112
they knew us well and had been joint protagonists in the formidable advance
made by the IAC because of its powerful juridico–administrative status. There
were dramatic moments in which the Canarian news media and citizenry
took up cudgels. There was an air of indignation. Stevedores at the port of
Santa Cruz even offered to go on strike to ‘save el Astrofísico’.
On 20 July 1986, the local newspaper El Día published a large and expressive cartoon with Minister Maravall driving a steamroller bearing the name
‘Ministry of Education’ over Francisco Sánchez, who has ‘Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias’ written on his forehead, while the UCD deputy Luis
Mardones struggles vainly to halt the machine, and the socialist Canarian
President, Jerónimo Saavedra, joins his hands in prayer for Sánchez and the
coming elections (repeated elsewhere in the newspaper). In another corner
the minister Moscoso is seen launching a half volley with the ball of the
‘accords and agreements’ to Maravall. At the foot of the cartoon is written:
‘The Instituto de Astrofísica is carted off for dead’.
It was a hard-fought battle. Moscoso and Saavedra gave it up for lost and
withdrew. But neither I nor Dr. Alberto de Armas, a Canarian political historian who was then a PSOE senator, gave up the fight. I remember him with
gratitude and great affection. He had an apartment in the Edificio España in
Madrid, where he would receive me and we would chat. He finally managed
Fig. 12.2 A satirical cartoon published in the Tenerife daily newspaper El Día on 20
March 1986 concerning the Science Law and its consequences for the IAC inspired by
the attempt by Minister Maravall to crush the ‘IAC Consortium’, thereby depriving the
IAC of its juridical personality and capacity to operate. (Credit: El Día)
F. Sánchez
they knew us well and had been joint protagonists in the formidable advance
made by the IAC because of its powerful juridico–administrative status. There
were dramatic moments in which the Canarian news media and citizenry
took up cudgels. There was an air of indignation. Stevedores at the port of
Santa Cruz even offered to go on strike to ‘save el Astrofísico’.
On 20 July 1986, the local newspaper El Día published a large and expressive cartoon with Minister Maravall driving a steamroller bearing the name
‘Ministry of Education’ over Francisco Sánchez, who has ‘Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias’ written on his forehead, while the UCD deputy Luis
Mardones struggles vainly to halt the machine, and the socialist Canarian
President, Jerónimo Saavedra, joins his hands in prayer for Sánchez and the
coming elections (repeated elsewhere in the newspaper). In another corner
the minister Moscoso is seen launching a half volley with the ball of the
‘accords and agreements’ to Maravall. At the foot of the cartoon is written:
‘The Instituto de Astrofísica is carted off for dead’.
It was a hard-fought battle. Moscoso and Saavedra gave it up for lost and
withdrew. But neither I nor Dr. Alberto de Armas, a Canarian political historian who was then a PSOE senator, gave up the fight. I remember him with
gratitude and great affection. He had an apartment in the Edificio España in
Madrid, where he would receive me and we would chat. He finally managed
Fig. 12.2 A satirical cartoon published in the Tenerife daily newspaper El Día on 20
March 1986 concerning the Science Law and its consequences for the IAC inspired by
the attempt by Minister Maravall to crush the ‘IAC Consortium’, thereby depriving the
IAC of its juridical personality and capacity to operate. (Credit: El Día)
F. Sánchez