Statue of La Rambla

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 1915 · Authors: Enrique Cuartero y Huerta

This monument in honour of Infantry Captain Diego Fernández Ortega is simply known as "The Statue", perhaps because it was the first public representation of a person installed in the streets of Santa Cruz. 

The work, originally by sculptor Enrique Cuartero y Huerta, was inaugurated on 25 July 1915, in an area then surrounded by some notable buildings, now disappeared, and plots still to be built on.

On a circular enclosure accessed by two steps rests the square base of the monument, enclosed by four pilasters once linked by chains and now by a railing, enclosing a gardened space from which rises the commemorative sandstone column topped by the bronze bust of the honouree. 

Infantry Captain Diego Fernández Ortega, born in Santa Cruz, participated in the African War taking part in the Battle of Barranco del Lobo in Morocco. In this battle, after all his superiors had fallen, Diego Fernández took command until he was seriously wounded. Once recovered, on 5 January 1915, stationed near Ceuta, upon seeing that an infantry section had lost its officers, he led it, driving the enemy away. After the combat, he remained on the battlefield helping to collect the dead and wounded, when he was struck by a bullet that ended his life. His heroic behaviour was so admired by his comrades that they decided to open a subscription to immortalise his figure in this monument, which they gifted to his hometown.

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