These two protected Canarian assets were united in a programme of activities that included workshops for all ages and whistled telegrams based on literary references from the municipality.

“La Laguna and La Gomera walk hand in hand today, the Silbo flies through their streets, twinned heritages” was one of the messages that, throughout the morning, connected the balconies and rooftops of the monuments of the historic centre of La Laguna. The whistling masters and mistresses made words of unity and celebration resound in the Rose of the Winds that trace the streets of the only World Heritage city of the Canary Islands and on a day in which these two properties included in the Unesco list were united to commemorate the International Day of World Heritage and to announce the 25th anniversary of the declaration of La Laguna.

The Councillor for Cultural Heritage, Adolfo Cordobés; the president of the Silbo Gomero Cultural Association, Estefanía Mendoza, and the promoter of the initiative, Rogelio Botanz, received the first message of the day in the Casa de los Capitanes. “The heritage values of La Laguna are not only linked to monuments or the layout of the streets, but are present in all cultural assets and in the human legacy of centuries of history. And we must not forget the important population of Gomeran origin of La Laguna that, in the mid-twentieth century, settled in the municipality, bringing with them these traditions and linking them to our heritage and identity,” recalled Cordobés.

The Department of Cultural Heritage of the City Council of La Laguna and the Silbo Gomero Cultural Association joined forces to offer a commemorative programme which, in addition to the whistled messages, was accompanied by participatory activities and introductory workshops to the silbo gomero for all ages at the Lercaro Palace. These have been led by teachers and children whistlers, both from La Gomera, as well as belonging to the Network of educational centres for the Teaching of the Silbo Gomero in the Canary Islands.

Another of the most striking initiatives was the “whistled telegrams”, a demonstration of the capacity of the “silbo gomero” to transmit any message. A table in front of the Teatro Leal offered the public the chance to choose a paragraph at random from various books on the heritage of La Laguna, which was then transmitted by the whistlers.