During the civil conflict in Spain, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, a multitude of young Canarians were called upon to serve on the battlefronts. The islands succumbed to the control of the rebels from the outset (with the exception of La Palma, which remained loyal to the Republic for a week following the military uprising, and El Hierro, which held a position of ambiguity until early August 1936). Consequently, the enlistments mandated by the military authorities impacted the population eligible for military service. Throughout the wartime years, numerous young individuals aged between 18 and 30 were mobilised. As the Republic’s grip on the archipelago weakened, it could not rely on the Canarian manpower to combat the military insurrection, although thousands of islanders participated—either because they found themselves in Republican-held territories during the coup or because they escaped the Islands in various vessels to join the Republican side. Notably, Dolores Ibárruri remarked on the radio, addressing the coup leader Queipo del Llano: “Queipo, close the cage before the canaries escape.”
