With the eyes of a child, many were the afternoons that I saw you arrive at the Warehouse. They were times of solfeggio at the Circle of Friends of Music, of "here comes César", an echo¹ that always accompanied the appearances.
Already then I discovered that talking about Lanzarote was talking about you and vice versa, in a binomial that remains unchanged despite your departure more than a quarter of a century ago. A tragedy that remains, as it is so difficult to fill that void, to stir consciences as you did or to appeal to the shared understanding of what you loved most: Lanzarote.
We know well the vindictive, brave, nonconformist attitude, annoying to the power that you starred in for our luck, like your universal work and also your calls for agreement on the path that our island should and did take. How much good those demands to "abandon all divisionist ideas and appeal to common sense" or the maxim that "absolute truth does not exist" did! Pure modernity today, in moments given to confrontation, in which bridges seem so difficult to build, but so necessary always. And you knew it well.
On your centenary, let me appeal to those ideals of struggle and agreement, of criticism and proposal, of rage at injustice and love for this island. But also to your teamwork and those hands that joined together, to your ambition to change things, to that way of seeing Lanzarote and keeping it different from the rest of the corners of the planet.
A way of being away from "labels, cultural patterns and all homogeneity". That's how you were, and your actions and memory remind us every day that they are still alive, like Lanzarote, thanks to your legacy. This afternoon I will tell you at your house, in our Municipality, that Taro¹ of Tahiche converted into a luxury Foundation that continues to guide the way.
Happy centenary César Manrique Cabrera, Favorite Son of Lanzarote, is heard, in an eternal echo.
By Marcos Bergaz, candidate for the PSOE to the Mayor of Teguise
¹ Taro. The echo of Manrique. Documentary about the life of our brilliant artist that inspires the title of this article.
