Toni Pérez evokes on 9 d'Octubre the cosmopolitan vocation of Benidorm as a balm against exclusion

The institutional plenary of 9 d'Octubre, with which Benidorm celebrates the Valencian Community Day, and renewed its commitment to the Statute of Autonomy and its identity, has gathered this morning at the Castle of Benidorm the main social groups and businessmen of the city, representatives of the different bodies and security forces of the State, queens and ladies of the Major Employer Festivities, together with all the members of the Municipal Corporation, as well as Senator Agustín Almodóbar, and the Norwegian Consul, Jan Arild Nilsen.

After the raising of the flag of Spain, the Valencian Community and the European Union, to the sounds of the national anthem played by the Musical Union of Benidorm, Professor Francesc Xavier Llorca Ibi has received the Cultural Distinction Ciudad de Benidorm, at the proposal of the Board of Spokespersons o Benidorm City Council. The award, as highlighted by Mayor Toni Pérez in his speech, recognizes the work of Professor Llorca as a teacher and his inexhaustible ethnolinguistic research activity, in which he has stood out when studying and recovering the autochthonous language of Benidorm and Marina Baixa.

The books in which his signature appears as author or collaborator, are a good proof of the work that is wanted to recognize with the Cultural Distinction "City of Benidorm" that was imposed by the mayor, and that consists of a badge designed by Miguel Bayona and a reproduction of the facade of the viewpoint of the Castell, work of the sculptor, José María Morán Berrutti. Of the multiple works of the professor, the mayor cited "Talassonímia dels mariners de Benidorm", "El llenguatge mariner de la Marina", "Vocabulari benidormer de la ramaderia", "Llengua d'arraix", "La parla almadravera valenciana" or the careful edition of poems benidormeras of Pepe el Carreró, under the title "De la Cala al Racó", "as good examples of an already extensive contribution that seems never to have enough". Along with its pedagogical work and dissemination of popular culture, also highlights its connection to the musical culture of the city through the Musical Union of Benidorm, first, the Coral Group of Benidorm or the Musical Society "the Island of Benidorm" nowadays.

The intervention of the mayor has begun highlighting that "this institutional act serves and must serve to leave testimony that Benidorm reinforces its commitment to the autonomy of the Valencian Community and its self-government, with the same intensity as it does with respect to the constitutional framework " He underlined this idea, recalling that "our identity, that of being and feeling ourselves as Valencians, is not exclusive or prevents us from feeling" benidormers ", Spanish and European. I am convinced, he said, that the cosmopolitan vocation is always a balm against exclusion and, in Benidorm, that vocation, many of us have it since we were born. "

He also recalled that "from generation to generation, here in Benidorm, we have learned that we can do many things together even if we are different; to defend and make use of our language or to enjoy our traditions regardless of our origins. I want to repeat it taking advantage of this rostrum that the 9th of October Festival gives me. The Benidorm of today has been built with the effort of many and the Benidorm of tomorrow has to be built with the effort of all, which we are and those that will come ".

The first mayor defined Benidorm as "a city and a destination with a vocation to make those who live here and those who visit us happy" and "has to continue being seen," he said later, "as a place that offers opportunities, well-being, hospitality and happiness ". He pointed out that "today we are in a position to set ourselves new challenges, to seek, for our entrepreneurial spirit, more ambitious and broad objectives, being our obligation to seek and preserve a stronger and more cohesive society. A society that believes and trusts its possibilities. A society committed to achieving those great collective goals that we all, without exception, share. "

Toni Pérez ended his speech by expressing his gratitude, on his own behalf and that of the entire Corporation, "for all those people, entities and institutions from the field of culture, education or health, the neighborhood movement or social action , the company and the world of work, citizen security, sports, parties, tourism and information, contribute every day to Benidorm and the Valencian Community, a place where social and economic progress, together with the values ​​and convictions that unite us, continue marking us the north ".

Previously Professor Francesc Xavier Llorca Ibi, thanked the distinction that said he was filled with pride as a benefactor "and for the good fortune," he said, "of having been able to investigate the linguistic richness of Benidorm and the Marina Baixa region".

The act concluded with the interpretation of the hymns of Benidorm and the Valencian Community and then the official delegation visited the Traditional Fair of October 9, installed in the streets Gambo and Martinez Alejos, where the Queens and the Ladies of Honor danced the traditional "peuet". The program will conclude in the afternoon, at 7:00 pm, on Gambo Street, with the concert offered by the "La Nova" Musical Society.