146
I mention an event that shows how el Astrofísico became implanted in
Canarian society. When, at the beginning of 1980, the Instituto de Astrofísica
was being moved to its new location in the south of La Laguna, the neighbours of Carretera de La Esperanza, which no longer led to either La Esperanza
or to the Teide, having been truncated by the extension of the runway of Los
Rodeos Airport, wrote a letter to the town hall earnestly requesting that their
road be renamed Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez. The reasons they gave were
quite charming: it would serve to ‘remember this very kind gentleman who
passed in front of our houses every day on his way to work’. After the usual
lengthy procedures, in 1986 there was a curtain-drawing ceremony to reveal
the new name in the presence of the authorities, the local police, a municipal
band, etc., all very reminiscent of a Berlanga film. But the most moving part
was that the neighbours had laid on food and refreshments in their homes,
with an invitation to all those present to ‘toast’ the event in Canarian style.
Once the Treaty of Cooperation in Astrophysics had been signed and the
IAC formally constituted with full legal rigour, our numbers began to swell
and the huts became overcrowded. We needed more land and I went, once
more, to see the President of the Cabildo of Tenerife, the intelligent, kindly,
and visionary Rafael Clavijo, to request an extension to the plot we were
occupying. To my surprise he refused. Instead, he offered us a much more
extensive plot in a better location, next to the road to Santa Cruz via La
Cuesta, so we went together to see it. On the way, he explained that his reasons were to do with urban development: he wanted to dignify the marginalized neighbourhoods in the southern part of La Laguna; if el Astrofísico were
to be located there, he reasoned, things would begin to change. And that is
actually what happened. Thanks to the vision of this politician, that zone is
now home to the Museum of Science and the Cosmos, and the Faculties of
Letters, Law, Economics, etc. There are pavements and public lighting, new
houses, shops, and bars, and the Santa Cruz–La Laguna tram passes right
through the neighbourhood. There is even an enormous statue of a halfnaked, defiant Guanche in front of the IAC, similar in style to the Indian
chiefs of western movies.
The present central headquarters of the IAC occupy an area of 22,000
square metres. Following the layout of the former huts, the departments are
interconnected by corridors to combat the adverse climate of La Laguna. We
obtained funding from the Presidency of the Government of Spain for the
building works as part of the package of commitments acquired through the
signing of the Treaty for Cooperation in Astrophysics. To ensure that the
building work was properly supervised we appointed as permanent works
manager Maximino Galán (‘Chiqui’), mathematician and head of our
F. Sánchez
I mention an event that shows how el Astrofísico became implanted in
Canarian society. When, at the beginning of 1980, the Instituto de Astrofísica
was being moved to its new location in the south of La Laguna, the neighbours of Carretera de La Esperanza, which no longer led to either La Esperanza
or to the Teide, having been truncated by the extension of the runway of Los
Rodeos Airport, wrote a letter to the town hall earnestly requesting that their
road be renamed Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez. The reasons they gave were
quite charming: it would serve to ‘remember this very kind gentleman who
passed in front of our houses every day on his way to work’. After the usual
lengthy procedures, in 1986 there was a curtain-drawing ceremony to reveal
the new name in the presence of the authorities, the local police, a municipal
band, etc., all very reminiscent of a Berlanga film. But the most moving part
was that the neighbours had laid on food and refreshments in their homes,
with an invitation to all those present to ‘toast’ the event in Canarian style.
Once the Treaty of Cooperation in Astrophysics had been signed and the
IAC formally constituted with full legal rigour, our numbers began to swell
and the huts became overcrowded. We needed more land and I went, once
more, to see the President of the Cabildo of Tenerife, the intelligent, kindly,
and visionary Rafael Clavijo, to request an extension to the plot we were
occupying. To my surprise he refused. Instead, he offered us a much more
extensive plot in a better location, next to the road to Santa Cruz via La
Cuesta, so we went together to see it. On the way, he explained that his reasons were to do with urban development: he wanted to dignify the marginalized neighbourhoods in the southern part of La Laguna; if el Astrofísico were
to be located there, he reasoned, things would begin to change. And that is
actually what happened. Thanks to the vision of this politician, that zone is
now home to the Museum of Science and the Cosmos, and the Faculties of
Letters, Law, Economics, etc. There are pavements and public lighting, new
houses, shops, and bars, and the Santa Cruz–La Laguna tram passes right
through the neighbourhood. There is even an enormous statue of a halfnaked, defiant Guanche in front of the IAC, similar in style to the Indian
chiefs of western movies.
The present central headquarters of the IAC occupy an area of 22,000
square metres. Following the layout of the former huts, the departments are
interconnected by corridors to combat the adverse climate of La Laguna. We
obtained funding from the Presidency of the Government of Spain for the
building works as part of the package of commitments acquired through the
signing of the Treaty for Cooperation in Astrophysics. To ensure that the
building work was properly supervised we appointed as permanent works
manager Maximino Galán (‘Chiqui’), mathematician and head of our
F. Sánchez