Science cannot be understood as anything other than a living process in the search for knowledge. As information is obtained, the questions research scientists have asked themselves initially have to be reformulated, taking on a new dimension. And the answers become ever more complex. Real scientists leave a trail which is far more than a collection of relevant observations, facts which have been checked and some crucial discovery or other. Their real legacy is the impact of their work as a whole, in general: the work which allows societies to progress and surpass the achievements of predecessors.

One of those indelible legacies remains standing in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, alive and kicking and in very good health. The Museo Canario, located in the historic original centre of Vegueta, is a demonstration of the determination to enlighten which drove various locals from the island in that search for knowledge, locals who were educated in the sciences, history, literature or the arts. Today, the institution is not only the best possible exhibition of research concerning the life and culture of the Canarian natives: the society behind the activity of the Museum has been, beyond doubt, one of the most powerful and decisive citizen collectives to have worked for the cultural development of the city and of the Canary Islands.

Obviously, all of this was unlikely to have taken place without the appearance of a unique character in the Gran Canaria capital. Not someone who was born in the city itself, but definitely someone who is one of its most illustrious adoptive offspring. Gregorio Taumaturgo María de los Dolores Chil y Naranjo was born in the Gran Canarian city of Telde, in 1831. These were times of huge inequalities on the Canaries, after the collapse of trade between the American territories and the Canaries, and the halt in exports from the archipelago to the United Kingdom. Between the major agricultural landowners and the rural population leading a precarious existence, a small bourgeois society gained in strength, a society made up of small or medium-sized property owners and traders. This episode’s protagonist was born into this setting, a privileged one at the time.

In this case Gregorio Chil y Naranjo enjoyed the intellectual guidance of his uncle, Gregorio Chil y Morales, who was parish priest for the church of St John the Baptist in Telde, and later a canon at the Cathedral. He also held a Chair in Philosophy and Theology, and was Rector of the Conciliar Seminary. With such a fine godfather, the young Gregorio became versed in a range of cultural areas, and was also able to nurture his vocation in the best classrooms.

His thirst for learning took him to study in the Purísima Concepción Conciliar Seminary in Las Palmas, with its marked secular tone, which would then lead him to finish his degree in medicine in no less than the Sorbonne University, in Paris. The backing of his family and his demonstrable worth and dedication were both factors which allowed him to arrive in France at the time of the forming of the Second Republic, when notable scientific concerns were being raised around the current knowledge about human beings.

Gregorio Chil y Naranjo studied on the banks of the Seine between 1848 and 1858. He came of age in France, when he presented his doctoral thesis, Des différents moyens qui ont eté employés dans le but de guérir les rétrécissements de l’urétre (Different ways which have been used to cure urethral stricture). But, above all, he had been captivated by the questions posed by the new discipline of anthropology.

Now Doctor Chil, he decided to return to his island. First of all, he had his French credentials recognised by the University of Cádiz. And he was then able to set up his surgery and office in the Vegueta neighbourhood. Gregorio Chil y Naranjo practised medicine with dedication and verve, but also with an unstoppable humanist spirit. Influenced by the early French theorists of the new science, this good doctor dedicated his thinking to natural history, medicine, anthropology and politics in the Canaries.

So it was that he published numerous works in the Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), which he joined as a member shortly after returning, and which he presided over for a few years before his death. His personal life was not in line with the times either. He married Alejandra Jacques de Mesa y Merino, a strong and brilliant woman, of indomitable character; she was older than him, and had been widowed twice. They had a daughter together. Both she and the daughter, however, died prematurely.

When Doctor Chil wanted to remarry, he had to travel to Madeira: the local church did not approve of his studies on evolution, or the work he had carried out on the funerary practices of the native people of the island. His second wife was Rosenda Suárez Tascón.

One of Chil’s great contributions was, specifically, research into the lives and culture of the native Canarians, putting the Canaries on the world anthropological map, at a time when science was shaking society up with findings such as the appearance of Cro-Magnon Man.

Doctor Chil amassed a large quantity of papers, treaties, discoveries and articles of great scientific value. Concerned about a possible loss of his legacy after his death, he gave exact instructions for its conservation. On September 2, 1879, he headed the creation of the scientific society El Museo Canario, which would have a museum in itself, departments such as a section for copies, a library and even a regular scientific publication.

A floor of the City Hall headquarters would house this impressive collection until the contents, which grew and grew under the impetus of a very active society, made it necessary to move the Museum to the doctor’s home, after his death. It was not until the death of his widow, in 1913, that the institution was installed in its current location, at Number 2, Calle del Dr. Verneau.

Earlier, in 1899, Gregorio Chil y Naranjo was named a member of the Permanent Council of International Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology for the Congress which was held in Paris. It was here that he presented his work L’état social des aborigenes canariens ou Guanches, serait-il l’état social de la race de Cro-Magnon à sa plus haute civilization? (Could the social state of the Canarian native people or Guanches be the social state of the Cro-Magnon race at the highest point of its civilisation?) But this study does not define the tremendous impact of this scientific and cultural heritage, which has made him one of the most important researchers in the history of the Canaries.