Island Council of Tenerife

The Cabildo Insular de Tenerife is the governing body of the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands). It was established on March 16, 1913 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in a session held in the city's Town Hall, and the first corporation was elected. The Cabildo of Tenerife, like the other councils of the Canary Islands, has a series of its own powers included in the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands as well as a series of powers delegated from the other territorial administration bodies.

Its president is Rosa Dávila Mamely (CC). It is a governmental and administrative form specific to the Canary Islands, which in addition to the functions of the island government, provides services and exercises powers specific to the Canary Islands Autonomous Community.

Shield and flag

The flag of Tenerife was originally adopted in 1845 as a distinctive or registration flag of what was then called the maritime province of the Canary Islands based in the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Currently, this flag represents the entire island of Tenerife. It was approved at the request of the Island Council by Order of the Government of the Canary Islands on May 9, 1989 and published on May 22, 1989 in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands.

The heraldic shield of Tenerife was granted by royal diploma on March 23, 1510, granted by King Don Fernando V "El Católico", it was issued in Madrid in the name of his daughter Doña Juana I, Queen of Castile. The shield is described in a field of gold, with Saint Michael the Archangel (since the island was conquered on Saint Michael's Day) armed overcoming a mountain of its natural color from which flames sprout, and which represents the peak of Teide. Under this mountain the island of Sinople on blue and silver waves. To the right there is a castle gules, and to the left a lion rampant gules. The shield used by the Island Council differs from that used by the La Laguna City Council in the motto that appears on the border and in the addition of some palm branches.

Internal organization

The Cabildo is made up of the following bodies:

• Presidency
• Plenary
• Governing Council
• Informational Commissions
• Board of Spokespersons

Organisation chart

The powers of the Cabildo of Tenerife are regulated by Law 14/1990, of July 26, on the Legal Regime of the Public Administrations of the Canary Islands.

• Presidency

President: Pedro Manuel Martín Domínguez

Insular Directorate of Coordination and Support to the President: Aaron Afonso González

Human Resources and Advisory Board: Lidia Patricia Pereira Saavedra

• Territory Planning, Historical Heritage and Tourism

Area Island Counseling: José Gregorio Martín Plata

• Presidency, Finance and Modernization

Area Island Counseling: Berta María Pérez Hernández

Insular Directorate of Finance: José Isaac Gálvez Conejo

Insular Directorate of Modernization: Daniel González Morales

• Education, Youth, Museums, Culture and Sports

Area Island Counseling: Concepción Rivero Rodríguez

Insular Directorate of Education and Youth: Bélica Magdalena Pérez Fernández

Insular Directorate of Culture: Leopoldo Santos Elorrieta

Insular Directorate of Sports: Laura Esther Castro Hernández

• Social Action, Citizen Participation and Diversity

Area Island Counseling: María Ana Franquet Navarro

Counseling with delegation of Equality and Prevention of Gender Violence: María Ana Franquet Navarro

Council with delegation of Citizen Participation and Diversity: Nauzet Gugliota González

• Municipal Cooperation and Housing

Area Island Counseling: Carlos Zebenzui Chinea Linares

• Sustainable Development and Combating Climate Change

Area Island Counseling: Javier Rodríguez Medina

• Natural Environment and Security Management

Area Island Counseling: María Isabel García Hernández

• Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries

Consejería Insular del Area: Francisco Javier Parrilla Gómez

• Employment, Socioeconomic Development and External Action

Insular Counseling of the Employment Area: Carmen Luz Baso Lorenzo

Counseling with Foreign Action Delegation: Liskel Alvarez Domínguez

Insular Directorate of Socioeconomic Development: Ermitas M. Moreira García

• Roads, Mobility and Innovation

Area Island Counseling: Enrique Arriaga Álvarez

Insular Directorate of Mobility: José Alberto León Alonso

Insular Directorate of Roads: Tomás Félix García Pérez

Insular Innovation Directorate: José Clemente Díaz Gómez

List of presidents since the democratic elections of 1979

Chairman	Start of mandate	End of mandate	Party
José Miguel Galván Bello	20 April 1979	24 May 1983			Union de Centro Democrático (UCD)
José Segura Clavell	24 May 1983	30 June 1987			Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE)
Adam Martin Menis	30 June 1987	26 June 1995			Innerfeña Group of Independents (ATI)
	26 June 1995	9 July 1999			Coalition Canaria (CC)
Ricardo Melchior Navarro	9 July 1999	16 September 2013			Coalition Canaria (CC)
Carlos Enrique Alonso Rodríguez	16 September 2013	July 24, 2019			Coalition Canaria (CC)
Pedro Manuel Martín Domínguez	July 24, 2019	3 July 2023			Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE)
Rosa Davila Mamely	3 July 2023	-			Coalition Canaria (CC)

• This complete list of presidents of the Cabildo de Tenerife is available from the first constitution of the Cabildo Insular in 1913, to the present day.

