Thanks to the citizens of the south of the island of Gran Canaria, who were trained as best they could, destiny still exists. The residents of Maspalomas took advantage of the wise phrase of Néstor Álamo: "The song of the people is the voice of time; its silence, oblivion." Those people from Las Palmas who came to the south of the island and almost destroyed the Dunes of Maspalomas with their projects, bringing back broken mirrors like when the Castilians went to America, have been forgotten. There are still some complexes that history will punish with decency.
In 1975, Maspalomas was beginning to establish itself as an emerging tourist destination, but it still retained much of its tranquil and natural character. The landscape was dominated by its iconic Maspalomas Dunes, which stretched out like a desert next to the sea, creating an idyllic image that attracted travelers in search of sun and virgin beaches. Although tourism had already begun to develop in the previous decade, the area maintained a rustic essence, with small buildings and a slow pace of life, very different from the bustle that characterizes this place today.
The tourist infrastructure was limited, with few hotels and apartment complexes compared to the vast number of accommodations that exist today. The first iconic establishments, such as the Hotel Oasis Maspalomas, were already prominent, but urban development was still in its early stages. The tourists who arrived, mostly European, enjoyed uncrowded beaches, walks through palm-fringed oases and the tranquility offered by an environment that was beginning to experience the impact of mass tourism without having yet lost its original essence. The emblematic Maspalomas Lighthouse, built at the end of the 19th century, was a solitary lighthouse that marked the end of the continent and the beginning of the immensity of the ocean.
Local life in Maspalomas still revolved around traditional activities such as farming and fishing, although these were already beginning to give way to the tourist economy. Locals watched as tourism began to transform the landscape and customs, introducing a new dynamism to the region. Despite this, in 1975 Maspalomas was still a place where nature reigned, and the connection between its beaches, dunes and the local community formed a unique balance, a prelude to the development that would define its future.
