Tribute to Don Ramón Gil-Roldán

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 1968 · Authors: Nicolás Granados Raimundo

This sculpture is located in García Sanabria Park, at the corner between Numancia and Veinticinco de Julio streets. It was created in 1968 by the sculptor Nicolás Granados Raimundo as a tribute from the Santa Cruz City Council to the poet and politician from Tenerife, Gil Roldán.

Ramón Gil-Roldán y Martín (1881-1940), graduated in Law from the University of Seville in 1906, was a national teacher, lawyer, professor of Roman Law and History of Law at the University of La Laguna. A convinced republican, autonomist and defender of the island councils, he opposed the provincial division, advocating for the creation of a Canarian region endowed with an autonomous statute. His motto was "The Island, first; then, the Region, and afterwards the Mother Nation." He was president of the Board of Works of the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife between 1931 and 1933, as well as a deputy to the Cortes for the Tenerife Republican Party, and president of the Inter-island Provincial Commonwealth of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In June 1936, he proposed the drafting of a Canarian Regional Statute , which never came to light due to the outbreak of the Civil War.

He was the author of the literary works El Crimen de Arguayo and the poem La Tierra y la Raza (included in the Cantata del Mencey Loco).

The sculpture we see is a bronze bust on a stone pedestal, showing the figure above the shoulders. The pedestal is an elongated prism containing the inscription: “ To Gil Roldán. 1881-1940- Poet and tribune. Deputy to the Cortes. The city. 1968.” The entire ensemble is surrounded by magnificent vegetation.

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