There are projects that are exciting when they are being executed and that are certainly exciting when they are finished. That is what I felt when I saw the completion of the works of the Mirador de Haría that we have executed from the Public Works Area of the Cabildo de Lanzarote within the Municipal Cooperation Plan.
After decades of neglect, what we inherited as a work jinxed by the successive resignation of several awarding companies has ended in the best way and by the hand of another conejero, both in its new design and in its execution.
It is gratifying to see how the space designed by Cesar Manrique half a century ago is reborn with splendor, with its same essence but incorporating avant-garde elements that respect and value the unique natural environment in which it is located. It can certainly be a reference for future actions.
Now we can say that Lanzarote has one more attraction to offer its visitors. And in Haría, a municipality that fled from the model of tourist growth of large hotels and large apartment complexes to bet on a model of rural tourism compatible with the environment, with its agricultural landscape and its heritage and cultural wealth. A unique enclave that Manrique glimpsed when he faced the Malpaso viewpoint and that the residents of the municipality have set out to maintain and disseminate through this remodeled interpretation center.
When you want, you can, and millionaire investments are not always necessary. We are verifying this with this work or with the restoration projects of La Molina and the Molino de Teguise, as more recent examples.
As public officials we have the obligation to keep alive our cultural heritage and our heritage, in capital letters. It is the legacy we receive and it is up to us to promote and agree on projects that allow its recovery and conservation. Only in this way can our artistic, architectural and archaeological wealth survive over time, and only in this way can we also become more attractive than we already are at a tourist level. Another of the great pending subjects.
Lanzarote and La Graciosa would be more if we recovered their heritage, the water intakes, the terraces, the mills, the salt flats, the sites... Recovering these spaces would mean an act of respect for our identity and the place where we live. It should not be difficult to combine environmental protection with rehabilitation because rehabilitation is not attacking the environment or heritage, but quite the opposite; it is promoting and investing in culture because a people without culture is an impoverished people. It is true that for this it is necessary to have the appropriate planning tools, the necessary public funding and the necessary private interest. It is possible and there are good examples of this without even leaving the islands.
Let's make the Mirador de Haría or La Molina de Teguise only the beginning on the road to the recovery of our heritage.
Jacobo Medina, vice president and councilor for Public Works, Planning and Projects of the Cabildo de Lanzarote.
