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This is the story of
Vicente Leal
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To help is to celebrate
What better reason to celebrate than knowing that you have helped to make a dream come true? A small gesture could mean that Vicente Leal can, finally, move back into his house and fulfill his dream or that of the rest of the people affected by the volcano.
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Experience the story
If you are the type of person who likes to experience stories firsthand so that you can retell them later, visit Vicente Leal's house and meet him in person. Together, you can enjoy a gin and tonic by Macaronesian Gin while he tells you how his dream conquered a Volcano.
VisitA dream that conquered a volcano
“
The Canary Islands
is a land born of volcanoes, just like its four sisters: the Azores, Cape Verde, Madeira and the Savage Islands
”
Everyone who was born in this region of the Atlantic -called Macaronesia (or "lucky islands"), and situated between northwest Africa and southwest Europe- owes everything to the volcanoes; its land, its livelihood, its way of life... But everyone who lives there also knows that Macaronesia is a land that’s alive; just as it gives to you, it takes from you too.
As a child, Vicente Leal went with his father, very early before dawn, to pick figs, grapes and chestnuts on a small plot of land overlooking the western oceanic façade of the island of La Palma. One day he had a dream: to build his house there. So, for 30 years, often with his own hands and with all his savings, he succeeded.
He fought for his dream with so much passion that 30 years later, everything was ready: In November 2021, Vicente was going to open a house for curious tourists which, attracted by the volcano, was going to become a haven of peace for travelers coming from all over the world to get to know the island of Palma.
His greatest wish was about to come true. But on September 19, at 3:13 p.m., the earth tore apart under his feet and the eruption began.
After almost 25,000 warnings, the first caldera violently erupted in the form of a seismic swarm, approximately 300 meters from where his son Saul and María, his life partner, were sleeping. The rest is history: the youngest volcanic cone in Europe left 2,600 buildings completely destroyed. 2,600 dreams. 2,600 stories. But while the Cumbre Vieja covered 1,200 hectares of land and created 50 meters of new soil in Spain,
a strange twist of fate took place whereby Vicente Leal, his family and friends had suddenly become the main characters of a beautiful story discovered by Macaronesian Gin, a new gin from the Canary Islands. And today, in 2024, we are telling you about it so that you can help us to make this story reach the entire world. The goal: to restore Vicente's dream and provide a lesson of resilience, hope and Canary Islander spirit to all of us who fight for our dreams.
MACARONESIAN STORIES
How can you explain to the whole world what the spirit of the Canary Islanders is all about? How can you convey the joy, creativity, resilience, wit and solidarity that so defines the culture of the people who inhabit this archipelago that forms part of Macaronesia? Call it what you may: a documentary film, an advertising short...
In this first film, we at Macaronesian Gin -a new gin from the Canary Islands that’s distilled with filtered volcanic water- wanted to display something that touches us all, Canary Islanders or not: the importance of fighting for our dreams.
We hope that this is the first of many stories, and we would love to hear from you if you know of any worth telling. Drop us a line at the contact below.