More than a mountain: the contentious multiplicity of Tindaya (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands)

Abstract

The mountain of Tindaya (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands) has been surrounded by controversy since the mid-1990s. It is, at once, a listed indigenous site, a protected natural environment, a mining resource, and the designated location of a monumental intervention by artist Eduardo Chillida, consisting in digging a grand cubic cave in its interior. This article conceptualizes Tindaya as a contentious multiplicity and analyses the mountain's competing enactments. The state's Tindaya is a 'partitioned' mountain, an entity split into different dimensions (cultural and natural; interior and exterior) that can be both legally protected and excavated. In contrast, activists have enacted a 'holistic' mountain, characterized by the inseparability of its multiple 'values' (archaeological, geological, environmental) and the need to protect it as a single whole. These two enactments constitute 'worlding' practices connected to opposing understandings of the relationship between heritage, nature, and the future. For the state, the mountain is an asset to be exploited, an opportunity to bring about prosperous futures fashioned after the spectacular projects of the metropolis. For the activists, Tindaya represents a unique opportunity to rethink the island's development model and to put indigenous heritage and environmental concerns at its centre. Tindaya's unresolved multiplicity is therefore political in the broadest sense: it is a reminder that reality can be otherwise.'Do not touch Tindaya' , read the banner; 'the Monument already exists' , said the t-shirts. A dozen activists representing the Coordinadora Montaña Tindaya (Tindaya Mountain Coordinating Committee, henceforth Coordinadora) stood at the entrance of Fuerteventura's Government Building, about to make a statement. A few local journalists awaited, mics and cameras ready. It was Thursday morning, 23 March 2017. 'We are here today' , said Santos, 1 the Coordinadora's spokesperson, 'to announce the summit taking place this weekend, which we have called "Canary Islands for Tindaya" to underline the fact that the struggle for the mountain of Tindaya, like other recent environmental disputes, is a matter of concern for the whole archipelago' . Before outlining the activities organized as part of the summit -including talks, a festival, and a guided tour of the mountain -Santos announced that the five main environmental NGOs in Spain (Friends of the Earth, Ecologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, SEO Birdlife,

Waiting for Tindaya: Modern ruins and indigenous futures in Fuerteventura

“…Paradoxically, it was precisely this instrument, designed to expedite the Monument’s construction, that became largely responsible for its indefinite suspension and the closure of the quarries. The valuation and trading of the mining rights, the partnership agreement and the contract underpinning the construction of the Monument were all taken to court by activists, prompting a series of trials and appeals that have stalled the project to this date (see Marrero-Guillamón, 2021). The evidence released in the trials shows how the grand futures for Fuerteventura attached to Chillida’s Monument were entangled with rather pedestrian practices of speculation with and trading of the mining rights.…”