Marbella is more than you expect
Marbella, that of the marbelleros, is that place where "you can find in the street a village mourning with slippers and black stockings, while at a Michael Knight in the fantastic car, which goes up to the old town to have a beer”, he explains Francis Guzman, tavern keeper for more than 30 years and owner of one of the most beloved places in the city, The Polish . There are still local artists, people from the city and some Michael Knight on duty.
His local is part of the resistance of that Marbella of all life that seems to begin to rise from the ashes of that frivolous and corrupt image that many have in their heads and that experienced a true cultural cataclysm in the year 91, with the entry of the GIL that destroyed everything.
In the La Polaca tavern, which functions as a center of collective memory, in front of the Marbella Market (another breath of fresh air of local authenticity), the star product is quality tapas and good music. And above all, the charisma of Francis, vinyl collector, theater lover and friend of poets, painters and photographers who pour their memories of him here.
In the 80's, " Marbella was a cultural capital at all levels ”, explains from Bristol Pedro Márquez, AKA Peter Boring . He is the co-founder of ** modularestudio **, a local production company with international awards. "We even we recorded a documentary to rescue all this vibrant music scene that existed”, a scene that was impossible to resist with the entrance of GIL. Not only were there a multitude of groups, but also people who made fanzines, photography, theater... a whole creative youth from which talents such as Mariola Fuentes, Pepón Nieto or David Delfin.
“With the perspective of time, we were all responsible”, points out José María Luna, another man from Marbella who today directs the international museums of Malaga: the picasso , the Pompidou and the Russian Museum . During that time he was in charge of the Engraving Museum of Marbella . “What is not fought is lost and people adapt to the easy very quickly. There were people who fought, each one in a different way, but not in coordination. It is true that there was a black hole especially in the performing and musical arts. But, despite the circumstances, the Marbella Engraving Museum was a light and we managed, in the toughest time of the GIL, project ourselves out ”.
It is just this museum space (the only survivor), hidden in the labyrinth of narrow streets and charming squares of the historic center, another of our stops in that other Marbella that does not usually appear in the headlines. The "emblem of the most stable culture", as defined by its current director, German Borrachero , counts among its collections works by Goya, Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Chillida, Tápies, Barceló, Plensa, Muntadas and a long etcetera until reaching the more than three thousand pieces that it possesses.
In fact, it will be in this museum where the 73 black and white portraits of these members of the resistance of the local culture will be exhibited on March 28 through the lens of the photographer Jesus Chacon. views of a city It has taken him more than five years, during which he has tried to capture this story through the portrait of the most and least known artists of the city, of people from the world of culture and athletes, accompanied by the texts of the poet Alejandro Pedregosa, another local artist.
LIVE MUSIC RESIST!
Rubén Pérez runs another of those cultural oases in the city. your bar Party in the Marbella Market has become a meeting point not only for its mythical sandwiches of shredded meat and its tapas (recommended even by the chef himself three Michelin stars Danny Garcia ), but also by the Market Matinees . This event with live music one Saturday a month (from October to May) is "a small island for live concerts in Marbella" that adds to the programming of the craft brewery the ladybug , in Nueva Andalucía, almost in Puerto Banús.
Other strongholds of the more cañí resistance meet in town bars such as Paquito the Clean either Ceuta that represent that genuine Marbella that does not want to let die. “They are bars with decoration from the 70s, as if the mountain from La Concha to Vesuvius had exploded in Marbella, they had been covered with lava and in 2015 we had dug and they had appeared pristine”, says Francis de La Polaca, a regular of these bars.
In addition, the most authentic Marbella is also the one that can be found walking in the shadow of the wall of the old citadel. A route through the old town of Marbella It forces you to recognize its Muslim past, its squares and alleys with flowerpots, bougainvillea hanging from the walls and niches of small virgins that set the popular note next to the boutiques.
But if you are looking for the most authentic beach, the one that sums up what these coasts were before the tourist boom, you cannot miss visiting the Dunes of Artola , in Cabopino. In the part of Marbella that already borders Mijas, this natural monument has been protected with footbridges and the work of the association ProDunas . Here you will meet the Tower of Thieves , on the only naturist beach in the area; one of the most beautiful places to stroll at sunset.