José Miguel Alzola

José Miguel Alzola González was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 24 March 1913. He graduated in Law from the Universidad de La Laguna and joined the Las Palmas Bar Association in 1949. Alongside his legal career, he researched the history of the Canary Islands, particularly Gran Canaria and its capital.

Biography, art history and ethnography were central to his research. He wrote about Chano Corvo, Juan de Quesada, Salvador Cuyás and Víctor Grau-Bassas, and studied the island’s customs and urban spaces. El Museo Canario highlights the accessible, engaging style of his biographical writing.

His books include Iconografía de la Virgen del Pino (1960), La rueda en Gran Canaria (1968), La Cueva Pintada de Gáldar (1974), co-authored with Antonio Beltrán Martínez, and El millo en Gran Canaria (1984). They reflect the breadth of his interests: artistic and archaeological heritage, material culture and island traditions.

He became a full member of El Museo Canario in 1952 and joined its governing board the following year. He chaired the institution from 1972 to 1987. During his tenure, its exhibition rooms were redesigned around the pre-Hispanic history of Gran Canaria. As provincial delegate for Fine Arts, he promoted the protection of monuments and improvements to archaeological sites.

His work earned him the Premio Canarias for Historical Heritage in 1999 and the honorary titles of Hijo Predilecto of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Gran Canaria. He died in his home city on 6 May 2014.

His legacy includes the documentary collection he assembled throughout his life and deposited at El Museo Canario in 1995, 1996 and 2003. The archival description, updated in 2021, records 90 boxes of personal papers, correspondence, research materials, heritage reports and records relating to Domingo Déniz Grek and the entailed estate of Arucas. Following his death, the collection became the museum’s property in accordance with his wishes.