Invested companies

The Cabildo plays a very important role in the economy of Tenerife through its affiliated companies. As of 2018, it has majority stakes in seven companies and minority but significant stakes in another nine.

Headquarters

Old property

The Island Council of Tenerife was established in a session held on March 16, 1913, in application of the Law of Councils of July 11, 1912. Its leaders began the process to provide facilities that were adequate to comply with its functions. After using the rooms of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council for the development of the first session, the headquarters of the new organization was provisionally installed in a building located at the confluence of Avenida 25 de Julio and Calle Numancia.

Shortly after, it was moved to Alfonso a property located right in front of the previous one, in which several apartments were rented.

Although in 1920 100,000 pesetas had already been allocated for the purchase of a plot of land and the preparation of plans without this coming to fruition, it could only have been ten years later when the first steps were taken to acquire land in the area. of Avenida Marítima where the Corporation would be definitively located. In this way, the corresponding authorization was obtained from the Ministry of Public Works. The site was defined in 1933 after the urbanization project carried out by the engineer José Luis Escario in that area of the city.

New property

The design of the new building is due to the architect José Enrique Marrero Regalado. After drafting the corresponding technical study, the procedures were carried out to carry out the construction. Thus, the first phase was awarded in 1934 for the amount of 2.3 million pesetas and work began the following year. Initially, the possibility of using the ground floor of the building for commercial premises and the upper floors for a hotel was considered. This last option was discarded.

The building was completed at the end of 1940 and its offices had to be occupied quickly, given that the captain general had expressed the intention of using them for military administration uses. In any case, the new building once housed different offices of entities outside the Cabildo along with those that were reserved for the latter. Thus, it was the residence of the civil governor and headquarters of Iberia, the Provincial Propaganda Board, the Administrative Board of Public Works and the Mining District and, for a time, also of the Treasury Delegation.

Currently, the Tenerife Island Palace only houses the Cabildo's own departments, which also has other decentralized offices in various locations and with different headquarters in other parts of the metropolitan area. The building stands out for its large tower crowned by a clock commissioned in 1950 and which is one of the most recognizable symbols of the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Inside the building you can find an interesting collection of art, in which includes the murals that completely adorn the Noble Hall popularly called the "Sistine Chapel of the Canary Islands", with paintings made in 1960 by the painter José Aguiar. In November 2011 these paintings were declared Asset of Cultural Interest of the Canary Islands (BIC).

The murals relate a succession of scenes where the south face of the mural is differentiated with a representation under the themes of "Girls", "Solar Divinity", "The Birth of the islands', 'The Earth and the mothers', 'Goddess with fruits', 'Appearance of the Virgin of Candelaria and the Evangelization of the indigenous'.

The west face is dedicated to peasant scenes making references to the folklore of the Canary Islands through a central motif of the composition that captures a festive balcony.

The east face has as its central theme scenes that reflect the relationship of people's lives with the sea and depicts their work, both fishing and port work. The mural addresses both myths of the Guanche aboriginal people as well as historical events and social and economic scenes of the archipelago.

Other information

In 1957 the Island Council of Tenerife became twinned with the Brotherhood of La Candelaria of Seville, because in said Andalusian city the Virgen de la Candelaria is venerated as the patron saint of this brotherhood, in the same way as in Tenerife as patron of the Canary Islands and in fact as patron of the Corporation of the Island Council of Tenerife.

On September 28, 2018, the Virgin of Candelaria was officially declared Honorary and Perpetual President of the Island Council of Tenerife, and the medal with the island's coat of arms and the staff of command on October 20 of the same year, within the framework of the exceptional transfer of the image of the Virgin to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the creation of the Diocese of Tenerife.