The offspring of Doctor Tomás Zerolo Fuentes, after whom a street in Santa Cruz de Tenerife is named, have lodged a legal challenge with the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) against the 2022 decree issued by the Ministry of Education of the Canary Islands Government. This decree approved the catalog of Francoist symbols, streets, monuments, and references present in the municipality, a contentious inventory currently undergoing repeal by the current administration.
The plaintiffs argue in their appeal, lodged at the Second Section of the TSJC on April 4, that the inclusion of Doctor Zerolo street in the deletion list violates article 13.1 of the Law of Historical Memory of the Canary Islands. They claim that the recognition given to their father by the Santa Cruz City Council “does not constitute an exaltation, either personal or collective, of the military uprising, Civil War, or dictatorship repression, but rather a tribute to a doctor with a well-established professional reputation widely acknowledged.”
The grounds for the appeal are centred on the contention that the previous regional government’s decree, which asserts that Tomás Zerolo was linked to the rebels and General Franco, “is illegal and detrimental” to the interests of the plaintiffs. Consequently, they are seeking to “declare the appealed decree null and void, including the removal of Doctor Zerolo street from the Franco catalog.” Furthermore, they are requesting the defendant to cover the legal costs.
According to the legal document accessed by DIARIO DE AVISOS, the catalog contains “completely inaccurate assessments” of the doctor’s professional trajectory, which, in the view of his children, justified the naming of a street after him seventy years ago in the capital.
It is pointed out that there have been “serious shortcomings in the operation of the Historical Memory technical commission, bypassing internal operating regulations, and the list preparation process does not comply with the law, as it was drafted before the commission issued the necessary previous report, resulting in significant deficiencies in the preparation and issuance procedure.” Additionally, it is argued that “the administration has left the plaintiffs defenseless by not granting them the legal right to a hearing during the catalog approval process.”
The legal case delves into the professional journey of Tomás Zerolo, a doctor with “well-established prestige” before the military uprising and the Civil War, a fact recognised by the catalog itself. The said doctor completed his medical studies in England in 1919, subsequently becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London a few months later.
Career Path
In 1932, he joined the Royal Academy of Medicine in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and, in 1940, was appointed president of the province’s College of Physicians. In 1953, he was honoured with the Grand Cross of the Order of Health.
Family members reveal that he represented Spain in the Official European War Mission in 1918 and served as a surgeon in various hospitals during the Civil War. He later managed the surgery clinic at the Santa Cruz Military Hospital and assumed the leadership of the College of Physicians in 1940 until his demise.
Furthermore, he established the Zerolo Clinic on Enrique Wolfson Street, where he carried out altruistic charitable activities for the unwell. In 1952, a new building was erected at the same location, named the Surgical Medical Center. To commemorate his first death anniversary, on January 27, 1957, the City Council dedicated the main street in the Bellamy estate adjacent to the building in his honour.
