Concert straddles province border for 'split village'

 

TRAVELLING between provinces is not yet allowed during Spain's 'unlocking', which is most inconvenient for those living close to a border – they can legally visit someone nearly 200 kilometres away, but not someone five kilometres away. However, 'borderliners' like these could have it a lot worse: When your town sits across two provinces, it means you can wave to your opposite neighbour but cannot go to see them, and you may not be able to pop to your local shop.

This is the bizarre situation residents in the town of El Cuervo have found themselves in: One side of the village is in the province of Cádiz, and the other in the province of Sevilla.

And it means the two members of a musical band who live just metres from each other cannot practice together, even though both provinces are in 'Phase 1', meaning if they lived on the same side of the street, they would have no problems in popping round each others' houses.

Astola & Ratón decided to stage a live open-air concert – the first known outdoor gig since Spain went into lockdown – standing either side of the province border to ensure they did not break the rules.

Alejandro Astola, 30, originally from Sevilla and the co-founder of the band Fondo Flamenco, and Diego 'El Ratón' Pozo Torregrosa, 45, from Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz province), co-founder of the band Los Delinqüentes, drew a line down the middle of the Avenida de Cádiz exactly where they knew the provincial frontier sits.

Their gig was, they said, a symbol of union between two provinces whose inhabitants cannot travel to each other yet.

Around 200 of El Cuervo's residents live in the part of the village which belongs, in administrative and jurisdiction terms, to Jerez de la Frontera.

The vast majority, however, live in the Sevilla part – in total, El Cuervo has 8,628 residents, according to the 2018 census, and its postal address is considered to be in the province of Sevilla, despite having two streets, which belong to that of Cádiz.

Standing as close to the white line as they could on either side of it, Alejandro Astola and Diego 'El Ratón' sang some of their best-known tracks such as Cojo el Saco y Me Retiro ('I'll grab my sack and withdraw'), No Hay Miedo ('There's No Fear'), and Buscaremos la Estela ('We'll Look For the Trail').

They built up quite a following among residents in their respective provinces, as well as several thousand others who watched the show on social media.

The two artists had started out separately in their musical careers – Astola, after starting Fondo Flamenco at a fairly young age, then set up the band Rockallano before going solo and releasing a CD with 30 tracks, titled Astola, Rockallano & Canciones Perdidas, or 'lost songs', in 2015.

He met Diego Pozo the following year, and they released a live recorded CD together in early 2017, Gargantas Callejeras y Guitarras de Cartón, which roughly translates to 'Throats on the Street and Cardboard Guitars'.

They followed this up in 2018 with the album which effectively sealed their union, El Hombre Caracol ('The Snailman').

Astola has worked with artists and bands such as Gualberto (Smash), Zatu Rey (SFDK), O·funk·illo, No Me Pises Que Llevo Chanclas ('Don't tread on me because I'm wearing flip-flops'), Juanito Makande and El Canijo de Jerez, and has toured Europe with 'El Ratón' together with artists Capitán Cobarde (Albertucho) and Ana Bohème, performing on the streets and living in a caravan.

Diego, after the breakup of Los Delinqüentes, has been playing and producing for artists and bands such as Muchachito Bombo Infierno and the flamenco-rock legend Kiko Veneno, and also performing with the band G5.

As for 'split villages', even El Cuervo has nothing on Pozo Higuera: One half is in the autonomously-governed region of Murcia, and the other, Andalucía – and it's the only known town in Spain with two mayors, to avoid political tugs-of-war between regions at election time.