INSTITUTIONAL STATEMENT
It adopts the following agreement: "Las Palmas of Gran Canaria has always occupied a place in the cultural forefront, making it a receptive city whose inhabitants have managed to observe the world with an open mind, absorbing what good and new circulated in the main Atlantic port on the route between three continents. Thanks to its privileged location, Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, pole and a beacon at a time, has been the point that attracted a wealth of cultures and, from where it was projected to the outside the phenomenon of multiculturalism. Languages, cultures, commerce and ideas gathered in this capital to go from here following the mysterious address that points to the compass, to the most remote corners of Africa, Europe and America.
Since the birth of this city, in the late fifteenth century and the passing of Christopher Columbus for its bay in the Voyage of Discovery of America, the history of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has witnessed the traffic and development of new cultural trends. Particularly, since the construction of its Puerto de la Luz in 1883, the capital is an example and a expression that it is a very visible example of successive and various forms of modern movements.
The sea, mark of our identity, is also horizon and hope for us, as for those Africans neighbors who keep with our capital, human relations, trade and cultural development projects. This with no doubts will be galvanized.
Las Palmas of Gran Canaria can claim to have known for centuries to carry out an exemplary experience of diverse cultural coexistence, which has been enriching their neighbors and visitors. This experience is supported by several sociocultural demonstrations, especially found in the last third of the nineteenth century. These experiences speak of a vibrant and cosmopolitan city and a society proud of starring in its future.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a city open to every kind of exchange, was host at a very early moment of the changes that marked the progress of culture and mentality, in the European and American continents. The foreign contributions, found here a fertile field in which to give, its best results. Hence, among its most illustrious sons are included prominent personalities at a international level in many different fields, among them, its found the most universal canary, the great writer Benito Pérez Galdós.
On the basis of this legacy, and with the eyes on the goals to achieve during the next decade, we assume the candidacy for European Capital of Culture 2016, which in itself is an impulse to the strategies, to be developed from the cultural side and whose benefits will result in a higher level of quality in the of life of citizens and social welfare. This all will be within a framework of social participation and sustainability.
In the project, we intend to develop, we will bet hardly and enthusiastically for the cultural capital. We will enjoy healthy competition, enriching the spirit and new ideas. We will remember our past with pride, reflected in our cultural heritage and our personality. We will mount the future with hope, turning our gaze to the neighbor Africa, from where, we can learn, and to whom we can contribute approximating it to Europe with our commitment to multiculturalism.
We will Promote, from the cultural project of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, European Capital of Culture, the encounter between Europe, Africa and America, facilitating the mutual knowledge of societies that will meet and draw an stable framework for their future relations.
Our historical tradition and our atlantic nature will strength a project of cultural relations between communities, fostering social development, democratic and sustainability to whom this will be projected to. Along with this, with a unanimous desire, we will maintain a determined effort within a participatory and open frame, the belief that there is no goal unattainable.
We face the challenge. Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, city of sea and Cultures express its desire to be European Capital of Culture 2016.
THE MAYOR OF LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA
Jeronimo Saavedra Acevedo THE PRESIDENT OF Cabildo de Gran Canaria José Miguel Pérez García
