In a country with a funerary culture like the Canary Islands, where people are spoken well of when they die, the norm must be broken. The most Tirajana-like of journalists in Las Palmas, Michel Jorge Millares, has retired. He's young. He did so to dedicate himself to studying things, which is what he likes. At a time when press offices in Las Palmas are polluted with keyboard players from Tenerife factories, the presence of Michel Jorge Millares was a breath of fresh air amidst so much industrialized ignorance. A graduate in Journalism from the Complutense University, with a master's degree from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he asserts that "I learned from day one that the history of a Cabildo is not found only in its minutes, but in the names of those who have made it, in the offices where land purchases are decided, in the repopulated ravines, on the paths that border Osorio or Tirma."
"I remember Carmelo Artiles Bolaños, Carmelo Padrón, Alfonso Armas Ayala, Camilo Sánchez... figures who seemed omnipresent and whose work is recognized today more by memory than by headlines. Those were years of reading, writing, and learning that Gran Canaria isn't just landscape: it's politics, administration, investment, and above all, patience. During that time, I also had the opportunity to immerse myself in the history of the presidents of the Cabildo, awarded in 1987 during the 75th anniversary of the Cabildo Law, led by Manuel Ramírez Muñoz, whose work not only reconstructs the institution but also gives wings to Gran Canaria's aviation, because the island can also be understood from the air."
He was the director of the 50th anniversary of Maspalomas Costa Canaria, World Tourism Day, and the Maspalomas Summer University. "All of this teaches us that Gran Canaria is a place where the public and the private, the cultural and the economic, the historical and the contemporary, intersect and blend until they become inseparable. You learn that an island doesn't communicate alone; that every project requires someone to explain it, to connect it with the people, with visitors, with the media," he says.
As head of the Cabildo's Communications Office, he has woven the communication network for more than 1.000 employees, six autonomous organizations, three societies, five foundations, and seven consortia. "Emergencies, tourism, sports, culture, the Biosphere Reserve, and Risco Caído... a puzzle that doesn't allow for improvisation. And when the pandemic forced us to redouble our efforts, we discovered that communicating isn't just about informing; it's about accompanying, reassuring, persuading, and sometimes, containing," he recalls. In his opinion, "communicating Gran Canaria is a privilege, a daily lesson, and a reminder that the island doesn't explain itself." He explains it with memory, "with observation, and with the insistence of those who know that what's important isn't just what you do, but how you tell it. And if anyone thinks this is routine, I invite them to visit Osorio, Tirma, or Maspalomas on any given day; there they'll discover that behind every decision there's history, and behind every story, an island that breathes."
