Ronda Bandit Museum

LOS BANDOLEROS - ROMANTIC VILLAINS OF ANDALUCÍA

From their robbers’ dens around Ronda, Bandoleros roamed the provinces of Málaga and Cádiz until well into the 20th century. Symbolising the poor man’s plight in old Andalucía, they became romantic figures, whose often tragic stories are entwined with legend. Following their trail will take you through the Serranía de Ronda, Ronda town and its fine museum on the Bandoleros...

Bandoleros form part of the Andalusian folklore. Villified and romanticised in equal measure, these gangs of highwaymen were murderous cutthroats to some and veritable Robin Hoods to others. Indeed, a touch of Zorro, Robin Hood and Ali Baba is alive in the tales of the bandits of the mountains, who emerged from their thieves’ lairs to hold up coaches and then disappeared as quickly as they had come.

The poor of Andalucía, caught in a feudal system that kept them hungry and powerless, glorified these men, not only because some of them were reputed to redistribute the spoils among the less fortunate, but because they, at least, were offering resistance to the harsh rule of the land-owning classes. The phenomenon of the Bandoleros reached its heyday during the 18th and 19th centuries, when southern Spain was one of the main centres of banditry in Europe. The empty remote character of so much of Andalucía contributed greatly to the spread of banditry, which was concentrated largely in the mountainous and sparsely populated areas of the Sierra Morena, the Alpujarras and the Serranía de Ronda.

The Bandoleros, who operated in anything from groups of two or three men to large bands organised like small armies, terrorised the lonely mountain passes of Andalucía. No nobleman, no matter how well protected, would venture out to such parts without absolute necessity, yet for the tourist trade of the time it proved to be the greatest attraction of all. Today, tourists would run a mile at the prospect of being held up at gunpoint, but to the young dandies from northern Europe on their European Tour it all added to a romantic image of Andalucía that included the proud Spaniards with their exotic culture, fiery Gypsies and lonely mountain ranges terrorised by packs of wolves and bandits. What swashbuckling youngster would not jump at the chance of all that excitement, so when the likes of Lord Byron, Washington Irving and Prosper Merimée crossed the murderous tracks of the Serranía de Ronda by coach it was in the hope of meeting these famous scoundrels. To the people of Andalucía, however, and the Bandoleros themselves, the matter was much more serious. Far from regarding themselves as romantic, they were trying to survive in a society whose blatant social injustice was the ultimate cause of banditry. Most Bandoleros were not robbers and thieves by choice, but were often driven into a life of isolation and crime, on the periphery of society, by some tragic misfortune. One of the men who most embodied the notion that the Bandolero was an essentially noble figure driven to desperate measures was José Ulloa Tragabuches, a Ronda bullfighter and pupil of the celebrated Pedro Romero.

Tragabuches, whose name still resounds in Ronda, had been forced to abandon a promising career for a life of banditry after killing his adulterous wife in a passionate rage. The most legendary of Andalucía’s bandits, however, was José María Hinojosa Cobacho, who came to be known as El Tempranillo, ‘The Early Bird’, because he joined the ranks of the Bandoleros at such an early age. Born in Jauja, Córdoba, in 1805, El Tempranillo was just 13 years old when he killed a man during the pilgrimage festivities to the nearby hermitage of the Fuensanta. Why he did so is not clear, but in view of his later character the motives given have always been presented as honourable. At just 13 years old, he escaped to the sierras and was condemned to a life on the run. Now an outlaw with a price on his head, he joined a notorious gang called the Siete Niños de Écija, the ‘Seven Children of Écija’. El Tempranillo was a born leader and in spite of his youth came to lead a band of some 50 men, establishing his headquarters in the cave of Los Órganos, from where he and his ‘troops’ would swoop down to hold up travellers on the busy highways between Granada, Sevilla, Málaga and Córdoba. Although he would make his prey pay protection money to ensure a safe journey, El Tempranillo earned respect for his courteous treatment of victims and his consideration of the poor. He did not stop at noblemen and merchants alone, but really rubbed the king’s nose in it when he held up the Royal Mail Service or coaches taking bullion to Madrid. In 1828 he declared, “The King rules in Spain, but I rule in the sierra”.

Four years later the unthinkable happened, when the king recognised not only El Tempranillo’s influence but also his valour by granting him a royal pardon and offering him a post as the country’s chief catcher of Bandoleros. It was to prove his undoing, for in 1833 a bandit named El Barberillo ambushed and shot him in an inn near Alameda. El Tempranillo died of his wounds, aged 28, but his reputation remained untarnished, and today he is recognised as the greatest of the Bandoleros - a latter-day Robin Hood. His tomb can be seen in the village cemetery of Alameda, Córdoba, just to the south of Jauja, while his gun is in the possession of a local family. It stands to reason that not all Bandoleros were as mild and civilised as El Tempranillo. Many joined the ranks because of personal tragedies or because they simply had no other means of existence, but for the real murderers and rogues it was a godsend. White crosses marking the sites of roadside murders abounded in the mountainous districts of Andalucía and indicated that the dangers in travelling here were not purely figments of a romantic imagination.

Besides robberies and hold-ups, the Bandoleros also became first-rate smugglers, dealing in tobacco and other types of contraband imported from Gibraltar or beached along the coasts of Málaga and Cádiz provinces. Things were getting so out of hand that the authorities established the Guardia Civil to deal with the Bandoleros once and for all. The measure proved successful, and by the 1870s banditry gradually began to die out in Andalucía, although smuggling continued well into the 20th century. The man generally thought to be the last Bandolero was Juan Mingolla Gallardo, nicknamed Pasos Largos, or ‘Long Steps’. Born near Ronda in 1874, he lived a solitary life in the mountains after killing a farmer and his son who had accused him of poaching on their land. Pasos Largos was finally caught and condemned to life imprisonment in 1932, but managed to escape and die in a manner more becoming to a Bandolero, shot in an exchange of fire with the Guardia Civil.

The Bandoleros may be gone but their spirit still hovers over the mountains around Ronda. To spot the caves where they lived, just look up from the mountain roads, while two museums, at Ronda and El Gastor, offer a fascinating insight into the lives and stories of these romantic scoundrels. The Rutas de los Bandoleros offer tours through their old stomping grounds, on a trajectory where the provinces of Córdoba, Sevilla and Málaga meet, but if you want to relive the excitement, there are companies that offer special itineraries. The Ruta El Tempranillo starts in Jauja and takes in all the relevant sites. At an undisclosed point on the trip, guests become the unsuspecting ‘victims’ of ‘Bandoleros’. Such tours indicate the level of fascination that continues undiminished, but any real understanding of the Bandoleros should treat them neither as rogues nor as romantic heroes, but rather as the free-ranging spirit of the Andalusian people.

Courtesy of Michel Cruz of www.essentialmagazine.com