Secundino Delgado

Secundino Delgado Rodríguez (1867–1912) was a Canarian journalist and politician, considered by some to be the father of Canarian nationalism.

Biography

Secundino Delgado was born on the Canary Island of Tenerife, in 1867. He grew up during a period when a large proportion of Canarians (about one quarter) were emigrating to the Americas. In 1881, he emigrated to the United States where he met and married Mary Tifft, with whom he had two children, and was naturalised as a US citizen. He lived Florida and worked in Tampa's tobacco industry, within which he joined the growing anarcho-syndicalist movement. In 1894, he became editor-in-chief of the anarchist newspaper ''El Esclavo''. He was arrested his involvement in organising a strike action and for his writings in support of anarchism and Cuban independence, which together informed his developing perspective of Canarian nationalism.

When the Cuban War of Independence broke out, Delgado went to Cuba to support the liberation movement, but was soon forced to leave after he was accused of bombing a Spanish military base in Havana. In 1897, they moved to Venezuela, where Delgado met up with other Canarian emigrants and established the Canarian nationalist newspaper ''El Guanche'', in which he criticised the waning Spanish Empire and called for an anti-colonial insurrection in the Canary Islands. As the newspaper was funded by the Canarian petty bourgeoisie, Delgado toned down his anarchist ideology and emphasised Canarian nationalism as an ideology to unite Canarian workers and small business owners. ''El Guanche'' was never distributed in the Canary Islands, but was widely read among the Canarian diaspora in Venezuela, causing tensions between Canarians and other Spanish expatriates. After two years of publication, the Venezuelan government censored the paper, under pressure from Spain, and Delgado was exiled to Curaçao.

After the establishment of a United States Military Government in Cuba, Delgado began to fear a US invasion of the Canary Islands, which led him to temper his criticisms of Spain. After staying in Cuba for a brief time and becoming a Cuban citizen, in 1900, he returned to the Canary Islands. Back on his home island of Tenerife, he established a trade union and an autonomist political party, in collaboration with anarchists and liberals. After his party failed to win seats in the 1901 Spanish general election, Delgado joined the Federal Democratic Republican Party, within which he continued to advocate for workers' rights and Canarian autonomy. The following year, the Minister of War Valeriano Weyler demanded Delgado be imprisoned for the Havana bombing in 1896. Although Delgado insisted he was innocent, he was taken to Madrid and kept in prison for 11 months. In 1903, he was released following intervention by the United States embassy, which had pointed out that Delgado was a Cuban citizen, not a Spanish one.

Aided by the republican politician Nicolás Estévanez and the anarchist activist Fermín Salvochea, Delgado returned to Tenerife, where he began working for the Canarian left-wing newspaper ''Vacaguaré''. Unable to overtly advocate for Canarian independence or anarchism, under the surveillance of the Spanish state, Delgado advocated instead for Canarian self-governance and workers' self-management, which were considered acceptable political proposals under the Bourbon Restoration. He increasingly expressed goodwill towards sympathetic Spanish thought leaders and criticised the native Canarian ruling class for perpetuating Spanish colonialism. He also began to consider Canarian identity within the broader context of ''Hispanidad'', while keeping it distinct from Spanish identity. In 1904, he released his autobiography, which was published in Mexico to avoid Spanish censorship. The following year, he traveled to Argentina and Uruguay, where he visited local Canarian communities. He also briefly lived in Mexico and Cuba until 1910, when he finally returned to Tenerife. Both his children died shortly after his return. In 1912, Delgado died from tuberculosis in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Political thought

Delgado's conception of Canarian nationalism was transnational and cosmopolitan, inspired by his travels and the dispersion of the Canarian diaspora throughout the Americas. Delgado's nationalism was an anti-colonial rather than ethnonationalist ideology, eschewing the idea of a unified ethnicity and instead centreing the shared class conditions of Canarian people. Delgado saw Canarians as a subaltern and considered the Spanish identity to be inherently hegemonic. He encouraged modern Canarians to emulate their ''Guanche'' ancestors and fight against Spanish colonialism; to Delgado, being ''Guanche'' meant being a rebel.

Delgado recognised his own Spanish heritage and often referred to himself as a settler colonist, while also refusing to consciously self-identify as Spanish. He viewed Canarian identity within the context of ''Hispanidad'', in which Spaniards had an "illegitimate pretension to rule all Hispanic territories", including the Canary Islands and Cuba. Delgado thus identified Canarians as an "equal and independent" part of the Hispanic family, highlighting the commonalities between Hispanic peoples oppressed by Spanish colonialism and native Spaniards oppressed by the Spanish state.

Delgado's synthesis of anarchism and Canarian nationalism was inspired by Mikhail Bakunin, who advocated for social revolution while also supporting anti-imperialism. In his autobiography, Delgado described himself as "a revolutionary but never a partisan. Words also enslave, even the words republic, socialism, anarchy. No, I am just a revolutionary, a rebel – no more than that."

See also

* Independence anarchism

References

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Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Delgado, Secundino
1867 births
1912 deaths
20th-century anarchists
Anarcho-syndicalists
Canarian independence activists
Canarian nationalists
People from Santa Cruz de Tenerife
People of the Cuban War of Independence
Politicians from the Canary Islands
Spanish anarchists
Spanish emigrants to Cuba
Spanish emigrants to the United States
Spanish trade unionists
Writers from the Canary Islands