I clearly remember the visit to such an emblematic work on the East coast of our precious island, where I was surprised by the careful traditional architecture and the remarkable hand of our most distinguished artist. A building that, full of history, has always been a symbol of what the Canary Islands and Lanzarote have been for many in the whole of the State.
What I don't remember about La Mareta is the presence of high walls and concrete barriers that isolate it from the surroundings, but rather an open building with free spaces that blend in with its environment and continue with the local aesthetic and traditional architecture.
But something must have changed or something is wrong with my memory. La Mareta seems to have built endless concrete walls in height that isolate its tenants, keep them away from noise and problems, separate them from people and separate them from their environment. Walls that make its current inhabitant ignore the problems, concerns or worries of the place he has chosen to enjoy and of which he ignores, by his own decision, its needs or demands.
La Mareta must have a wall to the sea that covers up the tragedy of thousands of human beings who, day in and day out, cross the ocean on an adventure, risking their lives and seeking a better future. A wall that prevents seeing the massive arrival of people irregularly to a territory limited in extension and resources that is at the limit of its possibilities. A wall that deceives the eye and makes narrow and unhealthy barracks look like comfortable lodgings where it is reasonable to cram people into containers as if they were cargo.
La Mareta must have a wall to the vacation, recreational and leisure area that surrounds it, which prevents seeing the dependence on tourism that this land has and the vicissitudes it is going through after the pandemic. A wall that extinguishes the light of the thousands of people who see their job future in danger and that prevents hearing the desperate cry of the self-employed and SMEs who see how their Government and the Canarian Government turn their backs on their demands and needs.
La Mareta must have a wall to the surrounding spaces in which various audiovisual productions have been filmed and developed, which prevents seeing that the only option for the Canarian audiovisual sector to subsist and maintain its competitiveness against the reduction of costs in general in the continental territory resides
in the strict respect of the Canarian jurisdiction, the Economic and Fiscal Regime that guarantees the differentiated treatment of the Canarians so that we can compete in equal conditions.
La Mareta must have a wall to the battered roads of our island that prevents seeing the obligations of the Government dictated by a final judgment and that makes us forget that while works and pharaonic roads are still being financed in the peninsular territory, sometimes even unnecessary, here we are still waiting for its inhabitant to comply with the right that assists us and that the courts have recognized us after the leaders of one and another political color in Madrid systematically denied it.
La Mareta must have a wall and its corresponding booths that, instead of functioning as transmission belts of what is happening around it, camouflage a different reality with which they also try to make us commune on the outside of the wall.
La Mareta must be well lit, must have good air conditioning and must be a safe and comfortable place, but its wall isolates its inhabitants from what happens in real life. They must not care about the electricity bill, there are no washing machines put on in the early morning, nor are the curtains closed so that the heat does not enter and not having to turn on the air conditioning. There the bill does not matter, the increase does not matter, in La Mareta we all pay.
La Mareta and its walls are hosting these days a president who ignores, disregards and despises the problems of his people. Walls that only allow the entry of those who do not give him too many problems on his vacations in the comfortable summer residence of those islands that he only remembers when he comes to spend a few days of entertainment.
A president who looks at the Canary Islands and Lanzarote as the place to meet with his cronies from the islands to talk about nothing and solve less, without even hesitating to close a publicly owned restaurant, even canceling reservations to share coffee and play a few notes on that "little guitar" with which they paid homage to him on his last visit.
Mr. Sánchez, TEAR DOWN THE WALLS OF LA MARETA and do it before your vacation is over, tear them down and look around you. Work on what is your obligation and put an end to the grievances towards this land.
Echedey Eugenio, Secretary of Organization of Coalición Canaria in Lanzarote