It is this Thursday, under the redeeming Atlantic light, when Queen Doña Sofía will once again set foot on the volcanic soil of Gran Canaria, on a visit that has a mystical reunion quality with the geography that bears her name. The Queen returns to the Port of La Luz, where the Muelle Reina Sofía —that Herculean backbone stretching over four kilometers— juts into the ocean like a spear of concrete and shelter to protect the economic sovereignty of the Islands. She will receive the Gorila Award 2024, born from the vision of that great captain of industry, Wolfgang Kiessling, at an event recognizing a woman who has made the defense of life —that wounded biodiversity— the axis of her silent and fruitful leadership. The presence of Doña Sofía is much more than a royal protocol act. It represents the reparation of a wait. It should have been in January when the Port would pay its honors to the Queen, but fate, always capricious and sometimes cruel, imposed mourning for the death of her sister, Princess Irene. This Thursday, having overcome the grief with the Hellenic dignity that characterizes her, Doña Sofía returns to the space where the secrets of the sea are kept, the Poema del Mar aquarium, a prominent infrastructure that engages directly with the dock that bears her name; that wall which arose from the overflow of the sixties, when the Suez closure forced the Port of La Luz to grow over the natural coast and the lands of the Ministry of War to become the colossus it is today. The chronicle of this Thursday will not be written with the ink of the ordinary, but with the gold of exemplarity. We will see Doña Sofía in the same port where large ships dock, arriving loaded with foreign labor that presumably evades national workers by circumventing the Law, where naval repair is nurtured, reminding us that the International Bank credit in the eighties not only extended the harbor’s shelter by seven hundred meters but also laid the foundation for a nation’s modernity. Loro Parque and its Foundation collectively recognize the emerita as an international reference figure; her involvement has been decisive, constant, almost religious in her defense of vulnerable ecosystems, from the peaks of Teide to the depths of the Atlantic. The Queen returns to her Port, to her Dock, to her tide. And the Canaries, always loyal to the High Institution she represents with a commitment bordering on the heroic, prepare to pay her the tribute she deserves. In this corner of the world, where history is written with foam and tenacity, Doña Sofía’s figure shines with the strength of a lighthouse that, against wind and tide, continues to indicate the path of responsibility and love for creation. It is the hour of the Queen, it is the hour of Las Palmas, it is the hour of historical justice under the sky of La Luz.
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