Fernando del Castillo y Manrique de Lara

Fernando del Castillo y Manrique de Lara was born in Las Palmas in 1866. A law graduate and consort to the Countess of Vega Grande de Guadalupe, he participated in Gran Canaria’s cultural institutions and associations. He served as royal commissioner for development in Las Palmas, director of the Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País and president of El Museo Canario. His documented career connects the governance of these organisations with practical contributions to the preservation and organisation of heritage, rather than resting solely on his aristocratic position.

He directed the Economic Society between 1908 and 1911. Salvador Miranda Calderín’s historical study, based on its minutes and correspondence, distinguishes formal office from the institution’s everyday management. During those years, deputy director Dionisio Ponce de León carried a substantial share of the work. Fernando submitted an initial resignation in January 1908, shortly after his appointment, because he feared he could not fulfil his obligations. The board declined to accept it. In 1910 the deputy director chaired most meetings in his absence, although Fernando was nevertheless re-elected for the following year.

The same study documents a further request to resign in September 1911, finally accepted in October. Francisco Cabrera Rodríguez had served as secretary until 1910, followed by José Miranda Guerra in 1911. At the end of the year, Francisco de Quintana y León, Marquis of Acialcázar, was elected as the next director. This succession and division of duties show that the society’s work relied on several officeholders. Its collective activity should therefore not be credited entirely to the person who formally held the directorship.

His relationship with El Museo Canario is supported by institutional history and the catalogue of its collections. He had been a member since 1901. The record for a small pre-Hispanic ceramic ladle from Arguineguín, preserved under inventory number 3,259, identifies Fernando del Castillo y Manrique de Lara and José Jorge Artiles as its donors. Its arrival is dated to the interval after 1903 and before 1929, without a specific year. This documentation establishes a material contribution to the museum alongside his responsibilities in its governance.

The professional chronology of architect Fernando Navarro y Navarro records another initiative. As museum president, Castillo requested an extension to the facilities and the separation of the library from the exhibition rooms in 1915. The account concerns the rehabilitation project for the house bequeathed by Dr Chil y Naranjo. It documents a request relating to the arrangement of museum spaces, without crediting Castillo with the architectural design or establishing that every proposed intervention was carried out at that time. He died in Las Palmas in 1932. His biography is grounded in these documented responsibilities and contributions to Gran Canaria’s institutions.