On the occasion of the royal visit, I would like to transcribe the affectionate and original anecdote that happened to Don Juan Carlos' grandfather, Don Alfonso XIII, when he disembarked at the Las Cebollas dock in Arrecife in April 1906, a story summarized by the famous Lanzarote writer Agustín de la Hoz in his splendid historical work "Lanzarote" (page 41), published in 1962:
"These are the days when the renovated transatlantic "Alfonso XII" arrives at the port, carrying none other than the King of Spain, accompanied by his sister the Infanta María Teresa and her husband Don Fernando de Bavaria. Everything was ready for the royal visit, since on May 20 of the previous year, Don Eduardo Cobián, a personality of national politics, an eminent speaker, and a person of absolute confidence of the Monarch, had arrived at the Port. There is no doubt that His Majesty chose Mr. Cobián, at the indication of the Government, which was beginning to pay special attention to the Canary Archipelago once the colonial empire was lost. With the king's special envoy, several journalists arrived aboard the "Numancia", an old warship with a glorious history, charged with reporting on the interest of the Canary Islands. The "Alfonso XII" moored at the Arrecife bar one morning in the first days of April 1906, and Arrecife knew how to respond to the efforts made by Don Eduardo Cobián, receiving the Monarch in style, since in the Las Cebollas dock he raised, in honor of Don Alfonso XIII, the most unusual tribune that a living king has ever seen. The parapet was like a large ventorrillo of the traditional "sangineles" with its columns and arcades of palms, lattices painted in many colors and backgrounds of very expensive purple velvet, in addition to Chippendale chairs and armchairs. His Majesty did not even notice such devices, because he flew out to admire the foolish and rare presence of the dromedaries that, in prone decubitus, showed their finery of great gala. Meanwhile, Don Adán Miranda, dressed as mayor, repeatedly uncovered his top hat, raising it with his chubby arm, to shout: "Long live the King! People of Arrecife and peasants of Lanzarote, long live Don Alfonso "thirteeeen"! Farmers, camel drivers, rich shipowners and poor sailors, all in chorus, answered him: "Long live, long live!". The child King, who as if absorbed, listened to the exotic clatter produced by the tongue of the camelids, immediately struck up a conversation with Pablo "El Fino" -[father of D. Ángel Díaz Rodríguez, sensitive and very educated neighbor of Arrecife, known as Angelito "El Fino", father in turn of magnificent professionals such as, among others, D. Emilio Díaz Martín, an unsurpassed artist of the forge and prodigious collector of ancient objects]- who invited the young Monarch to climb on the cross of one of the beasts. He got up so badly that our King almost hit the ground with his nose. At the sight of the accident, General Luque rushed towards him, but "siñó" Pablo interjected, saying: "Don't worry, my boy, the boy hasn't fallen, and he can tighten that up there." The Minister of War was left speechless, verifying that that humble camel driver was not disturbed when treating His Majesty as a `boy" and him as a "child", and perhaps for that reason the Minister understood well that in the cleanliness of heart the beatitudes always walk. What happened was no other event than that Don Alfonso's royal foot rolled on the straps of the parapet, loosening it and, therefore, the English saddle wavered, with danger to the royal person. Once the scare was over, the beloved King of Spain summoned Pablo to extend his hand and ask him a thousand things about camels and their customs.
Don Alfonso XIII, with his ministers of the Interior, War and Navy, occupied a luxurious carriage pulled by two horses, with a uniformed coachman, and moved to the parish church, where he was received by the priest Don Bernardo Miranda Naranjo, who intoned the solemn and ritual Te Deum in thanksgiving. In the afternoon, His Majesty and the ministers of his Government rode camels accommodated in English saddles, in order to inspect the works that had been carried out since 1901 in the Maretas del Estado. Late in the afternoon the visitors embarked through the fishing dock? In the midst of the popular clamor, Pablo "El Fino" was heard to say that if the "boy" had stayed even a week in Arrecife, he would surely have become an excellent rider on the cross of a camel".
To thank D. Juan Carlos and Dª Sofía, for their successful and affectionate visit to the Canary Islands. To highlight the phenomenal sensitivity shown by them, as always, for the prodigious territory of these unique islands, and the "affectionate advice" destined to all the Canarians, on the conservation of the territory and, more accurately, to the seven and eight cannibalistic speculators of the territory and their bought politicians and denigrated advisors, known to all, who by brutal petty egolatry tenaciously try to betray the foundation of "sustainable development" established by the illustrious Cesar Manrique.
By Ramón Pérez Hernández