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Stafeto

© David Poulson

In October 1945, at the age of 27, Juan Regulo Perez graduated from the State University of La Laguna, Tenerife and, with the support of his Dean became an underpaid tutor in the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (Belles Lettres). Although at the time he was probably delighted with the position as a way of performing the task at which he was so good - teaching - I wonder if he would also have been mildly shocked if he had known that he would remain attached to that University for the next 39 years!

Probably not. He loved his small island and he loved teaching, philology and poetry. And, as a further act of kindness, his Dean, Professor Elias Serra Rafols, allowed him to conduct an extra-curricular course in Esperanto during the teaching year. Unpaid, of course.

The Esperanto class, however, was cancelled in 1947 when a new vice-chancellor took up his appointment at the university. Regulo, however, refused to let this mean-spirited act of petty tyranny stop him and he managed to get permission to re-locate his classes to the La Laguna Polytechnic in La Laguna and an elementary school in Santa Cruz.

In a commemorative poem, Marjorie Boulton described Regulo Perez as a fighter of dragons. The first dragon was that of his own social origin...the difficulty which confronted a talented child born to hard-working but illiterate agricultural labourers.

"Per intelekt', sciamo kaj laboro,
li venkis drakon de socia prem'
maljusta; li konkeris por si mem
la karieron, brila profesoro."

Next he had to confront the black dragon of fascism, the plague of Europe.

"Forportis lin, en fumospiro densa,
la nigra drako, plago de Eu^ropo,
la monstro de malamoj kaj miopo;
en koncentrej', li restis liberpensa."

And, set free from captivity, he was still harassed by the dragon of "Philistinism," - the reactionary attitudes of the government of Spain during Franco's dictatorship.

"Hejme, post liberig^o el abismo,
c^iam antau^en iris li stafete,
riske kaj sinofere, servoprete,
kontrau^ la drako de la filistrismo."

That last dragon he overcame by sheer persistence and talent. He managed to persuade a new Vice Chancellor to re-establish his extracurricular Esperanto class, and his teaching in the mainstream curriculum and his research won him the respect of his colleagues. However, it was not until 1977 that his teaching qualifications and the other paraphernalia of citizenship which had been denied him in 1936 were restored. Regulo was finally given the proper status and salary of a university professor. He was 62 years old and had suffered 41 years of "internal exile."

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