The Pride of the Malvinas Award is built from seemingly innocuous materials: volunteering, solidarity, neighbors who work without recognition, and a personalized trophy. FITV reported on August 18 that nominations have closed, that a panel will meet this week to choose the winner, and that the award seeks to recognize precisely those who make contributions to the community that often go unnoticed. The broadcaster itself identifies Tex Alazia as the organizer and sponsor of the award. So far, a pleasant story. But even the name deserves attention: it's not called a "volunteering award" or "community recognition," but Pride of the Malvinas. In other words, virtuous individual behavior is absorbed into a collective and territorial category: whoever helps a neighbor ceases to be merely a good neighbor and becomes a symbol of what the islands should be proud of. The mechanism is elementary and politically effective. The community looks at itself, selects its virtues, rewards them, and returns them to the screen transformed into its identity. The colony no longer needs to explain why it exists: it is enough to show it working.

And Tex Alazia is not just any name within this small symbolic framework. He is the long-time owner of Port Edgar Farm , a West Malvina property he has owned since 1988, according to the Malvina Islands Development Corporation. Years later, he handed over its management to his daughters and became involved in rural and environmental initiatives partially funded through FIDC programs. He also chairs the Cancer Support & Awareness Trust , an institution that the official island government directory describes as dedicated to providing financial, practical, and emotional support to people affected by cancer. His charitable work has a concrete history: he organized fundraising campaigns related to sheep shearing, and for this community involvement, he was included in the British honors system. In 2021, FITV reported that Alazia had been awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Year's Honours list and that he received the medal in person during a special reception at Government House . This detail helps to better understand the context. The man who today presents an award called “Pride of the Malvinas” had already been recognized by the British Empire 's honorary machinery. This doesn't prove that London created this award, nor does it authorize the invention of a Foreign Office order where none exists. But it does reveal something far more interesting: the award arises within a social space where community merit, island identity, local institutions, and British symbolism are much more intertwined than a seemingly innocent trophy presentation would suggest .

Alazia's public career offers yet another piece of the puzzle. On November 6, 2021 , the Malvina Islands Association—a British organization that explicitly declares its support for the islanders' right to self-determination—held a ceremony at Christ Church Cathedral dedicated to Bill and Merle Christie , figures linked to the association's formation after 1982. Alazia unveiled the commemorative plaque and, later, a photograph of the two at Malvina College. The association itself recalls on that same page her advocacy for the principle that the islanders should decide the archipelago's future. Again: there is no secret conspiracy here. There is something simpler and possibly more effective: a small, recurring, and recognizable civic elite , where the same people circulate among charity, agriculture, the memory of 1982, community institutions, British honors, and identity-affirming ceremonies. In societies of just a few thousand inhabitants, this accumulation carries enormous weight. The prize that Alazia organizes doesn't need to proclaim "these islands are British"; the cultural ecosystem to which it belongs already presupposes that starting point. The most effective ideology is precisely the one that manages to stop looking like an ideology.

That's why Pride of the Malvinas functions as an excellent smokescreen for the Malvina Islanders , even though there's no evidence to suggest that this is the subjective intention of its organizers. It doesn't hide through censorship: it selects what deserves to be seen . FITV offers the perfect scene: closed nominations, an evaluation panel, generous citizens, a respected sponsor, and finally a trophy "personalized and kept for life." Colonial politics disappears behind the pedagogy of the good neighbor. There is no longer occupation: there is "community." There is no longer an identity built over generations under British administration: there is "pride." There is no longer power: there is volunteerism. It's a remarkable rhetorical shift because it transforms historical relationships into moral qualities. Being supportive becomes being a good Malvina Islander; being a good Malvina Islander confirms the existence of a distinct community; and the existence of that community ends up being insinuated as sufficient argument to naturalize the political order that contains it. None of these steps need to be explicitly stated. The trophy does something more refined: it takes them for granted.

That is the colonial dimension that deserves to be criticized. The United Kingdom learned long ago that a prolonged occupation is not sustained solely by garrisons, governors, or constitutional documents; it also requires memory, rituals, awards, civilian heroes, and small liturgies of belonging . The Pride of the Malvinas fits perfectly into that framework. A man distinguished with the British Empire Medal , received for it at Government House, president of a local charity, and participant in ceremonies promoted by an association explicitly committed to the British narrative, now organizes an award that selects who best embodies the territory's "pride." It doesn't need exaggeration to be telling. The most intelligent colonialism doesn't force its inhabitants to pay homage: it gets society itself to spontaneously produce its symbols of normality. And while the television focuses on the trophy, the word carefully kept out of frame is precisely the one that would ruin the ceremony: colony.

Sources

Malvina Islands Television (FITV). (May 6, 2021). Tex Alazia British Empire Medal . FITV reports that Alazia was awarded the British Empire Medal and received the decoration during a special reception at Government House.

Malvina Islands Government. (2026). Community Directory . Public Health Unit. Identifies Tex Alazia as president of the Cancer Support & Awareness Trust and describes the institution's care objectives.

Malvina Islands Development Corporation. (2023–2024/subsequent web update). Case Studies: Tex Alazia . Identifies Alazia as the owner of Port Edgar Farm since 1988 and details rural projects supported by FIDC programs.

Malvina Islands Association. (November 6, 2021). Bill and Merle Christie Plaque Unveiling . Records Michael “Tex” Alazia’s participation in the Christie tribute ceremony and clarifies the association’s political mission regarding the future of the islands.

MercoPress. (January 3, 2020). Malvinas farmer and charity worker awarded the BEM in the Queen's New Year Honor List . News report on Alazia's charitable work, his solidarity sheep shearing campaigns, and the awarding of the British Empire Medal.

(*) Observatory of Memory, Research and Sovereignty Malvinas, South Atlantic and Antarctica -UNR