The Villa Mariana de Candelaria became yesterday, for one day, the virtual capital of the Canary Islands on the occasion of the great day of the festivity of the Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of the Archipelago, which throughout the weekend gathered around its basilica close to 100,000 pilgrims arrived from all points of Tenerife and the rest of the Islands.
Yesterday, the highest authorities of the Archipelago did not miss the institutional acts in honor of the Morenita. As reported by the City Council, up to a total of 126 political, military and consular representatives participated in the civic procession, military parade, Eucharist and procession. Thus, among the authorities present were the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the Minister of Ecological Transition, José Antonio Valbuena; the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, and several councilors; and the counselor of the Cabildo de La Gomera, Miguel Melo; while the Parliament of the Canary Islands was attended by its president, Gustavo Matos, and the deputies Rosa Dávila, Nira Fierro, Omar López, Manuel Domínguez, Cristina Válido and Ricardo Fernández de la Puente, in addition to the national deputies Ana Zurita and Tamara Raya. Likewise, the consuls of Finland, Peru, Argentina, Slovakia, Hungary, Belgium, and Guatemala attended, in addition to the Andean representative Gustavo Pacheco, who is visiting Candelaria with the aim of initiating contacts for twinning between Puno, in Peru, and Candelaria. , whose bond is the Virgin.
More than twenty representatives of the municipalities of Tenerife, mostly mayors, participated in the events, which were also attended by the City Council of Teror, a town twinned with Candelaria for 31 years, whose entourage was led by its mayor, Sergio Nut. Similarly, both the Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, and the sub-delegate, Javier Plata, were present. With regard to the military, the Chief Lieutenant General of the Canary Islands Command, Alejandro Escámez, and representatives of the Land, Sea and Air Forces, Civil Guard, National Police and Autonomous Police, as well as representatives of different local police from several municipalities.
The mayor of the municipality, Mari Brito, led the civic procession that departed from the Town Hall to the Plaza de la Patrona, where the military parade took place and the reception of the representative of the King of Spain, who this year was Gustavo Matos, President of Parliament from the Canary Islands The Bishop of the Diocese of Nivariense, Bernardo Álvarez, officiated at the Eucharist, which was sung by the Voces para la Esperanza Villa de Candelaria Choir, with music by the Las Candelas Chamber Orchestra.
