife. People who often did not even live here. And I am not just talking about those who govern today. This city has been looted. It has been stolen by unscrupulous people for decades. Day after day, year after year. For many, Arrecife was a business and not a city.
But I am going to tell you something that may put a touch of color to this very black panorama. Personally, I am clear that although they respect your figure as an artist more or less, they certainly fear your figure as an activist. However, no matter how hard they try, your neighbors will never stop seeing César with a megaphone in hand, fighting in Berrugo or in Los Pocillos against urban and tourist speculation.
We will never forget your energy and your strength when talking about sustainability and the environment or always seeking harmony between man and what surrounds us.
And although you were often pessimistic about the future of our Island if we did not put a stop to wild mass tourism, I want to remember that you never resigned yourself to the fact that things could not be changed. Your message was one of struggle, not resignation.
I only hope that from today this appointment makes us reflect a little. That naming you favorite son of Arrecife serves to make us feel a little ashamed, but also proud of wanting to be better than we are.
Your city cannot be in this state. We have to get our act together. Stop sectarian struggles and sterile conflicts and start working for this city so that it is the worthy capital that saw the birth of one of the most important people there has been in Lanzarote.
Dear Cesar, if you allow me, I would like to end this letter by remembering a phrase of yours when you were showing, in a documentary, images of the urban disaster that Lanzarote was suffering.
You said like this: "I am an optimist, a true optimist and despite all the shots, images, that we have seen, which are true disasters of dirt, of destruction of the environment, there is always hope, that is why I am optimistic and I do not want them to think that this has no solution at all, there is always hope. Even if we destroy absolutely everything, there is always hope for men with fantasies, men of good will and with enthusiasm to be able to save what we have left".
Thank you César, for your struggle and for your values, for showing us the harmony between art and nature and making this island a unique place. I sincerely hope that in the future there will finally be this hope that you spoke of and that we know how to live up to your legacy.
See you soon.
By Leticia Padilla, candidate for Mayor of Arrecife for Podemos
