CajaCanarias 2025 Awards Honor Wildpret, Tenerife Symphony Orchestra

The CajaCanarias 2025 Awards ceremony took place this Friday at the foundation's cultural center in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Journalists Raquel Toste and Carlos Centurión hosted the event, which also featured a musical performance by Raquel del Rosario. Humberto Orán, president of the CajaCanarias Foundation, presided over the awards, symbolized by a sculpture by artist Carlos Nicanor. He was joined by members of the foundation's board, the judging panels for each category, and singer Raquel del Rosario. Various authorities and representatives from cultural, political, and social organizations across the Islands also attended.

In his address, Humberto Orán highlighted the rich history of the CajaCanarias Awards, which began over 50 years ago. He noted that more than 250 entries were submitted across the different categories, with 65 competing for the Manolo Millares Plastic Arts Award. This competition, he stated, has significantly boosted new artists from the Islands.

Orán explained that the awards aim not only to recognize the achievements of the winners but also to support and encourage their entire careers. He added that the awards reflect a continuous pursuit of excellence and its promotion, enriching society as a whole.

A poignant moment of the evening was the tribute to Tenerife painter Cristino de Vera (born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1931, died in Madrid in 2026), who passed away on January 16. A video created for the occasion was screened, followed by writer Juan Cruz Ruiz's reflections on the Canarian artist's life and legacy.

For the second year running, the CajaCanarias Foundation presented its honorary award. This year, it was exceptionally given to two recipients:

• Wolfredo Wildpret, a botanist, naturalist, and conservationist, was honored for his outstanding scientific career and crucial contributions to understanding, preserving, and sharing the natural heritage of the Canary Islands.
• The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra received the award for its vital role in the Island's cultural life, providing consistent, high-quality programming, cultivating new audiences, and promoting Tenerife nationally and internationally.

The 41st Benito Pérez Armas CajaCanarias Novel Prize, worth 7,000 euros, was awarded to Víctor José Ruiz Guzmán for his novel Nudo. The foundation described the novel as both a place and an experience of strangeness. It's a story, but also an exploration of language as an unstable territory, where someone supposedly alive guides someone supposedly lost towards an equally uncertain fate.

The Pedro García Cabrera Poetry Prize went to Román de Jesús del Pino González for Como el miedo de un molusco sin concha (Like the fear of a mollusk without a shell). This work is characterized by an initiatory and visionary tone, often exploring a liminal consciousness between earth and life, human and animal, language and matter. It is a sober, confessional poetry with strong symbolic elements.

María Laura Dueñas González won the Isaac de Vega Short Story Prize for Metaloides, a collection of short stories where the author explores memory and experiences in both rural and urban settings.

The Manolo Millares Plastic Arts Award, with a prize of 5,000 euros, was given to Maï Diallo for Body Horror I. Her works, Body Horror I and Body Horror II, examine the body as a site of conflict and vulnerability. Using chewing gum, the artist investigates the mouth as a sculptural cavity and a homogenizing force, creating a metaphor for the erasure and violent assimilation of marginalized bodies.

The Cebrián-Poldo Cebrián Photography Prize was awarded to Roberto Casañas for his series Paisajes de Canarias (Landscapes of the Canary Islands). His images, focusing on cracks and imperfections in walls, prompt reflection on architecture, urban development, and the pressures on limited island territory.

The Manolo Villalba Short Film Award once again featured three categories:

• Fiction: Awarded to Inmaculada by Amos Milbor.
• Documentary: Awarded to De interés insular (Of Insular Interest) by Marta Torrecilla González.
• Animation: Awarded to Mundo pecera (Fishbowl World) by Marco Antonio Toledo Oval.

The Alberto Delgado CajaCanarias Young Music Award went to the Ana Ayala Quartet feat. Cristopher Pérez. The ensemble includes Cristopher Pérez (saxophone), David Muñoz (double bass), Kevin Díaz (piano), Rubén Bueno (percussion), and Ana Ayala (flute and project leader).

Finally, the Agustín de Betancourt Research Prize was awarded to Paula Belén Barbero for her work Trabajo y educación infantil en el mundo rural de Tenerife al final del siglo XVIII (Work and Childhood Education in Rural Tenerife at the End of the 18th Century). This research uses a database of over 17,000 households and 74,800 inhabitants to analyze domestic economy, work, emigration, childhood, and the role of women in Tenerife between 1769 and 1860.