Lanzarote twins with the city of San Antonio in Texas

Lanzarote yesterday signed twinning papers with the city of San Antonio, Texas, which was first populated by Canarian families from Lanzarote.

Cabildo President Oswaldo Betancort and the Mayor of San Antoinio, Ron Nirenberg, signed the agreement at the Cabildo building in the presence of several official witnesses.

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 co-operation and exchanges.”

The 16 families that arrived in San Antonio in March 1731 had left the Canaries almost a year earlier, unaware that they would just miss the devastating volcanic eruptions of September 1730. 

San Antonio is now a large city of 1.5 million inhabitants, home to Texas’s No 1 tourist attraction, the Alamo building.