Last March of this year 2025, if he were alive, he would have turned one hundred years old. Pencho Cros, the great reference of the cantes miners of La Unión, but he died in 2007, which has only increased the myth, the legend, fueled by the nostalgia of who I described years ago as the quiet man, the man who never wanted to leave his town to try a professional career, who was content with walking through its streets, visiting the taverns with friends, especially with his friend the gypsy guitarist Antonio Fernández. However, he continued to perform before the public at the La Unión Festival and others. Pencho, now gone, remains only as a reference of the cante miner the great singer Incarnation Fernandez. Outside of them two there is no major current reference of the cante miner in La Union.
They say that before the creation in 1961 of the now famous Festival of Cante From the Mines, Pencho was already singing and giving away his cante to friends leaning on any bar counter, but he sang anything, especially Argentine tangos. And it's no wonder. His deep baritone voice certainly lent itself well to evoking the great Carlos Gardel, with its Buenos Aires cadence. When the festival was founded in 1961, the mines, exploited since Roman times, were already in decline, a decline that was completed in the XNUMXs, when the last functioning mine closed.
«In March 2025, if he were alive, Pencho Cros, the great reference of the cantes miners of La Unión, but he died in 2007, which has only increased the myth, the legend, fueled by the nostalgia of who I described years ago as the quiet man.
And with the decline of the mines had also come many years ago the oblivion of the canteminers. No miners coming out of the depths of the mountains singing tarantas. If anything, you could hear and hum, as in almost all of Spain, the great Pepe Marchena or to the no less great John ValderramaIn fact, the only authentic miner from Unión (Pencho only worked briefly in the mine) who won a Miner's Lamp at the festival, in 1964, was Eleuterio Andréu, who sang a beautiful taranta with a mix of Marchenero and Valderrama.
An incident is well known. In the early sixties, Valderrama came to La Unión to sing. As he was in the land of the canteThe miners wanted to please the public and sing a taranta, but the public protested and asked him to sing the emigrant and other of his popular songs. Valderrama suffered a disappointment and felt hurt. But in the face of this fact, which became known in the city, a mayor at the time, Esteban Bernal, who died three years ago at the age of 92, reacted and as soon as he became mayor in 1961 he contacted a singer from Cartagena whom he had met years before. Antonio Grau Dausset, son of the mythical Red the Espadrille Maker, and helped by cultural personalities from Unión, such as the writer and painter Asensio Saez, the contest emerged that same year, the first edition of which would win precisely PiñanaEsteban Bernal himself, during a tribute at the festival shortly before his death, declared to the Foundation Cante de las Minas: “The Festival was born from the incomprehension of the people of Unión when they despised Juanito Valderrama's intention to make known the canteminers in the municipality, demanding the popular songs of the moment from it.”
Whatever happened, Pencho Cros began to sing. flamenco before or after the festival, that would be irrelevant to assess his artistic virtues and the fact that he won the Lámpara Minera award three times –1965, 1972 and 1976–, that he created his own style of mining, and that he was a true prophet in his land, La Unión, which recognized him in various ways during his lifetime (favorite son, street with his name, plaque on the Paseo del flamenco) and which is honoring him throughout this centenary year and has awarded him the city's gold medal. During the competition, a photography exhibition chronicling his life can be seen. And he is remembered ever more vividly. Glory to Pencho Cros.
