"My little girl cries out/ from all the continents/ for justice to end so much/ misery and so much suffering" reads the poem by Marc Granell, "Lullaby for awakening consciences" that the mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, read this afternoon in the first civil welcoming ceremony that Valencia celebrated today in honor of Roc, a two-month-old boy. Together with the poem by the Valencian Granell, he also read "Cómo se dibuja un niño", by the poet Gloria Fuertes in a ceremony, novel and without any legal validity, which took place in the Palauet de los Jardines de Monforte in the city .
The mayor has presided over this first civic act, after the Local Government Board approved last February to have a protocol and an adequate space so that Valencian families who wish to can offer their new members a citizen welcome on the sidelines of any particular religious rite, as a kind of 'civil baptism'.
The protocol approved for this type of act contemplates that the mothers or fathers of the children, their relatives or legal guardians, can intervene to reaffirm their commitment to the protection and defense of the fundamental rights of the minor. After all the interventions, the act concluded with the signing of the Municipal Citizen Charter and delivery of the copy signed by the parties to the relatives of the new member of the community.
The ceremonies of welcome to citizenship will be held, according to the special action protocol approved last April, on the first Monday of each month. Currently, the City Council has confirmed that there are already registered applications for the coming months, until after the summer break, since ceremonies are not expected to be held during the months of August or in the week of Fallas).
As stated in the protocol approved by the Governing Board, the ceremony constitutes "a formal act without legal effects, the purpose of which is to welcome a new member of the family and the city." Therefore, the act of welcome "does not have legal effects nor does it imply any privilege or preference of the boy or girl in access to municipal services."
