Juan Manuel Díaz Rodríguez

Juan Manuel Díaz Rodríguez was born in Valleseco, Gran Canaria, in 1921. He died in 2006. A physician and cultural advocate, he combined healthcare with support for educational, artistic and scientific institutions. His career was associated with haematology, El Museo Canario and the movement promoting a university in Gran Canaria. The description of the documentary collection preserved at the museum records these responsibilities alongside his interest in historical research and in safeguarding manuscript sources.

After completing secondary school, he entered the teacher training school in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He subsequently moved to Seville to study medicine. On returning to the island's capital, he joined the provincial health administration. According to El Museo Canario's archival biography, he helped establish Gran Canaria's first Centre for Haematology and Haemotherapy. This medical work provided the professional starting point for activity that also extended to education, culture and the institutional life of the island.

He presided over the scientific society El Museo Canario from 1967 to 1972. His relationship with the organisation was not confined to holding office: he gathered historical documents which he later donated to it. The museum preserves this group under the name Colección documental Juan Manuel Díaz, with the reference ES 35001 AMC/JD. The collection records a specific contribution to conserving written heritage, alongside his medical practice and administrative responsibilities.

He also consistently supported the Escuela Luján Pérez and was elected president of its board of trustees in 1979. In university affairs, he participated in the movement leading to the emergence of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He presided over the university foundation for more than ten years following its establishment in 1982. In 1991 the university awarded him an honorary doctorate. The institutional biography thus presents a career combining healthcare services with initiatives intended to expand education and cultural activity in Gran Canaria.

His writing included medical articles, newspaper contributions and historical studies. Among the latter was Molinos de agua en Gran Canaria, published by La Caja de Canarias in 1988. The REBIUN library catalogue records a volume of 649 pages, illustrated by Victorio Rodríguez Cabrera and with photographs by Armando Díaz Santiago. This work on the island's watermills stands alongside his medical and institutional activities as another expression of his interest in the past of Gran Canaria.

The collection he donated to the museum contains 54 documentary units, including manuscripts from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, predominantly from the eighteenth. Their creators include the Canarian Inquisition, the bishopric and military authorities. Most relate to Fuerteventura and the Cabrera family of the island's colonels; one compilation concerns Lanzarote. The documents were arranged according to their inquisitorial, episcopal or military origins, with an additional section for miscellaneous material. This documentary contribution provides a further dimension to a career already associated with medicine, artistic education and university advocacy. His legacy therefore connects the histories of healthcare and cultural institutions with practical support for preserving sources about the archipelago.