Greetings from the President

The impetus that led me to create this Foundation is very clear.

 

I always thought that in Andalusia we could achieve something similar, taking into account that we have in a wonderful corner of our land the Blessed Virgin of El Rocío, the strongest and most lively popular Marian devotion of all those that dot our geography. The idea was very simple, and at the same time very ambitious, to trace routes of rural roads that would reach the Rocío from all corners of Andalusia, thus helping the local development of large areas in need of opportunities.

 

These routes can be traveled by people from all over the world who will thus enter an Andalusia perhaps less known but no less beautiful and possessing an immense natural, cultural and human heritage. They can come at any time of the year and travel the routes on foot, by bicycle or on horseback, which is of course nowadays a worldwide trend as a way to travel, and maybe many of them will become new rocieros.

 

This is an exciting and ambitious project that will undoubtedly succeed if all the social, business, media and political agents row in the same direction. We have the support of the Regional Government of Andalusia, whose President, Juanma Moreno, saw from the very beginning the enormous potential of this project and showed his institutional support, without which it would be impossible to face a challenge of these dimensions. We have significant help from the Ministry of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification, whose head, Antonio Sanz, has known the project from the outset and has been a strong supporter, for which we are very grateful.

 

We are also grateful for the support of many anonymous people; technicians, professionals, suppliers, as well as many public and private institutions that have encouraged us to continue dreaming and fighting for this dream, especially the Hermandad Matriz de Almonte, in the figure of its President, Santiago Padilla, as well as its Mayor, Paco Bella and all its Corporation. We also show public gratitude to the bishops of Huelva and Seville, Don Santiago Gomez Sierra and Don Angel Sanz Meneses, visible heads of an ecclesiastical hierarchy enthusiastic about spreading more if possible the love and devotion to the Virgen del Rocio.

 

We are a secular foundation, but all the members of the Board of Trustees (among which there are important personalities from the world of business, the judiciary, culture, tourism and academia), are fervent rocieros and believe in the values of the pilgrimage, such as the effort to achieve the goals, teamwork, companionship, austerity, respect for tradition and care for the environment. This does not detract from the fact that the project that concerns us is open to all kinds of people from any background or creed.

 

I am convinced that when a few years have passed and we have overcome the logical difficulties, the "Senderos del Rocío" project will be an indisputable reality that will undoubtedly contribute to the projection of Andalusia in the world and to the sustainable local development of large areas of our land, and that future generations will be able to enjoy forever what we are creating now with so much enthusiasm.