The musician and guitarist Paco de Lucía already has a mural on the facade of his house La Bajadilla, in Algeciras, where he lived and learned to play the guitar. The mural is a free version of a 1960s photograph showing a young man. Francisco Sanchez Gomez with his mother, Lucia Gomes GonçalvesThe treated photo has been printed on the wall by a machine used by the San Roque artist. Carmen Morata, a machine that works as a vertical printer capable of printing any image with excellent photographic quality and is highly resistant to erosion from the sun and rain. This work is part of a project by the Margins and Links Foundation funded by the Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Cádiz. The project is called Paco de Lucía, art and memory in La Bajadilla. Promoting intangible cultural heritage. and the Campo de Gibraltar public school also collaborates in it.
The first visitors and admirers of the mural were a group of students from this school who, along with a journalist from the foundation, toured the entire La Bajadilla neighborhood, visiting the places where Francisco Sánchez's character and Paco de Lucía's sensitivity were forged. One of the goals of this project is to give these children a glimpse into Paco de Lucía's childhood as an example of effort, sacrifice, and study, leading him to become the world's greatest guitarist. This first group of schoolchildren will be followed by others who will tour La Bajadilla in the coming days to learn about Paco's childhood in his neighborhood.
A must-see on this schoolchildren's walk is the house on Barcelona Street, whose facade features the mural. Antonio Sánchez and Lucía Gomes and their five children moved to this house in the early 50s: Maria, Ramon, Antonio, Pepe and PacoThe current owners of the house, Isabel María Gil Vargas-Machuca y Francisco Campos Fernández, told the children some anecdotes from Paco and his family's childhood on this first outing of the project. All the students then took photos under the newly opened mural, which was officially inaugurated in the presence of Ramón Sánchez Pérez, nephew of Paco de Lucía; the school principal, Antonio Medina Muñoz; the head of the studies of the same, Maria del Carmen Nogueras Segura; Juan Corbacho, president of the La Cañá neighborhood association; the leaders of the Márgenes y Vínculos technical team that carried out the project; and the Venezuelan musician Efraín Silva, who played three guitar pieces at the end of the event. Also present were numerous residents of the neighborhood, people who are fans of flamenco and curious people attracted by the music and the concentration of attendees.
"The Márgenes y Vínculos Foundation believes it is important to highlight La Bajadilla as a social setting that fostered the guitarist's personal and artistic development and as a source of inspiration for the universal musician who passed away in 2014."
Ramón Sánchez said the mural is very moving to him, giving him goosebumps. “Especially seeing my grandmother, because I'm sick of seeing my uncle Paco in all the things they do to him, the statue, the museum…” he said. “But photos of my grandmother, and seeing her there, well… She would have been thrilled to see herself drawn on the wall,” he added.
Carmen Morata stated that the machine used is cutting-edge technology, of which only five examples currently exist in Spain.This sign will last forever, until it's painted over. "The paint can withstand water, it can withstand sun, there's no problem with the paint," he said. Morata emphasized the endearing image used in the mural. "Paco with his mother... And because of the location, which is where he lived and where he learned to play the guitar. It's a spectacular work," he concluded.
The Margins and Links Foundation launched this project convinced that Paco de Lucía is An internationally renowned figure whose hometown needs visible elements to identify him. as an essential part of the genesis of his genius. The foundation believes it is important to highlight La Bajadilla as a social environment that fostered the guitarist's personal and artistic development and as a source of inspiration for the universal musician who passed away in 2014.
La Bajadilla is a working-class neighborhood that emerged from post-war Andalusian migration and has historically been marginalized, stigmatized, and associated with social problems. And it's essential that the younger generations, many of them children of immigrants, learn about and feel proud of the good things that exist and have existed in this neighborhood. Among other things, the son of a Portuguese immigrant worker who became the most famous Algeciras resident of all time, whose work is admired from Russia to Canada, from Australia to Chile.
