Toni Pérez reaffirms on 9 d'Octubre the commitment of Benidorm "for our autonomy and for Spain"
The Professor Bárbara Alemany receives the Cultural Distinction "City of Benidorm" in the institutional plenary of the Day of the Valencian Community
The Castle of Benidorm has once again become the setting for the 9th of October institutional meeting, with which Benidorm celebrates Valencian Community Day, and renews its commitment to the Statute of Autonomy and its identity. The plenary, chaired by Mayor Toni Pérez, has been attended by all members of the Municipal Corporation and Senator Agustín Almodóbar, representatives of the different bodies and security forces of the State, queens and ladies of the Major Holidays Patronales, as well as a wide representation of different social and business groups of the city.
After the raising of the flag of Spain, the Valencian Community and the European Union, to the sounds of the national anthem performed by the Musical Union of Benidorm, the Professor Bárbara Alemany Barceló has received the Cultural Distinction City of Benidorm, at the proposal of the Board of Spokespersons of the municipality of Benidorm. The award recognizes her research and dissemination of various aspects of the history of Benidorm, as well as her trajectory as an English teacher. Her educational career was developed at the IES Pere María Orts i Bosch, where she led the English department until 2011 and organized exhibitions such as "Living in Benidorm", an authentic ethnological show that served to bring and publicize how Benidorm was before the boom tourist attraction of the 1960s.
"Her books as co-author about the Castell of Benidorm and the Church of San Jaume and Santa Ana or the biography of Pere María Orts and Bosch are already classic references to know our history", as emphasized the mayor, Toni Pérez, in the words of gratitude that he dedicated to her in his institutional speech.
The intervention of the mayor began emphasizing that "the identity of being and feeling Valencian is not exclusive and does not prevent us from feeling from Benidorm, Spaniards and Europeans," an idea that highlighted with a quote from Fernando Savater when he pointed out that "no collective identity in our country, is disconnected from the rest of Spanish identities or can disconnect from them without losing part of its own substance.
He also recalled that this institutional act reaffirms "our commitment to our autonomy and Spain. We do it and we will continue doing it because it is a common project of prosperity and solidarity, something that we believe in and that does not detract us a thousandfold in the defense of our identity, our autonomy, our institutions, our language or our culture, all covered by the Statute of Autonomy, within the framework of the State and the Spanish Constitution. "
The first edil also referred to the progress that has been made in Benidorm in collaboration with the different municipal political groups and the Neighborhood Council, as well as the concern of the tourism sector for "the so-called tourist tax" because "the sector that more wealth, employment and prosperity brings to the Valencian Community, "he said," can not and should not be penalized with that tax. You have to take care of what works, "he rifled.
Toni Pérez also recalled the initiatives taken to resume the work of the Cultural Center, an objective of the whole Corporation, and the initiative to promote the nomination of Benidorm as a World Heritage Site. The mayor lastly underlined the intense activity carried out over the past year to put into value the historical, cultural, artistic and landscape heritage of Benidorm. He referred in particular to the musealization of Castellum "d El Tossal, to the recovery of the Tower of Les Caletes and to the programming carried out in the Huerto de Colón and the Boca del Calvari museum, with exhibitions such as" The legacy of our marine Benidorm and the merchant navy, "" Almadrabas and their captains, "are some examples of" the collective effort made to value our history and rescue from oblivion the art of living that our people once had. "
The event concluded with the interpretation of the hymns of Benidorm and the Valencian Community and then the official delegation visited the 9th of October Traditional Fair, installed in the streets Gambo and Martínez Alejos, where the Queens and the Ladies of Honor danced the traditional "peuet". The program will conclude in the afternoon, at 6 pm, on Gambo Street, with the performance of the work "La Conquesta de València a l'any 1238", by students from CEIP "Ausiàs March" in Benidorm.
