SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 21st Feb (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Day of Canary Literature was commemorated at the Parliament of the Canary Islands with a marathon reading of the novel La Lapa, authored by the Lanzarote writer and journalist Ángel Guerra, the pseudonym of José Betancort Cabrera, who was born in Teguise in 1874 and passed away in Madrid in 1950.
The President of the Chamber, Astrid Pérez, inaugurated the event by paying tribute to this “renowned Lanzarote native,” a pivotal writer in the early 20th century, “whose profound inspiration stemmed from the sea surrounding our Archipelago, becoming another character in his narratives.”
The President of the Canary Islands Parliament highlighted that “Ángel Guerra produced over twenty works, with unforgettable titles such as La Lapa; Al sol; Cariños, or Mar exterior,” concluding that “despite the Civil War curtailing his political, journalistic, and literary career prematurely, and withdrawing him from public life, he still left behind some of the most significant contributions to Canarian literature.”
The initial chapters of La Lapa, acclaimed as one of the finest novels in Canary Islands’ literary history, were recited by Astrid Pérez; Patricia Hernández, the second secretary of the Chamber Board; deputies Rebeca Paniagua, Paula Jover, Marta Gómez, and Alicia Vanoostende; Gustavo Matos, the second vice president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands; Salvador García Llanos, President of the Tenerife Press Association; Joan Wallo, Director of the Women in Canarian Culture Association; and Ernesto Rodríguez Abad, a writer, teacher, and director of the Los Silos International Storytelling Festival.
Subsequently, Marcos Bergaz, a deputy, also participated; María Teresa Pozo, the vice president of the Lanzarote Booksellers and Publishers Association; Alexis Suárez from the Raíz del Pueblo Cultural Association; Pablo Ramón Canino Cáceres; Remedios Sosa, editor of the Canarian Popular Culture Center; Juan Luis Quincoces, President of the Writers Association of Lanzarote and La Graciosa; deputy Mónica Muñoz; Rosa Galdona and Miguel Ángel Díaz, directors of the Canarian Cultural Association of Writers; María Cristina Duce Pérez-Blasco, lawyer of the Parliament of the Canary Islands; and deputies José Miguel Barragán and Jana María González Alonso.
The closing part of the reading of La Lapa was performed by Milagros Natalia Ruiz González and Alejandra Hernández Ramos, teachers at the IES Mencey Bencomo de Los Realejos, along with a student from this educational establishment in Tenerife.
