For twenty years, a handful of people have held in their hands the thread that links Lanzarote with Texas. Dr. Alfonso Chiscano, his son Steve Chiscano (Honorary Consul of Spain in San Antonio), Larry Yaskiel from the Lancelot newspaper, and Paco Hernández from the Historical Archive of Teguise have done true magic. While the governments of the Canary Islands and Lanzarote ignored them, they kept the flame of our history alive.
Today that seed is flourishing. And it does so with the strength of those who dare to think big. For the first time, Lanzarote is not traveling to Texas just to remember, but to build the future.
Texas, a giant that surpasses Spain
Texas is not just another state. With more than 30 million inhabitants and a GDP of 2.6 trillion dollars, its economy is already larger than that of Spain and would rank it as the eighth world power if it were a country. It is energy, technology, agriculture, universities, tourism, culture... and a market that offers real scale to those with vision.
For Lanzarote, this means much more than selling products: it is the opportunity to design a future program. Working with the support of CIDA (Association of Descendants of the Canary Islands in San Antonio) and the institutions, Lanzarote can and should design a bridge so that the descendants of those sixteen families from Lanzarote who founded San Antonio in 1731 can travel to know and verify their roots. High-value tourism, which not only consumes but is also excited to rediscover its identity, generating an economic impact far superior to the low-cost tourism that fills our beaches today.
Those 56 Canarians, men, women, and children, who left Lanzarote did so in extreme conditions, and with their effort, they built the germ of one of the great cities in the United States. Three hundred years later, their descendants remind us that history is a first-rate economic and cultural asset.
HEB: from Janubio to El Faro, to the shelves of Texas
The great coup of the mission has been the approach to HEB, the most influential supermarket chain in the southern United States, with more than 400 stores and an annual turnover of more than 38,000 million dollars.
Let's think about concrete examples: Sal de Janubio could stop being a local artisan product to become a gourmet icon in Texas homes. Quesería El Faro, with its family tradition, would have access to millions of consumers who value the authentic and a distinct flavor. Volcanic wine and sweet potato would find a market willing to pay more competitive prices, helping them create more employment on the island to increase their production.
This is not theory: it means direct employment in our wineries, cheese factories, and salt mines; indirect employment in transport, logistics, and promotion; and induced employment in hospitality and services thanks to the economic activity that is generated. The door that HEB opens is not commercial, it is transformative.
El Álamo: shared symbol
The most emotional act was at the Alamo, a UNESCO heritage site and the heart of Texan identity. The battle that marked the independence of Texas was fought there in 1836, a place full of meaning for millions of Americans. Presenting Lanzarote there was not a folkloric gesture: it was projecting our brand to the world from the most powerful symbol of Texas. It was saying: Lanzarote is not just a beach, it is living history, shared culture, and products capable of competing with the best. And the history in the Alamo was written with Spanish, Canarian, and Lanzarote blood. Let's share it.
Shared identity and future
In one of the mission dinners, Erika Prosper, wife of the former mayor of San Antonio, described Lanzarote as a land where "women pulled the cart, kept people alive while others went to build the new world, and with their hands, their camels, and the land, they transformed lava into prosperity and unique products that allowed them to fight for a future. That story of perseverance, of struggle, of invisible heroes, is common between Lanzarote and San Antonio and we must tell it." We got goosebumps. Because there, in the voice of a Texan, we heard how our ancestors were remembered with emotion and gratitude.
While we in Lanzarote have forgotten them, they will never do so. They have kept the promise to honor where they came from. And today, they not only love us: they can help us.
Agreements and horizon
During the mission, progress was made on an agreement with the new mayor of San Antonio and with Judge Peter Sakai to prepare the great celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city by Canarian families in 2031. That horizon is not only historical: it opens the door to working with airlines for direct routes between Texas and the Canary Islands, opens doors to exchanges of business missions, and opens the door to positioning Lanzarote as a logistics base for American companies wanting to enter both the EU and Africa, hiring local teams on the island. It is not about attracting more tourists from the tourists who fight when placing towels on the hammocks, but Texan visitors with high spending, eager for culture, gastronomy, and nature, and wanting to know everything linked to the land of their ancestors.
From shame to a lever for the future
Three centuries ago we gave Texas the most valuable thing we had: our people. Today we have the opportunity to use Texas as a lever to accelerate the future we want: economic diversification, cultural pride, and sustainable and quality tourism.
The shame would be to ignore this opportunity again. The pride will be to take the hand that the eighth economy in the world offers us, our younger sister who passed us a long time ago, and rise from the ground towards a shared future.
