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Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Marginal memory and cultural re-presentation:
A View on the 'Other' Perspective from the Margin of the Mediterranen
Dr. Margaret Hart Robertson,
Coordinator Med Voices ULPGC, Gran Canaria, Spain
meghart@idecnet.com

Abstract:
The city of Real Las Palmas, the original name after the Conquest by the Catholic Monarchs, and before the division of the Provinces in the Archipelago caused it to be re-named Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is traditionally renowned in Spanish history text-books as being the first city to be set up by the Spanish throne in the Atlantic, a run-up to their 'Discovery' of America. Scant reference is to be found to the origin of the natives conquered, mainly due to the fact that no written vestige of the original language spoken remains, a trait which runs through the history of the Spanish conquest of Latin America. Even less documentation exists relating the islands to the continent of Africa, only 100 kilometres off the coast of Lanzarote, the easternmost inhabited island, although the Classics make constant reference to Mauritania (see Pliny's references to King Juba) when talking about the islands 'beyond the Pillars of Hercules' and despite the clearly African profile of many of the islanders', a throwback to the times when slavery was rife. For clearly defined reasons, the same reasons as led Franco to plan the Civil War in Tenerife and launch it from Gran Canaria, it has not been considered 'politically correct' to establish any kind of link between the Canary Archipelago and North Africa, between the Christians and the Moors. The hackneyed image of the Archipelago as a bridge between Continents has always, somewhat tacitly, constituted a limp pontoon, with Africa as the shaky leg of the three. 'Tourism' and 'tourists' to and from the shores of Gran Canaria have either been very rich or direly poor. The 'flows' which have existed between the islands and Latin America, of immigration and emigration, have been motivated by extreme poverty and desperate circumstances, much as is the case of the existing illegal immigration from the coasts of Africa to the shores of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. For Europe, the Canary Archipelago has always been strategically vital (for trade and during the First and Second World Wars) and climatically attractive, offering none of the disadvantages of nearby Africa.

The Canary Islands have rarely been seen in their 'other' Mediterranean perspective, apart from by Braudel, nor from the perspective of the local community, the individual voices outside the 'official' neo-Colonial (Spanish and British) perspective. The re-presentation of the non-institutionalised 'voices' as captured for the EuroMed Heritage II project 'Mediterranean Voices' coordinated by London Metropolitan University, offers a new perspective on the cultural identity of Gran Canaria beyond the fringe of traditional, institutionalised projections. It also opens up a whole realm of possibilities for 're-positioning' of the island on the cultural tourism market.

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