"I have always strived in life to live up to the circumstances, to the responsibilities that were given to me, it has always been my great concern if I reached and measured up to that responsibility. You gave me ...
"I have always strived in life to live up to the circumstances, to the responsibilities that were given to me, it has always been my great concern if I reached and measured up to that responsibility. You gave me the highest that can be given to a person, I have given myself to it with the best of me. Today I wish you all the best: for those of us who are leaving, in life, outside; for those who stay, to continue working for this land. No one is always right, I assure you that I know it, I have tried to be wrong as little as possible." (Adán Martín Menis, April 16, 2007)
These were the last words spoken by Adán Martín as president of the Government in the Parliament of the Canary Islands. It was his farewell to the Chamber after four years of intense activity as head of the Executive. Today he said goodbye forever, in a hospital in Barcelona, after fighting until the last second against cancer, accompanied by his wife, Pilar Parejo, his family, his friends and those of us who, from a distance, have followed his evolution with a mixture of hope and concern until his final goodbye.
We, the Canarians, are orphaned of a politician who, throughout his extensive career, stood out for his integrating vision of the Canary Islands, our place in the European Union and his concern for development and cooperation with the countries of our geographical environment.
Reviewing some of his speeches during his final stage as president of the Government of the Canary Islands, I came across some reflections by Adán Martín that clearly reflect a politician with full confidence in the development of the Canary Islands, but with his feet on the ground.
During his last debate on the state of the nationality, in January 2007, he punctuated his intervention with a reflection that, in these sad moments, I would like to rescue to underline the essence of the message that Adán Martín leaves us:
"I did not aspire nor do I aspire to an idyllic world. The conflict of interests, the confrontation of aspirations, the opposition of solutions have always been there. Advanced societies are not characterized by the absence of conflicts but by their capacity to channel them in some cases, to neutralize them in others and always end up overcoming them, and start again. Those who promise easy and immediate solutions for everything are not telling the truth or even - and it is even worse - they deceive themselves, believing themselves to be messiahs with miraculous abilities."
After these words, as the journalist Paco Pomares said in one of his last interviews, there was "a well-furnished head and the prudent sincerity of someone who - until today - had cheated death twice and still aspired to leave some mark on the path of the history of the islands."
In that interview, Adán said: "I would like to be remembered for having done everything possible so that the Canary Islands would not be late for the future". And so it will be. You worked hard to capture an idea. And we will all remember you forever, both those of us who live in the Canary Islands and all those people with whom you worked on one side and the other of the Atlantic.
"I would prefer to be remembered for having tried to do things thinking about them, for having believed that rigor is not at odds with creativity, for having wanted to plan the adoption of decisions and for having had an idea of the Canary Islands and having worked with enthusiasm for that idea. Buildings and infrastructures are important, but the engine of change and the future are ideas. I would like to be remembered for having done everything possible so that the Canary Islands would not be late for the future." (Adán Martín, June 10, 2009)
Those of us who stay here will try not to disappoint a person who, during his last years of life, not only showed us his enormous worth as a politician but as a person, for his integrity, for his capacity for struggle. Farewell, Adán.
*Claudina Morales Rodríguez, president of the Canarian Coalition