Public authorities are still mostly represented by that same group of people who have been making a profession out of representing us for centuries.
Well-dressed elites that we must admire precisely because they are not like us, because they have never been unemployed, queuing in the street, earning a salary of less than a thousand euros, fighting a full day, of course with their extra hours unpaid. They are representation professionals who have come "sometimes from very far away" to tell us who we are, and what we think.
That they have come to take care of the problems of each and every one of us because we have enough with our own. And they are right, their dazzling reality strolls through the Canarian institutions, among other things because ours is full of an exhausting day-to-day life like an obstacle race, scratching moments as a precious asset that pales before the elementary need to make a living.
And since we have beautiful beaches, we see every day the people who come from the north, places where the well-being of their people drives their economy, while our professional representatives insist that we charge a little less, that we have to compete for those tourists who one day made democracy a path towards social rights and dignity.
And since we have open beaches, we see every day people who come from the south, dragged by the destruction of their societies in the midst of the most inhuman interest and racist contempt. And they tell us that we have to look the other way, that we have enough with our own, that we should listen to those who represent us so well dressed.
Our everyday people need something more. They don't want amateur people who can represent anything other than the supposed palatial success of institutions that have abandoned their people. Even less that, as we are seeing, someone brilliant suddenly appears who they have not bought, someone professional but sensitive who does not let himself be represented, even less a woman capable of unleashing a whirlwind of vital force that represents us and still insists on being what she is: Canarian, popular, activist and woman. I know that woman. Our representatives also know her. She is capable of persevering in the face of impotence, reasoning in the face of insult and insisting in the face of silence. Without forgetting either the place from where she thinks, works and speaks, nor that there are no excuses for rudeness and surrender. A Canarian woman we know. Who comes from very far in her struggle. From a very long tradition of resistance, insistence and need to continue living, a woman of laws, sympathy and care who has put herself at the service of making visible the invisible realities of our society ─those that no one represents─ for the simple fact that she continues to live them in her day to day. I know that woman. I know that after a long time of anonymous work she has decided to take a step forward, with decision, with firmness, as insecurities are faced in our land, moving forward, as so many of us have had to do in our lives.
I know that woman. Her name is Emma Colao Corujo. I know her doubts, I know her strengths, I know her decisions thought about what she has lived and learned, the good and the bad, readjusting the step to wait for the rest, a woman of progress, care and creative empathy.
I know that woman. For years she has represented that day to day that barely leaves us the sky to escape from our worries. Those Canarian people who are tired of being asked for more and who cannot live with less. That look that does not find a voice in the institutions, that hope that does not fit in the official speeches, those accounts that do not reach the end of the month, that smile that awaits us complicit despite everything when we get home.
I know that woman. One day in April not so far away we had breakfast with strength and enthusiasm to make these islands a place of dignity, rights and opportunities, where the institutions represent the real problems of those people who give their best every morning without anyone wanting to see it.
I know that woman. I know that if she grows we all grow. That if she pushes we all push.
I know that woman. In reality we all know her. Today her name is Emma Colao. And tomorrow she will be the one who represents us.
