Isolita Santoveña

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Squares, streets & markets · Year: 1921-1996

In the Cuesta Piedra neighbourhood we find this street dedicated to the social activist and swimmer Isolita Santoveña Cortina (Oviedo, Asturias, 1921 – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1996). 

This woman arrived in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1931, aged ten, when her father was assigned as an official of the Banco de España (Bank of Spain). After studying secondary school and later completing the degree of Perito Mercantil at the Escuela de Comercio (School of Commerce), she worked as an administrative assistant in a company exporting agricultural products. 

Very soon she began practising competitive swimming at the Balneario facilities and on some beaches that still remained on the Santa Cruz coast after the Civil War. She participated in numerous local, provincial and national competitions. At the age of 20, she was part of the Canary Islands team that won the bronze medal at the IV National Championship of the Sección Femenina, held in Madrid, and of the first female swimming team from the Canary Islands that participated in the Spanish championships, held in summer 1942 at the Real Club Náutico de Tenerife (Royal Nautical Club of Tenerife), where they finished in third place. The following year, the Canary Island swimmers, with Isolita on the team, became Spanish champions in Barcelona.

The great social work of this woman began in 1967 when, together with Dácil Vilar Borges, she dedicated herself to advising and helping the less fortunate residents of the marginal neighbourhoods of Santa Cruz. Ten years later she was treasurer of the Asociación de Cooperación Juvenil San Miguel (San Miguel Youth Cooperation Association), where she worked on prevention, assistance and social reintegration of drug addicts. The facilities of this important welfare association were located from the 1980s in the upper part of Horacio Nelson Street.

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