Nicolás González Lemus, a Philosophy graduate and History PhD from the University of La Laguna, passed away yesterday at the age of 71. Among his thirty or so books, his work includes writings on the presence of the musical group The Beatles on the island (The Beatles in Tenerife: stay and beatlemania) and the novelist Agatha Christie (Agatha Christie in Canary Islands). His latest publication is titled English Piracy in the Canary Islands. He will be transferred from the San Juan Church funeral home in the Villa de Arriba to Santa Lastenia for his cremation at 11:00 a.m. today.
Tourism was an essential part of his research and work, including his work “The Islands of Illusion” (Britons in Tenerife, 1850-1900), From the Martiánez Hotel to the Taoro Hotel, The Canary Islands in the British and Foreign Bible Society, The 1910 German Expedition to the Teide, Travelers for sun, beach, and rest, and Victorian Travelers in the Canaries, introduced by the Hispanist Sir Raymond Carr.
A member of the Royal Historical Society, he spent several periods in London during the writing of his doctoral thesis, “The Genesis of Tourism and British Presence in the Canary Islands. Tenerife (1850-1900).” He also belonged to the Institute of Canarian Studies, the CSIC, and the Institute of Hispanic Studies of the Canary Islands, where he founded the Catharum magazine.
His biography reflects his role as a professor of Economic History of Tourism in the Canaries, at the Iriarte University Center of the University of La Laguna in Puerto de la Cruz, where he founded the Tourism magazine and organized the center’s publishing.
He also received the Álvarez Rixo Research Award, as well as the III Mare Nostrum Award and the Antonio Rumeu de Armas Historical Research Award. Among his activities, it is noted that he assumed the direction of the Social Sciences and Humanities section of the Lemus bookstore while working as a professor.
His curriculum includes his membership in the Scientific Council, where he co-authored, along with the volcanologist Juan Carlos Carracedo and the current director of the space, Manuel Durbán, a fundamental document for the request for the designation of the Teide National Park as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.
Another milestone of Nicolás González Lemus was his role as principal investigator, coordinator, and director of the Historical and Geographical Evolution of Travel and Tourism in the Canary Islands project, organized by the Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, in collaboration with the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) in 2010.
For the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, the Orotava historian conducted research on the English travels to the Canary Islands and their role in the invention of tourism in the late 19th century.
