Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 2
·
November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
26
leisure market, he created a sort of artificial place-object’ (Ibidem: 10-11; my translation).
3
The process that led to such considerations has been partly already analyzed. Nevertheless it
is important to consider how his ‘programme’ has influenced the current appearance of
Lanzarote in the present day and how it contributed to creating some sort of recognizable
‘brand’, making his name and his persona into a well-established ‘trade-mark’.
As I have pointed out, in an attempt to generate a durable and sustainable industry on
the Island, starting in the 1950s the government engaged in some, at first timid, attempts at
creating tourism facilities. They were well aware that the only goods which offered great
potential for further expansion of the tourist market, and were fairly abundant on Lanzarote
,were its climate, the extraordinary landscape, and the beautiful beaches,.
Looking back at that period, in 1978 Manrique himself stated: ‘Only ten years ago,
Lanzarote was nothing. It was considered the Cinderella of the Canary Islands. To many it
was almost a shame to be born on this Island. Lanzarote was hardly even existing on the
maps’ (Manrique 2005: 40; my translation).
4
Having travelled the world and seen what the consequences of an indiscriminate
development of tourism could cause, Manrique was aware of the need to develop a plan for
the future creation of a tourist industry on the Island. Ahead of his time he noted: ‘the first
slogan that we created was: “we don’t need to copy anyone”; “we must bring out the intrinsic
character of the Island, so that others will come and copy us”. This was our main task, and
once we realized it, time proved us right.’ (Manrique 2005: 40; my translation).
5
Three important elements should be pointed out. First and most evident, the awareness
of having to do with a place with huge potential, not only in terms of expected tourist
capacity, but also regarding its aesthetic qualities, which make it a one-of-a-kind place on
earth: ‘we don’t need to copy anyone, they rather should come and copy us’ is a recurrent
slogan in Manrique’s ‘propaganda’. Second, the establishment of a plan, which among its
purposes should emphasize the qualities of Lanzarote and at the same time should provide
directions for preserving these qualities in the future. This plan proved to be original already
in its earlier stages and was undertaken with great enthusiasm. A third, less obvious, more
subtle, point was the intention of Manrique and his collaborators to show the Lanzarote
people (and by extension the future tourists) ‘the original personality of their own landscape’.
This last implication of Manrique’s discourse is, in my opinion, the most interesting,
because it raises the question of what can be considered ‘orginal’, and therefore authentic, in
3
The original reads: ‘César Manrique assume Lanzarote como su gran obra. [...] Un programa estético
el suyo sometido a controversia, que ha merecido críticas en sectores que le acusan de banalización, de
tematizar la isla y de domesticar y estetizar el paisaje hasta configurar una suerte de lugar-objecto
artificioso, en la lógica de la industria del mercado del ocio.’
4
The original reads, ‘Lanzarote, hace solamente diez años, era nada. Se la consideraba Cenicienta de
Canarias. Para muchos constituía casi una vergüenza el haber nacido en esta isla. Lanzarote apenas
existía en el mapa’
5
The original reads, ‘el primer eslogan que pusimos en marcha fue: “no tememos que copiar a nadie”;
“tenemos que sacar a relucir la personalidad intrínseca de la isla, para que nos vengan a copiar a
nosotros”. Este fue nuestro principal cometido y, una vez realizado, el tiempo nos ha dado la razón.’
