Francisco de la Torre Prados
Mayor of Malaga Malaga is currently preparing its bid to be named European Capital of Culture for the year 2016. Distant though it may seem, the aforementioned date in fact marks the turn of a Spanish city to be unveiled before the rest of Europe and the whole world as European Capital of Culture for the year. Malaga boasts a multi-millennial cultural heritage and the city has retained the same vocation for welcoming a wide spectrum of different peoples since its foundation nearly three thousand years ago. Indeed, from the times of the Phoenicians, enterprising merchants who discovered sailing as a vehicle for communication and progress between peoples, right through to the present day, in which our city is perceived by the world as a melting pot of international, domestic and local culture alike, Malaga’s cultural heritage has embraced both its past history and its current development, and, with your help, the city is more than capable of presenting its bid and being proclaimed European Capital of Culture 2016 when the accolade is awarded in 2012.

In order to achieve this aim, we need everybody, not only malagueños by birth or adoption but also all those who believe in our city, to lend us their backing and show their support for Malaga.

As Mayor of Malaga, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you all to send us your support either by post or via this web site so that in 2016 we can fulfil our dream of being European Capital of Culture.



European capitals of culture

JORGE HERNÁNDEZ MOLLAR GARCÍA
Ex Member of the European Parliament

The proclamation of Malaga as “European Capital of Culture” for the year 2016 would provide the city with the opportunity to carry out a year-long cultural programme focussing on the richness and diversity of the different European cultures.
In order to achieve this, all of the city’s institutions and inhabitants must join forces in order to come through, one by one, all of the trials inherent in a lengthy process that will culminate in the designation by the European Council of the city proposed by Parliament to share, along with another from an Eastern European country, the honour of being cultural capital ten years from now.
We have time, then, to prove in fair, enriching competition with other Spanish cities, that Malaga, with its historical roots, cultural diversity and profound “Mediterranean vocation”, is more than capable of providing a world showcase for Europe’s cultural riches and the common elements that characterise them.
The responsibility for this task does not fall to a single institution, the City Council; it represents a challenge for all of the citizens of Malaga, who must make full use of all of the human and media resources available to convince those charged with considering our bid that Malaga is a cultural reference point for the entire European Mediterranean region and a meeting point for two continents, Africa and Europe, which today more than ever need to get to know and understand each other better.
The people of Malaga will need the support and solidarity of all of their political, economic and social representatives in order to work together in this exciting adventure.



Malaga, a european city

JUAN ANTONIO GARCÍA GALINDO
Professor at the School of Communication Sciences, University of Malaga

XXI-century Malaga is a vibrant city that is growing in every sense of the word and reconciling itself with its place both in the world and in history. Its dynamic, enterprising character provides the energy that the city transforms from within to prepare itself for the future, though now more than ever it is doing so from the standpoint of acknowledging its multicultural past. A city of contrasts, Malaga has succeeded in reappraising itself and providing solutions to the problems that once beset it in order to journey into the new century with high hopes of enjoying a new renaissance.
Malaga, a liberal city, the first to oppose any threat to freedom, is today an open, cosmopolitan city whose idiosyncrasy lies in its very universality. By virtue of its history, Malaga is a city that is both universal and European, the true urban forerunner of a cultural diversity that is only now beginning to characterise contemporary societies but which has long formed a major part of Malaga’s human heritage. Malaga is a European city because it has created an identity of its own based on diversity, on respect for cultural plurality and on tolerance and solidarity, values inherent in European civilisation, but also because it is a symbol of modernity, a city open to all prevalent currents in art and thinking, the cradle of great artists and intellectuals, and a present-day focal point for technological innovation. Malaga is also a university city with academic links throughout the whole continent.
The European settlers who have made their home here in Malaga over the centuries have also made a significant contribution to the heterogeneous nature of our human landscape, bringing Europe closer to these Mediterranean shores in the process. Through its people, Europe is present in Malaga; what is more, Malaga is one of those places in which Spain becomes more European, where Europe is most eagerly received. Its cultural and linguistic diversity makes the city a veritable melting pot in which Europe is clearly recognisable and where the people of Malaga themselves see relentless culture building as an integral part of their own identity. The dialectic relationship maintained by the city with its surroundings in its capacity as a European city in which Europe meets Spain and where both find their gateway to the Mediterranean and North Africa is responsible for another of Malaga’s cultural singularities, namely its status as the bridge, the nexus, between different worlds, and a meeting place for syncretism and racial integration.