The authors express their disappointment that numerous municipal archives remain undigitised and highlight the “low proactivity” exhibited by certain locations.
La Laguna (Tenerife), 1 (Europa Press)
This week, Francisco García, the Rector of the University of La Laguna (ULL), welcomed the art history research team tasked with cataloguing symbols, streets, monuments, and references to Francoism in the Canary Islands. The third and final submission comprises a total of 9,300 pages pertaining to the remaining islands of the archipelago, following the earlier deliveries regarding Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the major island capitals.
As per the agreement established in June 2022 with the Regional Executive and in compliance with the stipulations of the Organic Law related to this matter, the catalogue lists the Francoist elements identified across the eight islands. Currently, there are a total of 428 registered items: 225 from the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and 203 from Las Palmas.
The remnants include names of public spaces, sculptures, objects, inscriptions, gravestones, coats of arms, and honours and distinctions that reference the period of dictatorship.
The endeavour has been spearheaded by Professor Isabel Navarro Segura of Art History, alongside Professor Jesús Pérez Morera, with the assistance of researchers Yanira Hermida Martín and Kumar Kishinchand López, and collaboration from Yolanda Peralta Sierra and Ricardo Guerra Palmero, as reported by the ULL.
In July 2023, the second phase of this project was submitted, focusing on the island capitals, and this third phase marks the completion of the research team’s efforts from the University of La Laguna. They refer to the challenging task of retrieving information from municipal archives, many of which still lack digitisation, and the “low proactivity” encountered in some areas.
Thus, by the end of March, this final project phase was submitted on time, which should be complemented by dissemination activities, as stipulated in the agreement signed with the academic institution, to ensure that its contents are widely recognised and appreciated at all educational levels across the archipelago.
The professor herself emphasises that there is a “profound ignorance” concerning Spain’s recent history and a worrying trend among younger groups to align with extremist right-wing factions.
She reports that following the agreement’s signing in 2022, while the first phase was in development, the Democratic Memory Law came into effect. This law represents, as she explains, a critical update designed to ensure essential alignment of institutional actions concerning historical memory both on a national level and across autonomous communities, given the varying responses.
A “pride” for the university
The existing law itself articulates an intention to “preserve and uphold the memory of the victims of war and the Francoist dictatorship, through the pursuit of truth as a right of the victims, the establishment of justice and facilitation of reparations, alongside a commitment from public authorities to remember, to prevent any recurrence of political or totalitarian violence.”
The catalogue serves as the procedure delineated in current legislation, which encompasses a registry of state vestiges, in collaboration with the Autonomous Communities through an integration process of the methods followed in the various regions of the country.
Alongside the catalogue, the law also mentions the potential establishment of a Virtual Documentary Centre for Historical Memory in the Canary Islands, the development of educational content for inclusion in primary, secondary, and high school curricula, as well as content creation for university programmes, all of which the ULL aims to address.
The present document has been formulated in accordance with this law, and its methodology has been submitted for approval before the authority defined in the regulation, the Historical Memory Technical Commission, which officially approved the document related to the first phase—municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife—in November 2022.
The rector remarked during the reception that the culmination of this extensive research project is a source of “pride” for the University of La Laguna, referring to it as a “magnificent way of imparting to society” the valuable knowledge cherished by the institution.
He also noted that the catalogue reinforces historical memory, ensuring “that we never forget what occurred,” while simultaneously serving as a powerful tool for citizens who have not had direct access to such significant facts from Spain’s recent history.
