In Las Palmas, like everything that comes from the south, which is why it is the one who provides the money with which the salaries and whims are paid, they always looked at him with suspicion except the people of the PSOE, who knew his record in defense of freedoms. This ending 2023 would have turned 110 years old. He is Estanis Mañarikua, the founder of Gloria Palace. The gudari who made things clear to Aguirre. They arrested him in Santoña. They transferred him to Puerto Santa María (Cádiz) where he stayed three years. His crime was that he was part of the nationalist battalion of the Euzkadi Army in the 1936-1939 war. He had his origins in the Boga-Boga Company, formed by fishermen, and his behavior along the Biscayan front was excellent. He took part, with two other battalions, in the counterattack on the Artxanda Casino, which managed to delay the fall of Bilbao, allowing the evacuation of the capital to be completed. He remained there until its occupation by national forces. After getting married, he came to the Canary Islands for his honeymoon and from there he created the family saga that is today in tourism and construction. This 2023, the Gloria Palace Amadores hotel, located between the beaches of Puerto Rico and Amadores, has turned 20 years old.
Before coming he married Valentina Aristondo, from Ondarroa. That neighbor of the illustrious Mañariarra writer Kirikiño and relative of the writer and ethnographer Errose Bustintza built the San Agustín Gloria Palace that in the end he thought of exploiting it himself, entering a sector that he did not know. But Estanis did not know the word impossible. He said that he was never going to retire, that he had realized that only those who retire die. He was honest, noble, supportive, elegant, loving, serious, formal, with a wonderful mind. He spoke a popular Basque language. Estanis Mañarikua was missing a detail in Gran Canaria such as an honorary doctorate from the University of Las Palmas, which he defended so much and was thanked for nothing.
He was a humanist who even accompanied Joxe Miel Barandiaran and Telesforo Aranzadi on archaeological explorations. He did not bring up his participation in the Civil War in conversation, for example, he preferred to talk about his family. In Gran Canaria, the founder of the Gloria Palace Group arrived in the Canary Islands in 1965 and after launching several real estate businesses such as the Yumbo shopping center, in 1988 he built what became his flagship: the Gloria Palace San hotel. Agustin. His entrepreneurial and visionary character led him to be the pioneer in the Canary Islands in incorporating thalassotherapy services as part of his hotel's offering.
After the first step in Mogán, it was followed in 2008 by the opening of the Gloria Palace Royal, located right on Amadores beach. Next to the three four-star hotels in Gran Canaria. He was awarded the Singular Building Award (1989) for the Gloria Palace San Agustín Thalasso & Hotel; the Hotel Initiative Award (1999) as Best Health Hotel, Gloria Palace San Agustín Thalasso & Hotel, the Silver Medal as Important in Tourism (2007), awarded by the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council; the silver Roque Nublo de Gran Canaria (2012), as a pioneer of health tourism, awarded by the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, and the Medal for Tourism Excellence (2012) posthumously.
