The historian, former politician and former trade unionist Oswaldo Brito passed away this wednesday morning after suffering health problems that worsened in recent months. Since he was a university student he was involved in the defense of workers’ rights. It was key in the strikes of transport, port or tobacco workers held in Tenerife in the last years of the dictatorship; actions that ended up becoming movements against Francoism. With the arrival of democracy he agreed to political activity. He came to serve as a deputy of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, senator or councilor for Culture and deputy mayor in La Laguna, among other positions. He was considered a great speakera Leader born from his youth, was part of organizations like Canarian Nationalist Left, Canarian Initiative (ICAN), Canary Islands Independent Groups (AIC) or the current Canarian Coalition (CC). He was a history teacher at University of La Laguna (ULL). Several of the people who knew him express that, along with his passion for politics and his character to defend the interests of the Archipelago, he had a great intellectual preparation.
“I can’t imagine talking about Oswaldo without citing his commitment to the progress of this land”
The lawyer and former councilor of the Canarian Government Víctor Díaz defines it as “a friend, a companion and a teacher.” He met Brito in the early 1970s, when Díaz was beginning to study Law and the disappeared politician had served as Student Delegate at the Faculty of History. For Víctor Díaz, even then he was a union leader, with a very good oratory and great analytical skills.
As a clandestine union leader, he took part in advising workers who carried out strikes in the buses, the port sector or the tobacco industries in Tenerife. In the opinion of the aforementioned lawyer, he “played a great role in proposing the unity of the labor movement on the Island.” Díaz evokes that he developed an important task in the constitution of ICAN and that, in addition, he was the one who took the initiative to declare that May 30 was the Day of the Canary Islands.
Thanks to his solid academic training, he also defended the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF) for the Canary Islands, as well as the position of the Archipelago in the incorporation of Spain into the European Union and the economic consequences that said measure would have for the population of the islands. The aforementioned lawyer recalls that, as a student of the History of the Canary Islands, he was interested in the socioeconomic processes that affected the population, especially in the popular classes. This lawyer and former regional councilor comments that, once he finished his activity as a politician, he dedicated himself to advising and preparing reports for different parliamentary groups.
“He played a great role in proposing the unity of the labor movement in Tenerife”
As Councilor for Culture of La Laguna, as Díaz recalls, he laid the foundations for the declaration of the historic center as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Among other things, he promoted the control of billboards in some streets or the burying of wiring. And, in fact, he continued to collaborate with the Cicop (International Center for Heritage Conservation). Until his hospitalization, Brito worked on preparing a story on the democratic transition in the Canary Islands, for which he conducted a considerable number of interviews and collected documents.
Wladimiro Rodríguez Brito, former councilor of the Cabildo de Tenerife for CC, remembers the deceased ex-politician as a person involved in social and intellectual affairs, “with a commitment that went beyond personal vanity.” He believes that he brought the University and knowledge closer to society. And the rigor that he applied to his historical studies was also transferred to the Autonomous Parliament and the Laguna City Council, he adds. “We are facing a significant loss,” said Wladimiro Rodríguez. Both came together in the Canarian Initiative (ICAN), although they came from different fields. “I came from the Communist Party and he was more related or closely linked to the social-Christian world, with the social church, more committed to the working world,” says the former island councilor for Agriculture.
José Segura, former president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, former mayor of La Laguna and former Government delegate, had known Oswaldo Brito since the early 1960s. «I had the Gauss Academy in La Laguna, where I gave private classes in Mathematics, Physics or Chemistry to high school boys and Oswaldo was one of my students». To this day, the prominent socialist politician keeps photos in his house of those groups of Academy students on the excursions they made periodically through Anaga. “We had a magnificent personal relationship and I value his political courage in defending the rights of workers in the last years of the dictatorship, to help the port or bus sector,” says the former island president. From his point of view, “he was a very unique figure in the last ten or twelve years of Francoism and the beginning of democracy.” He points out that he “had connections with groups linked to Christian democracy, and with people like Elías Yanes”, who became archbishop of Zaragoza and president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. He points out Segura that in the first legislatures of the Canarian Parliament he served as “magnificent, extraordinary and worthy deputy.” In 1991, the socialist politician came to the Mayor’s Office of La Laguna and Brito was part of the government group as Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Culture, “from where he did a great job in defense of Heritage,” he says.
