The Minister of Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, yesterday pledged to promote the Museum of the Masonic Temple of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, achieving the recovery of the funds from the Añaza lodge, located in the Archive of Salamanca, for their return to the capital.
Items related to Freemasonry, including a banner from 1900, along with books, aprons, swords, and medals that were confiscated by order of Franco, will now be displayed in the renovated building, which is nearing completion.
During a meeting with the Mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, and Jesús Soriano, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for Spain, Torres stated, “The Masonic Temple of Santa Cruz will receive bibliographical resources and a range of items to transform it into a museum. The objective is for it to be visited by the public, allowing people to understand the true history of Freemasonry, which played a fundamental role in our country’s intellectual development and was persecuted during Franco’s dictatorship in a wholly disgraceful manner.”
Torres added that a “roadmap” has been established during the meeting, along with a draft agreement for the development of the future museum centre, “which we will also present to the top officials at the Archive of Salamanca, where we know important material related to Freemasonry is held.”
Moreover, Torres announced that the Ministry has already requested a list from the Salamanca centre of the funds that were taken from the Masonic Temple in the Tenerife capital during the dictatorship and are currently preserved there. He clarified that he will hold a meeting with the head of the Archive of Salamanca to facilitate the return of the funds to Tenerife.
“We aim to promote a decentralisation decree to ensure that not only the offices and agencies but also the bibliographical resources belonging to our cultural heritage are returned to their original locations,” noted Torres, who reminded that “Freemasonry was a fundamental movement for intellectual growth and self-awareness, which was regrettably persecuted during Franco’s dictatorship. The intention is to recover its presence as it was in the 1930s, so we will continue discussions with the Archive of Salamanca with that aim.”
For his part, Mayor José Manuel Bermúdez outlined the council’s intention to demand from the State the funds from the Añaza lodge, “to be transferred to the Masonic Temple, the inauguration of which we hope to conduct before the year ends. These are a set of items that were removed from this site and that we now request be returned to their original place.”
Bermúdez elaborated during the meeting with Torres, “We have discussed material objects and books that we know to be in the Archive of Salamanca.”
He added that the goal is “for them to be exhibited in the future Museum of Freemasonry in the Temple, and we have agreed that the best way to realise that request is through the signing of an agreement between the Ministry, official Freemasonry, and the council to manage this recovery.”
“The Añaza lodge – the mayor emphasised – was responsible for building the Temple, highlighting the importance of recovering the existing records of their work.” Bermúdez is hopeful that progress can be made swiftly on this agreement, for which a draft already exists that the various parties are committed to develop.
Meanwhile, Jesús Soriano, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree and the last of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for Spain, remarked that “the aim was to align Santa Cruz’s aspirations to enrich the Masonic Temple and the Ministry’s willingness, which is aware of the existence of a standard from the Añaza lodge, with significant historical and artistic value, currently stored in a climate-controlled room at the Archive of Salamanca.”
Also present at the meeting were the Councillor for Works, Javier Rivero, the territorial delegate of SCG33, Florentino Guzmán, and the Culture manager, Carlota Cobo.
“The Franco monument must be reinterpreted if declared BIC”
The Minister of Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, hopes that the Franco monument will either be removed or, if specialists conclude that it should be declared a Good of Cultural Interest (BIC), be reinterpreted “so that viewers understand what it was, what it reflected, and what it stood for.”
If that is not the case, the law must be followed and “it should be removed,” he added after the meeting with Mayor José Manuel Bermúdez, indicating that he agrees “on many issues” with the mayor, as democrats have no differences when it comes to eliminating that which opposes democracy.
