Defending the Canary Islands' identity and rural cuisine

On the opening day of Terrae 2025, Minerva Alonso, Councillor for Economic Development of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, opened the speeches with a message to the educational centres, "which have the great and beautiful responsibility of preserving our identity and culture in the future through gastronomy," she declared.

For the Cabildo, the aim of "Terrae" is to show the cultural, natural and climatic diversity of an open, social and cosmopolitan island, in an eco-island project of sustainability, where these values are the backbone of our government. To this end, they are developing programmes such as 'Gran Canaria me gusta' for the marketing and promotion of local products, 'which is very important for achieving this objective and with which we have managed to make local consumers aware of the value of local products and the importance of consuming them, given the support they give to the primary sector and the impact they have on the island's economy', he argued.

For his part, the director of the Congress, Benjamín Lana, pointed out that the objective is a common one "and that it goes beyond specific places, but rather to direct our gaze to all those rural areas that have had bad decades and where hope is finally being rekindled", highlighting the former wrestling arena in Agüimes, where the Congress is being held, "so rooted in the land and in the tradition of the uniqueness of the Canary Islands that is 'lucha' (a form of wrestling). Although the meaning of the congress 'is not based on competition', he said, 'but on a trend that has much more to do with collaboration and sharing, and that is much more generous with the rest of the chain'.

He also dedicated a message to the young audience present, "who will be able to enjoy great examples of people who decided one day to make a living from gastronomy and defend it from remote places, starting their life projects from scratch, linked to their neighbours and compatriots, something that previously seemed like a bad idea", he said. Because, he concludes, if there is anything interesting about what happens in the kitchen, "it is rural kitchens, because they are nutritious for society".