May Day 1936 Rallies and Demonstrations in the Bullring

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1936

May Day 1936 was celebrated with great exaltation in Santa Cruz de Tenerife by the left-wing political forces. The Popular Front had won the elections in the previous February and this "Labour Day" was a genuine proletarian exaltation in the city with the holding of not one but two large mass rallies in the Bullring.

The first, organised jointly by socialists and communists, began at half past ten in the morning and gathered around 4,000 people from all corners of the island. Speakers included the Palmero José Miguel Pérez and the Portuense Florencio Sosa Acevedo for the Communist Party (PCE); and several PSOE leaders and a UGT union leader such as Santiago Albertos for the socialists. After the event, a demonstration composed of a uniformed crowd marched through the main streets of the city with red flags and portraits of Stalin, singing the Internationale and other proletarian anthems. The march ended in Plaza de la Candelaria, in front of the Civil Government headquarters, where the governor Manuel Vázquez Moro, from the balcony, expressed his satisfaction both for the image of unity offered by socialists and communists and for the civic behaviour shown. The event ended with enthusiastic words and cheers for the Republic. 

The second rally was organised by the anarchists, a group with a strong presence in the city at that time. At a quarter past three in the afternoon, as many as 8,000 people gathered in the Bullring. Local anarcho-syndicalist leaders such as Isabel Hernández Marichal and Antonio Espinosa spoke. The highlight was the prominent anarchist leader Mauro Bajatierra, who had been sent expressly from the Peninsula to the Islands to take part in the event and to give a series of lectures in the following days. After the speeches, a large demonstration took place, highlighting the powerful strength of anarchism on the island at that time.

The display of left-wing forces shown in these two political events caused deep fear among the bourgeois and right-wing sectors of that deeply divided society. The atmosphere was charged with rumours, fears and premonitions about what might happen. It should be remembered that Francisco Franco was the military commander of the Canary Islands at that time. Two and a half months later, this military man would leave for Morocco to command the troops that rose up against the Popular Front government, triggering the terrible Spanish Civil War.

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