|
by
John Gill...
El
Tempranillo
Bandit
(1805-1833)
One
of the least-known tourist attractions of 19th century Andalucía
was the experience of being held up by one of the region's numerous
bandoleros, bandits. When British and other northern European tourists
began including Andalucía in their travel itinerary, some
even went as far as to pay to have themselves 'held up' by a bandit
and his gang. And none of them was as famous as José Maria
Hinojosa Cabacho, 'El Tempranillo', born in Jauja on 21 June 1805
and buried in the neighbouring village of Alameda 28 years later.
Most
bandoleros were driven into banditry by sheer poverty and the harsh
feudal system still active in Spain, while a few, famously the bullfighter
José Ulloa Tragabuches, were noblemen driven into fleeing
the law because of a crime of passion. El Tempranillo was born into
a poor family during the privations of the Napoleonic invasion of
Spain at the beginning of the 19th century. He is believed to have
killed his first man at the age of thirteen, possibly because of
an attack on his family, possibly because of a slight against his
mother. Whatever the cause, he evaded arrest and joined a gang of
young bandits, later establishing his own gang based in a cave near
the Despeñaperros pass, the main route into Andalucía
from the north.
Essentially,
the bandits levied a tithe on rich travellers to ensure their safe
passage, often collecting the tithe in broad daylight. El Tempranillo
quickly became famous for his charm, once telling a woman traveller
'Ah, señora! A hand so beautiful as yours does not need adornments!'
while relieving the blushing traveller of her rings and other jewellery,
before kissing her hand and biding her a safe journey onward. He
also acquired a Robin Hood-like reputation, redistributing his ill-gotten
wealth among the poor. Not all bandits were so gallant, but El Tempranillo
became a cult figure throughout Andalucía and beyond. At
one point, frustrated authorities, in the form of Don Vincente Quesada,
Captain General of Andalucía's armed forces, offered a reward
of six thousand reales to the soldier, royal volunteer or private
individual who apprehended El Tempranillo dead or alive.
An
astute self-publicist, El Tempranillo, a short man with only one
hand (he lost the other in a pistol accident), became an early exponent
of the sound-bite. He once announced that while the king may rule
Spain, El Tempranillo ruled the sierra. Indeed, his nickname was
King of the Sierra Morena. He married a young woman, María
Gerónima Francés, from the village of Torre Alháquime
in Cádiz region, but she died in childbirth in 1831. El Tempranillo
scandalised the authorities when, with the aid of fifty other horsemen,
he rode into the mountain village of Grazalema,
north-west of Ronda, to baptise
their son in the village's Nuestra Señora de la Aurora church,
while the authorities looked on helplessly.
The
revered English travel writer John Ford wrote of Tempranillo's time
as one 'When Fernando VII was the king of Spain and José
Maria was the love of Andalucia'. This reference inspired Ford's
friend, the artist John Frederic Lewis, to include El Tempranillo
in a collection of drawings from the region. Visiting Córdoba,
Lewis realised that more people were talking about El Tempranillo
than they were about the king. Lewis managed to contact and meet
El Tempranillo, in 1832. His portrait depicts a small man (barely
five hands) on an equally small horse, with dark hair, blue eyes,
a large mouth and thin pointed nose. He is dressed in a fine shirt
and a velvet jacket with silver buttons and leather bindings.
El
Tempranillo's daring broad daylight hold-ups, and his increasing
popularity among the general pubic, eventually forced King Fernando
VII to offer him a pardon in return for his working for the state.
The pardon was formally granted in Estepa in August 1832, although no written record of the pardon survives.
José Maria was made commander in chief of the Escuadrón
Franco de Protección y Seguridad Pública de Andalucía
(the free squadron for the protection and public security of Andalucía),
at the head of sixty mounted guards who wore a uniform similar to
that of Spain's army. This was eleven years before the establishment
of Spain's Guardia Civil in 1844.
The
bandit turned policeman was seriously injured in a shoot-out while
pursuing another José Maria, the bandit El Barbarello, from
Estepa, during an attempted arrest on the road between Alameda
and Mollina in 1833. He was taken
to the Parador de San Antonio in calle Granada in Alameda, but died
the next day, 23 September 1833.
He
was given the last rites by the town's parish priest, Navarette,
and dictated his last will and testament before one Jerónimo
Orellana, the village's notary. Despite his years of banditry, El
Tempranillo left little to his orphaned son, also baptised José Maria. The will contained little more than two small houses, two
horses and a few reales borrowed from friends.
By
unusual coincidence, King Fernando VII died in Madrid six days later.
José Maria Hinojosa Corbacho was buried in a carved tomb
in the church of Alameda, where it can be seen in the church's interior
patio today. He is one of the key figures featured in Ronda's Museo
de Bandolero.
top of page
|
