Neighbors from Haría, Teguise, and La Graciosa have sent a letter to La Voz to demand public recognition for those who helped in various shipwrecks.
"The recent succession of public recognitions for the NGO Emerlan for its work related to the care of migrants once again brings to the table a question that, until now, seems no one wants to answer:
Where is the recognition for the neighbors of Lanzarote and La Graciosa who, in different shipwrecks, threw themselves into the sea with their own means to save lives?
From the municipalities of Haría and Teguise, and especially from the coastal areas that have experienced firsthand the arrival of boats and shipwrecks, we want to remember a reality that cannot be relegated to the background: before many of the institutional, health, or emergency resources arrived, it was anonymous citizens who were there.
It was neighbors who left their homes, who went to the coasts, who used their own means, who went into the water, and who, without expecting a medal, a subsidy, an institutional photograph, or public recognition, risked their own integrity to try to save other people.
And they did it because they are from Lanzarote. Because they are neighbors. Because they know the sea. Because they know their coast. And because, faced with a tragedy, they did not look the other way.
We are talking about several shipwrecks that occurred on our coasts, in which the citizen response was immediate and in which numerous neighbors participated directly in the relief and rescue efforts. Some of them literally risked their lives to try to pull people out of the water who had just shipwrecked.
That is why it is difficult to understand that public institutions are capable of organizing recognition events, issuing press releases, taking photographs, and highlighting the work of certain entities, while forgetting precisely those who, spontaneously and selflessly, were there when they were most needed.
We do not question volunteering. We question that the volunteers of always are erased.
We want to make something very clear: no one intends to question the work of volunteers or the need for specialized organizations.
What we question is that, when institutions talk about solidarity, volunteering, and response to immigration, it seems that history begins and ends with certain organizations.
No.
Solidarity in Lanzarote did not begin with a grant, nor with an agreement, nor with an institutional act.
Solidarity was already in our towns, in our fishermen, in our neighbors, in families and in the people who for years have gone to the coasts in case of an emergency without asking who would recognize them afterwards.
And if the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands want to recognize the work of those who work in these emergencies, let them make a complete, transparent and fair recognition.
Let them also explain who those people were who participated in each of those rescues.
Let them remember them.
Let them call them.
Let them thank them.
Let their names and their history not disappear behind an institutional photograph.
Why some people yes and others no?
We also consider it legitimate for citizens to demand transparency about the criteria used by administrations to distinguish, subsidize, contract or publicly recognize certain entities.
If an organization receives public funding, agreements, subsidies or compensation for certain actions, citizens have the right to know what public money it receives, for what activities, under what conditions and with what results.
And if, in addition, an entity is publicly presented as a benchmark for volunteering, it is reasonable to ask where volunteering begins and where the activities developed through public funding or contracting end.
This is not about attacking anyone or discrediting those who voluntarily help.
It is about something much simpler:
Transparency.
Because public money belongs to everyone.
And public recognition should also be for all those who truly deserve it.
A recognition for those who never asked for it
From Lanzarote and La Graciosa we want to claim those men and women who do not appear in the press releases.
To those who were on the coast.
To those who heard that a shipwreck had occurred and ran out.
To those who put their boats, their vehicles, their means and even their own lives at the service of other people.
To those who were in the water.
To those who pulled out bodies.
To those who tried to resuscitate.
To those who accompanied survivors.
To those who returned to their homes after experiencing scenes they will probably never forget.
Who remembers them?
Where is the Cabildo's tribute?
Where is the recognition from the Government of the Canary Islands?
Where are their names?
Where are their stories?
Why don't they also appear in those institutional photographs?
We don't want medals. We want memory, respect, and justice.
The neighbors of Haría and Teguise are not claiming prominence.
They are claiming memory and justice.
Because recognizing an NGO or any organization should not imply erasing or minimizing the work of citizens who acted before, during, and after a tragedy.
Institutions have the obligation to recognize the work of everyone: emergency services, security forces, healthcare professionals, organizations, volunteers, and, of course, private citizens.
Everyone.
Without exceptions.
Without political interests.
Without selective photographs.
Without using human tragedies to build institutional narratives.
From Lanzarote and La Graciosa, we demand that the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands make public a recognition of all those neighbors who participated in the different shipwrecks that occurred on our coasts and who, in many cases, acted when official resources had not yet arrived.
Because before acronyms, before organizations, and before institutions, there were people.
And those people also deserve to be remembered.
We don't want anyone to appropriate the solidarity of a people.
Lanzarote's solidarity has many names. Some appear in the photographs.
Others do not.
The time has come to also recognize those who never appeared in them."
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