Wednesday September 7th, 8 p.m.

"LA LAGUNA, five centuries of culture. Laboratory of the settlement of América"

Centro Cultural Español presents the lecture "LA LAGUNA, five centuries of culture. Laboratory of the settlement of América" that will be imparted by Juan Martínez Torvisco, Deputy Mayor of the Cultural Area of the San Cristobal de La Laguna Town hall in Tenerife, Spain. The lecture will plan the History of the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna and its urbanism from the first settlement to the present days. Nowadays it has been named Patrimony of the Humanity.

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY. The official existence of the population of La Laguna begins on July 9, 1497, when the first Town Hall of the island was set. The first settlers were located around a broad swampy zone, the famous lagoon, and almost all the population were soldiers.In 1502 a plan is drawn for a future city. In 1514 the title of "city" was requested and it was granted in January 1531. In 1561 the population of the city was 6.000, the most important of the Isles.In the 18th century the centre of gravity of the island moves gradually towards the port of Santa Cruz. But La Laguna was still the cultural capital with its urban life, society, art, and intellectual movement. In the 19th century it turned into an ordinary municipality. Nowadays it hosts the University and the youth that fills the classrooms brighten up the streets of the city, it has the atmosphere of an old intellectual metropolis where university has managed to exist since the 18th century.

Juan Martínez Torvisco is nowadays Deputy Mayor of the Cultural Area of the San Cristobal de La Laguna Town hall in Tenerife, Spain. He was town councillor of Historical Patrimony from 1999 to 2003. Besides his political carreer he is graduated in Psychology, and he dedicated his Doctoral Thesis to the topic the " Influencia de las características de los riesgos de las variables culturales y del sesgo optimista en la percepción del riesgo"