Nicolás Estévanez (1838 - 1914)

Nicolás Estévanez Murphy (17 February 1838 – 19 August 1914) was a Spanish military officer, politician, essayist and poet. A federal republican, he briefly served as civil governor of Madrid and as Minister of War in the wake of the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic. A defender of the Africanness of his native Canary Islands, which were a central motif of his written work, he espoused a blend of anti-european, atheist, anticlerical, revolutionary and anarchist ideals. While he showed an unwavering commitment to Spanish patriotism, Estévanez has been reconstructed as a sort of father of Canarian nationalism by Canarian nationalist authors.