On a day like yesterday, 50 years ago the municipalities of El Rosario and Santa Cruz de Tenerife signed the act of annexation by the latter of a third part of the territory of El Rosario (15 square kilometers) and 11,000 of the 15,000 inhabitants of this municipality became residents of the capital, after a popular consultation, currently becoming districts 11 and 12 of the Southwest. Thus, the wishes of four residents who began a segregation campaign five years ago that was finally carried out by the mayor of that time, was fulfilled. Elias Bacallado Hernandezafter the acceptance of his namesake from Santa Cruz, Pedro Doblado Claverie, although in 1972 the reception was signed by his successor Ernesto Romeu de Armas (died in 2006), after the approval of the civil governor.
Such a historic transfer, unique in Tenerife in that century, was commemorated yesterday in the Gabriel Cruz square in Llano del Moro, very close to where the signing took place 50 years ago, La Asomadilla. So much Escolástico Gil as José Manuel Bermúdez, the current mayors of the two municipalities recalled the headline left by that quote: “Santa Cruz bigger, El Rosario magnified.”
The act was a tribute to those two mayors who promoted the agreement, although yesterday only Elías Bacallado Hernández (mayor of El Rosario, 1962-1983) could be present. “It was difficult to make the decision and some did not understand it, but in the end something was done that would be impossible to do today, even with popular consultation,” recalled the veteran politician and businessman.
Bermúdez recalls that “in 1968 it was agreed to accept the transfer of this territory by El Rosario, with all the conditions established by its corporation, the result of negotiations and conversations between the mayors of both municipalities” and highlighted that “it was highlighted At that time, the great importance that the aggregation represented for the future of the Capital City of the Province, which is why the mayor at that time, Pedro Doblado, proposed to the corporation to appoint the mayor of El Rosario, Elías, as Honorary Councilor from that moment on. Bacallado, which was approved unanimously and with applause”.
“Thus,” Bermúdez recounted, “hard work began to prepare for what happened just fifty years ago today, in 1972, which was the definitive signature by which Santa Cruz de Tenerife became larger in territory” and brings to mind “the At the same time that El Rosario grew” and ends up defining the territory “from the El Muerto ravine to the San Francisco de Paula road, from the road to Guía de Isora and up to the Humilladero Ravine, the Second District became in the 11th and 12th districts of the capital, and with it its population, 11,000 residents who woke up in another municipality”.
The mayor of El Rosario, Escolástico Gil, stressed the importance of a historical event in which he stressed the need to give the value it deserves to a decision as brave and generous as that one. “This is a commemorative act so that the new generations know what that transfer meant and that El Rosario is recognized for its solidarity with the capital of the province. Santa Cruz would never be what it is today without the contribution of El Rosario. With a municipality that could not grow, it was El Rosario that allowed Santa Cruz to be the co-capital of the Canary Islands”, he said.
“This gesture made possible the demographic expansion of Santa Cruz through the old Second District of El Rosario. They added to their territory what are now six neighborhoods such as El Sobradillo, Tíncer, Barranco Grande, La Gallega, Santa María del Mar or Añaza, among others, as well as industrial zones that would not have been possible to develop, or the coastal strip between Hoya Fría and Akoran”.
“Never again – GIl continued – has an event like this occurred in the province and I dare say that no one will ever do it again. For this reason, since I have been mayor I have always claimed that there was an outstanding debt with our municipality, since El Rosario had to wait more than 40 years for us to begin to pay off the debt” and added that “first, with Carlos Alonso as president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, when between 2015 and 2019 we obtained more than 25 million euros” and specified that “and in these last three years with the commitment of the Vice President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Román Rodríguez, who has been essential to carry out other very important projects for El Rosario”. “The generous gesture that we carried out 50 years ago makes us part of history. We could be bigger, but never more in solidarity with the whole of the island of Tenerife”, concluded Escolástico Gil.
Javier Rivero, today a councilor for the Southwest District of the capital of Tenerife, highlighted that “from that moment on, the focus of the urban development of the city and the metropolitan area was placed on this area, with the management of the El Rosario Industrial Estate, which was in charge of creating residential urban land between Los Andenes and El Sobradillo” and, on the other hand, “the implementation of the highlands of La Gallega, the creation of public housing in a perfect urban neighborhood like Añaza, the promotion and consolidation of Los Alisos, phase I and II, or one of the most recently created residential areas, such as the Acorán neighborhood.
“The almost 15 square kilometers of territory -adds Rivero- have experienced a significant increase in population” and argues that “in this way we already have a municipal nursery school, eight Infant and Primary Education Centers (CEIP), the only center for mandatory education in the municipality, three institutes and professional training, avenues, boulevards, parks and green areas, soccer fields, sports centers, three Primary Care centers, squares in all neighborhoods and towns, or the Tenerife Athletics Center, among others public endowments”.
Now, through the Southwest Avanza strategy “the investments that we have to promote from the different administrations have been identified, together with the neighborhood associations, and jointly to offer new opportunities in this wonderful area,” the councilor highlighted.
At the end of the act, which recognized the figure of both local corporations of the time, Elías Bacallado received from Bermúdez a metope with the city’s shield as honorary councilor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and former mayor of El Rosario, which highlights his figure essential in the future of both corporations.
51,000 inhabitants in the Southwest
On December 30, 1972, after completing a file that began four years earlier, El Rosario ceded a third of its territory (15,000 hectares) and 64% of its population (11,000 of the 15,000 inhabitants it had) to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. then), in what are now called the 11th and 12th (Southwest) districts of the capital. That agreement, as Bermúez recalls, allowed the expansion of Santa Cruz, without the capacity to grow at that time, thus currently adding 51,000 more residents between the neighborhoods from the medianías to the coast of El Sobradillo, Tíncer, Barranco Grande, La Gallega , Santa Maria del Mar or Añaza. That cession of land was promulgated by migrant residents of those neighborhoods and transferred by Elías Bacallado to Pedro Doblado, who finally accepted such a generous offer for the growth of the capital.
