The juries of the Canarias 2025 Awards have designated the winners in the three categories of this edition: Literature, Sports, and Popular Culture.
Thus, they have proposed to the president of Canarias, Fernando Clavijo, that this year’s awards be given to Juan Jesús Armas (Literature), Michelle Alonso (Sports), and the Center of Popular Canarian Culture (CCPC) (Popular Culture).
The president of Canarias, Fernando Clavijo, personally communicated to the awardees the concession of the ‘Canarias 2025 Award’ after the decision of the juries of the three disciplines.
Clavijo highlighted the recognition of the awardees’ trajectory both inside and outside of Canarias and mentioned that the award will be presented during the institutional event celebrating Canarias Day on May 30.
Canarias Literature Award 2025
Juan Jesús Armas Marcelo is a Spanish novelist, essayist, and journalist who is also a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, and holds a degree in Philology and Classical Literatures from the Complutense University of Madrid.
He has been invited by various universities around the world and also by the Cervantes Institute to give lectures on mestizaje, the Spanish language in the world, the literatures of the Spanish language in Spain and America, Canarias as a synthesis of America and Spain, and on his own work.
He has focused a large part of his professional career on writing novels, articles, and literary essays.
In 2009, he received the Gold Medal of Canarias and in 2011, he was appointed as an academic member of the Royal Hispano-American Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters of Cádiz. A year later, in 2012, he was designated as a member of the Institute of Canarian Studies in the branches of Literature and Journalism.
He has also served as a jury member for the Cervantes Prize and as a member of the Jury for the Prince of Asturias Awards in Literature.
Currently, he is the director of the International Vargas Llosa Chair and under his initiative, the ‘Hispano-American Writers Festival’ was founded, which takes place annually in Los Llanos de Aridane in La Palma.
Canarias Sports Award 2025
Michelle Alonso Morales is an athlete who competes in adapted swimming.
In her record, she has three gold medals in the Paralympic Games of London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, and Tokyo 2020, in the 100 meters breaststroke SB14 category.
Additionally, the Canarian swimmer has won over 130 medals in various competitions.
In 2013, she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit, awarded by the Higher Sports Council, and she was the flag bearer for the Spanish team at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020.
In 2022, she officially retired from high-level competition, and in 2024, she received the Gold Medal from the Tenerife Island Council.
Canarias Popular Culture Award 2025
The Center for Canarian Popular Culture (CCPC) was founded in 1977 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife.
Since its inception, the CCPC defines itself as an Autonomous Cultural Movement whose main objectives are the promotion of culture in all corners of the archipelago and the development of Canarian culture.
Over these 47 years, it has collaborated to strengthen Canarian identity, promote unity in Canarias through culture and collective memory. In 1980, it published its first book and established a record label.
Among the activities carried out by the CCPC are cultural events, cultural congresses in Canarias, as well as gatherings of Canarian Popular Culture and major festivals and other special productions, including the Sabandeño Festival, which it organized for 29 editions with groups from Latin America and Europe.
As a producer of cultural events, it has organized tours for international figures, as well as tours for Canarian artists both abroad and within the archipelago.
The CCPC has a book publishing house and a record label with a catalog of over 900 books and almost 300 published titles, respectively, and also manages a bookstore and the Radio San Borondón station.
Among its collections are a collection of classic super 8mm films and a photographic archive.
In 1999, it received the National Folklore Award, as stated by the Canarian Executive.
Juries
The Literature jury of the Canarias 2025 Awards is composed of Elsa López (Canarias Award, 2022), Ángel Sánchez (Canarias Award, 2018), Juan Manuel García Ramos (Canarias Award, 2006), Carmen Márquez, Carmen del Puerto, Guadalupe Martín, Jonathan Allen.
The Sports jury of the Canarias 2025 Awards is composed of Andrés Orozco from the Real Club Náutico de Tenerife (Canarias Award 2013), Maica López from the Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria (Canarias Award, 2000), Sergio Rodríguez (Canarias Award, 2018), Carla Suárez (Canarias Award, 2021), Enhamed Mohamed, Marta Mangué, and Romina Lamas.
As for the Popular Culture jury of the Canarias 2025 Awards, it is composed of Elfidio Alonso (son) (Canarias Award, 1997), Juan Carlos Jiménez from Los Gofiones (Canarias Award, 2018), Manuel Lorenzo (Canarias Award, 2022), Ancor Suárez from the Community Development Project of the Aldea de San Nicolás (Canarias Award, 2003), Mayte Henríquez, Milagros Luis, and Rosario Cerdeña.
