Canary Islands The connection to dogs is retained in their depiction on the islands' coat-of-arms. It is considered that the aborigines of Gran Canaria called themselves "Canarios". It is possible that after being conquered, this name was used in plural in Spanish, i.e., as to refer to all of the islands as the Canarii-as. What is certain is that the name of the islands does not derive from the canary bird; rather, the birds are named after the islands. Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the archipelago. Gran Canaria, with 865,070 inhabitants, is both the Canary Islands' second most
Religion in the Canary Islands same Alonso Fernández de Lugo (conqueror of this island) who in 1513 asked the Court to erect a new diocese on the island of Tenerife. However, this project would always have the opposition of the Grancanarian bishop. From this moment, the Canary Islands was divided into two dioceses: The "Diocese Canariense-Rubicense" that encompasses the eastern islands (Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) and "Diocese of San Cristóbal of La Laguna" or "Nivariense" that encompasses the western islands (Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro). In the Canary Islands, religious devotions of great tradition in history and culture are particularly important,