Nueva Canarias backs El Efequén request to protect Casa de la Cueva de la Negra as an Asset of Cultural Interest

Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista in Fuerteventura has expressed its full support for the application submitted by the El Efequén Heritage Association, asking the Fuerteventura Island Council to initiate proceedings to designate Casa de la Cueva de la Negra, in Pájara, an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC).

NC says the initiative is hugely significant because it comes from an organisation specialising in heritage, with an established track record in defending Fuerteventura’s historical, archaeological, ethnographic and landscape heritage.

“This is not an off-the-cuff opinion. El Efequén has been defending our heritage for years, and its position brings expertise, authority and weight to a demand that comes from the people of Fuerteventura,” Nueva Canarias says.

The party says the request reinforces a basic principle: Fuerteventura can no longer allow its memory to be lost through decisions made from a purely administrative perspective, often disconnected from the history, culture and reality of this land.

The association has pointed to the site’s archaeological and ethnographic value, as well as the importance of these traditional buildings as evidence of ways of life linked for generations to the coast, fishing and shellfish gathering.

“The sensible course is to study the matter first and decide afterwards. The alternative would be to let an excavator erase in a few hours what generations of Fuerteventura residents built, lived in and preserved for more than a century.”

Nueva Canarias notes that the Island Council has already spoken of the need to protect traditional coastal settlements with heritage value, and says the time has come to turn those statements into effective protection.

“Defending our heritage cannot stop at words. If we recognise that something has historical and ethnographic value, we have a duty to protect it before it is too late.”

For NC, El Efequén’s statement also shows that defending Cueva de la Negra is no longer just a demand made by one family or a political organisation. It is a call growing among the people of Fuerteventura, who are demanding respect for their history.

The party says the Coastal Authority must understand that there is an alternative to demolition.

“The Canary Islands need decisions affecting their territory to be made after listening also to those of us who live here, to our institutions and to those who know and defend our heritage. Our territory cannot be treated as if it were a place with no memory.”

Nueva Canarias insists that this is not about ignoring the law, but about applying it with respect for identity, heritage and a people’s right to preserve evidence of their own history.

NC is calling on the Island Council, the Canary Islands Government, Pájara Town Council and the State to work together to find a solution other than demolition.

“Cueva de la Negra is part of Fuerteventura’s memory. A people that gives up protecting its memory also ends up losing part of itself.”