Monument to Doctor Pérez Trujillo

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 1985 · Authors: Enrique Cejas Zaldívar

This sculptural ensemble is a tribute to José Pérez Trujillo (Puerto de la Cruz, 1895-Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1968), a distinguished doctor recognised for his immense professional and human work carried out altruistically in the El Toscal neighbourhood.

This illustrious man from Puerto de la Cruz graduated in Medicine from the University of Cádiz in 1920, practising his profession in his hometown until, in 1936, he was imprisoned in the Fyffes prison for his deep and rooted socialist political ideas. In that prison he stood out for attending to inmates who fell ill. After the end of the Civil War, José Pérez Trujillo was released and with great effort opened his consulting room on La Marina street, in the heart of the El Toscal neighbourhood. There, for years he attended his patients, many of them poor and humble, not only from El Toscal but also from other marginal areas of the capital (Valleseco, San Andrés, Igueste, etc.).

The monument that honours him is located in Patriotismo square, at the junction of four streets (Valentín Sanz, Suárez Guerra, La Rosa and Emilio Calzadilla) at the gates of the neighbourhood where he worked so much. It is the work of the sculptor Cejas Zaldívar and was inaugurated in the mid-1980s thanks to the contribution of the residents of El Toscal through a collection.

The ensemble features the figure made of artificial stone of José Pérez Trujillo, wearing his medical coat. It stands on a wide concrete pedestal covered with red plates (this is not the original base from when it was inaugurated).  Next to him appears the representation of Maternity, made of limestone.

Initially the sculptural group was called Love and Humanism . Two terms that define the honoured man.

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