«As a regional parliamentarian he was controversial and harsh, but always respectful»
José Carlos Mauricio, former Minister of Economy of the Canarian Government, states that he knew him a lot “at the time of the struggle against the dictatorship.” “He was a very remarkable political leader,” he comments. «A eulogy is always made when a person dies and the best of them tend to be remembered, but I am very sincere in saying that Oswaldo Brito was one of the most outstanding political leaders before and during democracy; a fighter for the Canary Islands and adviser to the union leaders».
In Mauricio’s opinion, “he had a lot of personality, with a strong character and was very capable, with great intellectual preparation.” The former politician from Gran Canaria evokes that he had “enormous charisma and helped create the Canary Coalition.” He thinks that «Canarian society should not forget characters like this; Oswaldo has been one of the best representatives of the Canarian people in its history». He admits that “I fought with him a lot, we debated and argued, but I admired him.” He believes that “discrepancy should not lead to underestimating or caricaturing the other.”
«Canarian society must not forget Brito; one of its best representatives»
Jerónimo Saavedra, former Minister of Public Administrations, Education and Science and former President of the Canary Islands, states that Brito had a great commitment to the history of the Archipelago. In his role as a parliamentarian, for Saavedra he was “controversial and tough, but always respectful; with whom I had a good relationship”, despite the fact that in recent years they had not seen each other. He appreciates that he participated in the democratic transition and contributed to the “stage of the construction of the Canarian Autonomy”. In addition, he explains that Brito’s thesis dealt with the history of the Canarian labor movement in the Second Republic. As a historian, he published various books, such as, for example, Second Republic, Transit to the Contemporary, The International Crossroads, Jurisdictional Conflicts in the Canary Islands in the 18th Century or History of the Canarian Workers’ Movement.
“A DEFENDER OF THE CANARIES”
Fernando Clavijo, CC senator and former president of the Canarian Government, stated yesterday on his Twitter account that “I cannot imagine talking about Oswaldo Brito without mentioning his commitment to the Canary Islands, to the progress of this land.” He added that «today a colleague has left us, a defender of the rights of Canarians, here and in Madrid; My condolences to family and friends.” Ángel Víctor Torres, president of the Canary Islands, expressed on the aforementioned social network: «At the end of August, the sad news of the death of Oswaldo Brito arrives. A defender of leftist nationalism and the labor movement. A great public servant. My condolences to family, friends and organization partners. The socialist deputy Tamara Raya explained that Brito was a reference in the left-wing nationalist movement, with a clear vocation as an activist in the defense of the workers in the last years of the dictatorship and in the first years of the transition. In addition, she stressed that he did an important job as a historian, not only as a professor at the University of La Laguna, but also as a researcher of tourist activity in the Canary Islands, Tenerife and, above all, in the Valle de La Orotava. In the opinion of Asier Antona, PP senator for the Canary Islands, Brito participated in a very important political stage for the Archipelago and was “a high-minded politician.” Although he admits that he worked on an ideological “spectrum” different from his own, he considers that Oswaldo did a great job “in the political debate, he was passionate in the defense of the islands and made possible agreements and consensus of the political class of that time, so necessary in current politics. The organization secretary of the Canarian Coalition in Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, highlights Brito who “contributed to the democratic and social construction of the Canary Islands” and who was “one of the heads to whom we owe the birth of the Coalition”, with whom he had ” the honor of collaborating. José Miguel Barragán, spokesman for the Nationalist Group in the Parliament of the Archipelago, points out that “another great figure of democracy in the Canary Islands is leaving us, who contributed his analyzes and proposals to improve life on the islands.”
