Juan García "El Corredera"

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: People

If there was ever one person who should represent the Historical Memory of the Canaries, exemplified by the crimes and knock downs that an inhumane system could throw at any one individual on the run, then that would undoubtedly be Juan García, “El Corredera”. It is surely this collective conviction that has brought the people of the Historical Memory of the Canaries to demand that the day of his execution be commemorated as the Day of Historical Memory of the Canaries.

The story of Juan García has been written and told by many different means, at least two books among them, namely, El Corredera, aquel fugitivo de leyenda, by Gustavo Socorro, and La verdad sobre El Corredera, by Alfonso Calzada Fiol, his lawyer, plus documentary cinema, poetical works including the sublime Romance del Corredera, by Pedro Lezcano, adapted to music by Mestisay, and other songs dedicated to the man from Telde (“Al Corredera”, by Braulio). It remains, however, a little and badly known story, as usually happens with things to do with our lands. There are also elements that didn't help until fairly recently to get a general picture of the story. For instance, even though his affiliation with the comunist party was denied by some of his family and by Alfonso Calzada Fiol himself, we now know this to be true, and lasted at least until 1947. There are those who place him in the Plaza de San Gregorio in Telde, on 18th July 1936, together with other left wing supporters such as Juan del Peso, Elsa Wolf, José Collado and Francisco Casimiro, all armed with pistols and shotguns.

What we do know for sure is that he was a military fugitive and lived in hiding until 1947, working in the canning industry in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. When he thought he was no longer in danger, in 1947 he returned to his native Telde, where he learned of all kinds of abuse meted out to his family by eager local Falangists –namely butcher Vicente Santana Trujillo- as they knew of their whereabouts. This hounding seemed especially hostile on his sister Pino, but also on his mother and the rest of his sisters. Juan García decided to take the law into his own hands and killed the Falangist, after which he fled to the island's summit, signalling the start of a second stage of his persecution. During this year, and in hiding alongside comunist councillor Francisco Casimiro in a refuge, he took part in a scuffle in which a Civil Guard policeman was killed, while another one was injured. In 1949, Casimiro was arrested and sentenced to thirty years' prison. Meanwhile, the legend of El Corredera grew and grew. It wasn't until 1958 when after a betrayal he was finally cornered and caught in La Culata de Tejeda.

Juan García Suárez was tried by both civil and military courts. In the first hearing, he was sentenced to nine years for murder, attempted murder, and illegal possession of weapons. In the military court he was sentenced to death. From the moment he was arrested until the day he died, the campaign to save his life was quite unprecedented in a society that was literally squashed by the dictatorship. Bishop Pildáin himself managed to get Pope John XXIII to plead for clemency to Franco, without being able to stop one who had killed so many. In the many attempts to save the life of El Corredera we find the seeds laid by Canarias Libre, a group of nationalist left wing young executives including Fernando Sagaseta, Carlos Suárez and Andrés Alvarado. He was executed in the prison of Barranco Seco by the garrote vil strangulation method on 19th October 1959.

28.093949, -15.424399