Last month, Lanzarote signed twinning papers with the city of San Antonio in Texas, which was first populated by Canarian families from Lanzarote 300 years ago.
Cabildo President Oswaldo Betancort and the Mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg, signed the twinning papers in the presence of official witnesses at Lanzarote’s Cabildo building.
The delegations exchanged gifts – a glass vase in the colours of Lanzarote from the Texans and a typical hat from La Graciosa and a headdress from carnival group Los Buches from Lanzarote. The US visitors visited Teguise, Timanfaya and the La Geria wine fields during their stay on the island.
Mayor Nirenberg said “San Antonio would not be what it is today without its Canarian heritage and Lanzarote. This twinning, unanimously approved by San Antonio’s City Council, is a recognition of our shared history and a commitment to future cooperation and exchanges.”
The 16 families that arrived in San Antonio in March 1731 had left the Canaries almost a year earlier, with a letter from King Felipe V of Spain permitting them to settle the territory with the aim of establishing a presence there before the French. The islanders were unaware that they would just miss the devastating volcanic eruptions of September 1730 that would transform their native island.
San Antonio is now a large city of 1.5 million inhabitants, home to Texas’s No 1 tourist attraction, the Alamo building. At the very heart of its Downtown zone lies the Plaza de las Islas Canarias, overlooked by the elegant San Fernando Cathedral that was first constructed by the settlers.
The twinning is the culmination of several years of contact between Lanzarote and San Antonio. Instigated by Teguise Ayuntamiento and the Canary Island Descendants association in San Antonio.
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