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The islands
The Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands consists of two provinces, Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, whose capitals (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife) are co-capitals of the autonomous community. Each of the seven major islands is ruled by an assembly named cabildo insular.
The international boundary of the Canaries is the subject of dispute between Spain and Morocco. Morocco does not agree that the laws regarding territorial limits allow Spain to claim for itself sea-bed boundaries based on the territory of the Canaries, because the Canary Islands are autonomous. The boundary is relevant for possible seabed oil deposits and other ocean resource exploitation. Morocco therefore does not formally agree to the territorial boundary; it rejected a 2002 unilateral Spanish proposal. [1] Morocco has also made some vague historical claims to the Canary Islands themselves, but these claims have not been formally pursued.
The Islands have 13 seats in the Senate. Of these, 11 seats are directly elected, 3 for Tenerife, 3 for Gran Canaria, 1 for each other island; 2 seats are indirectly elected by the regional Autonomous Government.
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Canary Islands -
Islands of eternal spring
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Pre-colonial times
When Europeans began to explore the islands, they encountered several indigenous populations living at a relatively Neolithic level of technology. Although the history of the settlement of the Canary Islands is still unclear, linguistic and genetic analyses seem to indicate that at least some of these inhabitants shared a common origin with the Berbers of northern Africa. The original inhabitants came to be known collectively as the Guanches.
The islands were known to the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, and are mentioned in a number of classical sources. Pliny the Elder describes a Carthaginian expedition to the Canaries, and they may have been the Fortunate Isles of other classical writers. Although largely forgotten in the Western world until their rediscovery, they may have been visited occasionally by Arab and Mediterranean
travellers in the Middle Ages.
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Etymology
The name derives probably from Berber North African tribes (the Canarii), in Berber language the islands are called Tkanaren, or possibly the Latin term Insularia Canaria meaning Island of the Dogs, a name applied originally only to the island of Gran Canaria. It is thought that the dense population of an endemic breed of large and fierce dogs was the characteristic that most struck the few ancient Romans who established contact with the islands by the sea.
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The Flag of the Canary Islands
The flag of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands is a vertical tricolour of three equal bands of white, blue, and yellow. The state flag includes the Coat of Arms of the Canary Islands in the central band; the civil flag omits this. The designs were made official by the Statute of Autonomy of the Canarian Autonomous Community (Organic Law 10/82) on 16 August 1982.The tricolour flag has its origins in the Canarias Libre movement of the 1960s. It was designed by Carmen Sarmiento and her sons Arturo and Jesus Cantero Sarmiento, and first displayed (in paper form) on 8 September 1961. It combined the blue and white colours of the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the blue and yellow colours the of other Canarian province, the Province of Las Palmas.
source:
www.wikipedia.org |
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Canarian cuisine
Canarian cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients in the cuisine of the Canary Islands. These include papas arrugás (a potato dish), mojos (such as mojo picón), and wine from the malvasia grape.
Mojo (pronounced mO-ho) is a sauce which may be orange, red, or green depending on its ingredients. Mojo is heavy in garlic and can be moderately spicy, referred to as mojo picón.
Papas arrugás are small potatoes which have been boiled in salt water and are usually served with chicken and topped with mojo. Their name in Spanish means "wrinkled potatoes" and refers to their condition after being boiled.
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