A few days ago I read in a local media snippets of the end-of-year work carried out by a student from the University School of Tourism of Lanzarote, Ms. Carmen Ramón, entitled "the market the impulse for La Villa".
In the spirit of being rigorous with the history of the La Villa market and offering my help to the author of the aforementioned study to allow her to fill those gaps that she says she has about its origin, I allow myself to make the following points:
The market was indeed planned!, and it originated in what I observed, before being mayor of Teguise, on a trip I made to Amsterdam. Upon leaving the hotel where I was staying one Sunday morning, I found the streets adjacent to the canals that cross the city transformed into the most spectacular market I have ever seen in my life. The vision was etched in my mind and I put it into practice as soon as I had the opportunity as mayor.
All markets have an uneven development that occurs as the demand for stalls increases, and that of La Villa was no exception, with the disadvantage of being the first to be created on our island, today it has become the most important and popular in the Canary Islands with a volume of visits that exceeds one hundred and fifty thousand per year, and one of its charms I believe is precisely in that controlled "anarchy".
From the very first moment, the market was part of a complete program of economic, structural, social and cultural development of Teguise: restoration and recovery of our Historical Cultural Heritage, churches, palaces, hermitages, castle, construction of an institute, teaching schools, cultural and student scholarship plans, nursing and university school of tourism (where you studied), professional hospitality school, socio-cultural centers, medical dispensaries, sports and agricultural complexes? In short, the largest development plan that Teguise has had in its entire history.
The market was not the work of a town hall janitor and fifteen "gypsies". The market was the work of all the residents and merchants of La Villa (with the exception of small reservations from some of them), collaborators and exhibitors from the rest of Lanzarote and other Canary Islands, among whom were also those natives of gypsy origin, and the invaluable work carried out by Mr. Carlos Matías Cúrbelo Delgado, a town hall worker, organizer and in charge of the aforementioned market in its beginnings.
I must confess that I feel a deep satisfaction in seeing how, thirty-three years after its creation, the market continues to be an economic engine for La Villa and I am proud that you recognize it in your study.
By Dimas Martin Martin: Mayor of Teguise 1983-1991