Juan’s Story
“If you wake up at sunrise you can stand in the middle of the beach and have it all to yourself. Sometimes the sun as it rises throws out rays and for a minute it looks like the heavens exploded and you’re standing in the middle of paradise.”
- Juan Lopez Mancera, Pedregalejo Málaga Spain.
In May 2022 I spent a week in the neighborhood of Pedregalejo within the city of Málaga, in southern Spain. The neighborhood curves along the beach and is peppered with restaurants lining the beach walkway. Across the walkway from the restaurants, cooks stand in the sand under tiny huts as they prepare sardines and other fish over open flames in traditional barbecues fashioned out of old boats. Waiters hurry back and forth bringing the fresh flame-roasted seafood to the patrons watching from open air tables.
Over the course of the week I befriended a man named Juan, one of the cooks for a restaurant lining the beach. I went back over several days and got a glimpse into his life. Below are the stories he shared with me, which I translated from Spanish.
My grandfather and my father were fishermen, so I was too. When I stopped fishing, I started cooking here.
This neighborhood used to be just a neighborhood of fishermen. It's changed so much now. I grew up a few streets down from here, and when I was growing up, there were so many kids from the neighborhood on the street playing, everywhere you looked. The neighborhood has changed to mostly tourists and there are less of us who are originally from here.
I'm 60 now, and I'm one of the only original cooks from this neighborhood left. There are a few other people like me, but nowadays you can teach anyone to cook the fish out here, it's not a hard job.
Most days it's so beautiful to be out here cooking. Sometimes in the summer with the heat and the noise of all of the people on the beach behind me, it's overwhelming. But in the winter…in the winter you can see the most beautiful sunrises you've seen in your life.
Winter here isn't winter winter, it doesn't snow and there's only a slight chill that drifts off the water with the breeze. There's not many people here, and in the morning if you wake up for the sunrise you can stand in the middle of the beach and have it all to yourself.
For 2-3 months in winter the sun rises over the water. Sometimes if there are a few clouds that are just a certain way, they catch the sun as it rises and throw it out in rays and for a minute it looks like the heavens exploded and you're standing in the middle of paradise.
It only lasts a minute and the conditions have to be just right, but every so often I've been lucky enough to see it. When you do…the only words I have to describe it is witnessing a miracle.
One afternoon an elderly man in a scooter drove up to the ledge of the walkway and yelled "Juan! I have a fish for you!"
Juan jogged over and took a red mullet fish from the man, brought it back and began his methodical preparation, skewering it and ceremoniously dusting it with sea salt before placing it next to the fire.
He wrote down the time on the top of the cooler with pencil, his method for keeping track of the different fish cooking.
I asked Juan who the man was, and he joyfully responded, "that's my father! He comes here most days for me to cook him lunch. Go talk to him, he has tons of stories."
I walked over and introduced myself to Juan senior and I asked him about growing up in Pedregalejo as a fisherman. He corrected me that he was a fisherman and a baker. A baker?
"When I was 8 years old, there were bread shortages and long lines at the bread store. So I learned how to bake bread for myself. I never really went to school, I just went fishing. I fished everything. One time when Juan Jr. was young I took him out with me. There was a huge storm that came upon us…it really scared him."
Juan Jr. walked over with the cooked red mullet on a plate and placed it in a small basket attached to the front of his scooter. Juan Sr. exclaimed that he had to get back to his wife, who was waiting for him for lunch. He pointed out his house to me which backed up to the main stretch of the sea walkway. He happily said "take a picture of me!" and then he zoomed off to make it home before the fish got cold.
I walked back over to Juan cooking and asked him about what his father mentioned, about the incident when he was a kid.
He sighed and shook his head as if shaking off the memory. “That was terrifying. I went out with my father when it was still dark. It was stormy but we figured we could still fish if we stayed close to the inlets. It was a mistake. The waves were so strong it picked the boat up and smacked it back down hard. One wave hit us, and the boat started to fill with water. We were able to throw our fishing ropes to a nearby boat for them to hold, and then we bucketed the water out as much as we could to just barely make it back to the shore. I never want to live through something like that again.”
We sat in silence watching the seagulls swoop over the water, and Juan grabbed a bucket and walked out on the sand, whistling and raising his hand. The seagulls instantly turned and launched in perfect timing to catch the fish that Juan threw in the air. He feeds the seagulls daily, and they were obviously well rehearsed.
If you’re in Malaga, stop by Pedregalejo to Andres Maricuchi restaurant and say hi to Juan.
As he walked back I noticed that Juan had placed Zorba the Greek face down on the cooler marking his page. I thought about how the novel was a great reflection for Juan, since Zorba is the story of a man who responds with zest for life and enthusiasm, through all of the joys and sorrows and challenges life throws at him. Juan is upbeat and enthusiastic, and loves talking about life.
I asked Juan about the book and he responded that, “on the weekends I’m so busy I can’t even think. I get so frustrated that I start to yell back at the waiters when they yell the orders over to me! But during the week, it’s so slow. I like to read, sit and journal. Maybe I’m slower than others or something, I don’t know. But in order to make sense of everything that goes on in my life and especially in the world right now, I sit down and write it out. It helps me to think, to try and figure things out.”
I told Juan that I think he’s doing just fine in figuring out life.