With the death of Juan Domínguez del Toro, who in different periods was part of the Santacrucero Consistory, one of the largest archives of memories that alone could describe our recent history with impeccable fidelity is lost. Despite his jovial character and the attentive availability he showed to tell the story in a relaxed way, we were never able to interview him, since he understood that there are reasons that must prevail in the field of confidentiality.
“Tell me that if you want, but don’t name me”, was the usual phrase with which he rounded off the narration, when we were in his office, occasionally coinciding with his friend and colleague Andrés Miranda Hernández, in the family business Productos Envasados SA ( Pesa), the world of sugar, which imported from the Caribbean islands, guaranteeing its customers the best quality. If there were a level to calibrate the feeling of Santa Cruz, Juan Domínguez del Toro would have to be placed beyond the top of excellence. That trait came from his cradle and he shared it with his wife Mónica, passing it on to his daughters María Mónica and Juana María, and to his granddaughter Gema. In the City Council, he demonstrated it without limits, following the evolution of the administrative interlinings, from the privileged position that being part of the group of councilors in the mayoralties of Pedro Doblado Claverie, Javier de Loño, Ernesto Rumeu de Armas and Félix Álvaro Acuña gave him. Dorta.
Juan Domínguez del Toro had the complex task of serving the residents of Cabo Llanos directly affected by the execution of the General Plan for Urban Planning (PGOU) by the architect Luis Cabrera, when Ernesto Rumeu was mayor. A new time was inaugurated for the island capital, which completely changed the appearance of those neighborhoods and gave way to strengthening the neighborhood in La Salud with the Thousand Homes.
Domínguez del Toro met the families one by one, from San Telmo to Regla, with whom he spoke and tried to arbitrate towards the best solution. Then other additions would come, giving way to what someone has come to call the Manhattanization of the area. At different times we count on your attentive clarification to the occasional doubts. To a simple question his voice came quickly with a burst of memories, with exact precision of the moment, as when he told us about the chance event that made him buy a shipment of clay jars on the dock that was destined for a South American port, and that at an almost symbolic price he dedicated to the landscaping of a section of the Ramblas, in front of the García Sanabria. The Carnival was able to him, since together with his partner in the Ernesto de la Rosa Corporation he began to form part of the Festival Commission, initially located in a small space on the ground floor of the Recova Vieja, in front of the Guimerá ticket office. Shortly after, after the transfer of the Municipal Police, they moved to the first floor of that building, counting on the good work of exemplary officials such as Aproniano Palenzuela and Juan Viñas, fundamental pillars that allowed the organizational complex to be set up in which with so many he worked tirelessly, attentive to the groups that required the support that he exemplarily knew how to give. Together with Juan Viñas, the efficient manager of the Fiestas, he made Tenerife’s Carnival recover its ancestral course of freedom and magnify it, overcoming old corsets. As examples, it is enough to cite the “burial of the sardine” in 1978, the first after decades of silence, with the distribution of hundreds of sheets and the slogan of respect, which added an unscheduled blackout, the result of the protest action of Unelco employees , and that did not bring any sign of alteration, because then the citizenship stood out for the high civic value, which each carnival person displayed, being the best defender of the festival as a space won for coexistence.
Years later, in 1985, together with the Cabildo, chaired by José Segura, he made it possible for our Carnival to give one of its best signs of authenticity in Europalia, landing in Antwerp, at the start of Spain’s accession process to the EU. Juan Domínguez del Toro loved Carnival without limits and defended at all times the actions of each carnival-goer and each group, since he understood that citizens, and therefore political leaders, should pay the greatest attention and support. The world of Carnival was able to honor him repeatedly.
