On February 8, 1937, the side in revolt against the government of the Second Republic attacked civilians fleeing from Malaga towards Almería, after the city fell into the hands of the Francoists. Refugees fleeing by the thousands, in what is known as the DisbandThey were intercepted in an attack by sea, led by the cruiser Canarias, and by air, with the collaboration of Benito Mussolini’s Italian planes. The result was a massacre in which between 3,000 and 5,000 civilians were killed. In 1980, one of the four propellers of the Canarias cruiser was delivered to the city of Santa Cruz by the general commander of the Canarias Maritime Zone, Vice Admiral Francisco Jaráiz Franco, adoptive son of Tenerife, as recorded in the municipal archives . This propeller was exposed until yesterday at the entrance to the North Pier of the Port of Santa Cruz, a point from which it was removed by the Port Authority.
The propeller is one of the Francoist vestiges that are included in the Catalog prepared by the Government of the Canary Islands, a document that has not yet received the approval of the Historical Memory Technical Commission, but for which the Port Authority did not want to wait of Santa Cruz, since being installed on port land is competent to remove it. This part of the Canarias cruise has been stored in the warehouses of the Port until its final destination is decided.
The study carried out by the Santa Cruz City Council in 2019, on compliance with the Historical Memory Law, already included this element, and pointed out that it should be withdrawn due to its connotations of exaltation of the Franco regime. In said study it can be read that “the Canarias cruiser was the most popular ship in the Spanish fleet during the Franco dictatorship, being used by Francisco Franco for his maritime journeys, always present in headlines that highlighted its importance in the victory during the Civil War and in several reports of the different NO-DO newscasts. The flagship of the Spanish Navy made its last stopover in the port of Santa Cruz, on June 21, 1974, the date on which a tribute was paid to it”.
The Deputy Minister of Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Juan Márquez, celebrated this removal of the propeller through his Twitter account, which he defined as “good news”. “The Historical Memory Law is complied with, with moral reparation for the victims of one of the greatest massacres of the Civil War, the Disband”.
From the Tenerife Historical Memory Association, Mercedes Pérez Schwartz also celebrated the withdrawal. “Puertos is complying with the Historical Memory Law. That had to be withdrawn because it was like paying homage to a massacre.” She pointed out that “the Port has shown that the law can be complied with without waiting for any catalogue, as has been done in other cities.” “In the same way, the Monument to Franco has to be removed, and if it is not done, it is because there is a lot of reluctance,” she concluded.
