The last urbanized street by the current government group of The rosarylocated right at the foot of Mount La Esperanza, already bears the name of the Emeritus Professor of Botany at the University of La Laguna (ULL) Wolfredo Wildpret. The new name for the road arrived yesterday, World Nature Day, and comes to distinguish the work of an outstanding academic who has been a resident of El Rosario for several decades.
“I don’t remember in my life having had such a splendid recognition as the one that is being given to me today,” said Wildpret during the ceremony, in which he was accompanied by family, friends, colleagues from the academic field, neighbors and a wide representation of the Municipality of El Rosario. “The mayor was right to fill the place,” said the botanist about the enclave chosen to name the road, between El Roquillo and Madroño Goteras streets.
Wolfredo Wildpret is, among other distinctions, Canary Islands Research AwardHonoris Causa doctorate from the Leibniz University of Hannover (Germany) and César Manrique Award for the Environment from the Canary Islands Government. This Thursday he remembered when his father bought a house in the highlands of Tacoronte and his mother, of German origin, gave him a blanket of hope. “Who would have thought that on the other side of the summit, in the municipality of El Rosario, I would one day receive a blanket of hope that I am proudly wearing,” she said. “Those are the great fantasies that occur when the unexpected of the present and the future occurs,” she added. “I am here thanks to my wife,” he indicated, before specifying that, looking for accommodation on the Island, she told him that she would like to reside in Radazul. “We live happily in an incredible place,” she said, noting that even her son has a close link with the municipality.
«I am a fighter against what I think we are doing wrong; produces me horror to see these days what is happening in Ukraine. Sometimes I don’t fully understand how human capacity can lead to such brutal destructive levels when, on the other hand, we are trying to save nature,” he reflected at another point in his speech. And he contrasted: «Today is a day of hope. I do not lose hope that this can change.
Also, Wildpret held out his hand to the mayor. “The little time I have left, you have me at your disposal for whatever you need, to have a glass of wine to consult with me about something I can help you with,” offered the academic. And both merged into a hug.
The address of Wolfredo Wildpret It arrived after the reading of the plenary agreement and the discovery of the plaque, which was followed by the gift of a metope and a blanket of hope, as a vernacular symbol of the municipality. “It is no coincidence that we designate this street with the name of a person who has worked so hard for the conservation of the environment and for the dissemination of the Bosque del Adelantado, because here the La Fuente ravine begins, which crosses our beloved forest, that that Wolfredo, with his knowledge, has made me admire, if possible, even more”, highlighted the mayor of El Rosario, Escolástico Gil.
“Listening to Wolfredo Wildpret is always surprising,” said the leader of the Initiative for El Rosario-Greens (IR-Greens), and recalled that in his childhood he played in the surroundings of the Bosque del Adelantado and that he never thought that decades later someone like him would arrive. Wildpret to tell him: “This is an ancient forest”. And he later stated: “There are no coincidences. This street is the ideal place because from here inwards there is nature, which he has loved so much». The councilman of Sí se puede, Fidel Vázquez, who was the instructor of the honors file for Wildpret, considered that the name of a street with his name “is the least we should have done for a long time.”
