They say that of all those years of playing the guitar in Z park, of pool games in the late afternoons at the Lonja, of
fights between gangs for the most beautiful girl
or for the best corner, Alejandro Sanz's greatest feat was stealing the bride to the Mole.
Teenage girlishness?
heroism?
We spoke with Alfonso, who knows well
all the seams and scars of that impetuous Moratalaz of the 80s
: «I have seen El Mole take a pistol out of his backpack and fire four shots into the air.
One day he robbed you with a bat, and the next he greeted you with a hug as if nothing had happened.
No one coughed on him."
Nobody coughed on him, but
Sanz robbed him of the love of a girl
.
El Mole has already died, like so many others,
leaving behind a black legend of a difficult neighborhood
, cemented with the law of the outskirts, where
the humblest families dealt with drug clans
and heroin split the lives of many kids in two.
"At that time, everything was tried on the street, but there is a very dark part of the drug that does not interest me," Alejandro Sanz told the journalist Pepa Bueno on one occasion.
“I had friends who got hooked on heroin and never got out of it again.
I smoked a joint and whoever didn't smoke it lost it, but now I have children and it's not worth it.
Sanz, who tonight will fill the Wanda Metropolitano, is today the greatest ambassador of a reborn Moratalaz,
with a hard heartbeat and modest muscle
, where the lights have been gaining the pulse of the shadows.
At number 62 on Avenida del Doctor García Tapia Alejandro lived with his parents and his brother Jesús
from the age of 12 until he turned 25. Even today,
messages of love can be seen on the wooden frames of the elevator on the fourth floor
carved by the fans
, runaway with serotonin, who slipped into the portal every day like snakes hunting the myth.
Nobody has wanted to erase the doodles;
they are the testament that the most famous singer that Madrid has produced in the last 30 years
once lived there
.
Cati, the current caretaker of the farm, was around twenty when
Alejandro was nothing more than a kid entrenched day and night behind his guitar
.
“I took care of a girl in 2ºB and I listened to her sing in the courtyard of lights at all hours”, she remembers.
«His parents have already died [he in 2005 and she in 2012], but the apartment was sold four or five years ago.
And Alejandro continues to receive, still, some letters ».
In those years, in Morata all the kids were looking for their place:
some were rockers, others, punks, or mods, or heavys...
and fights were the order of the day.
«The neighborhood was conflictive, what neighborhood was not?
And we were not stupid and if they came to touch our balls … », Jesús, Alejandro’s brother, explained to this newspaper.
Alexander (right), with Immortal Rider.EM
Sanz has been more cautious in some interviews: «I was saved from all the trouble because I was the one who played the guitar and the guitarist couldn't break an arm.
But there was always someone who wanted to break his lip to the handsome face.
And it is that Alejandro, in addition to the flamenco that he had sucked from the cradle -his father was a member of the group Los tres de la bahia-,
formed a heavy metal band with his friend Carlos Rufo
, today Melendi's guitarist, before trying the honeys of pop.
They were called Immortal Rider, and
they performed in seedy clubs, in brothels...
«Sometimes, the money they earned was barely enough to pay for the taxi, recalls Pedro, a friend from those initial years.
It was Capi, the midas of music in those years (discoverer, among others, of Mecano), who gave him his first opportunity as a backup singer on the guitar of other groups and singers.
And then the miracle happened
.
At the age of 23, the launch of
Viviendo deprisa
, with that title that slid down the album cover like a stratospheric premonition,
was the beginning of the Sanz phenomenon
.
Three decades and 25 million album sales later, we're still here.
Spain was mired in the pre-Olympic euphoria of '91 when fame broke out for Alejandro like a whirlpool.
To the despair of the neighbors,
up to 80 admirers could make a pilgrimage every day to the portal of his house
.
“I have come to throw them out with a broom from the landing of the stairs,” says Mariví, from the first floor.
But the one who suffered the most from the barbaric invasions of those electrified fans was Cayetano, the then-retired doorman of the building.
"I only talk to the press if they pay me," he jokes.
Living Fast
sold a million copies.
With the money he earned,
the first thing Alejandro did was buy a Mercedes for his father and set up a hairdressing salon for his mother
.
Sonia Crujera was one of the first employees of Alex Hairdressing, named after her prodigal son.
"María, the mother, was a very particular Andalusian, with a lot of spark, always with music in the premises," she recalls.
“He treated us girls like his daughters.
If there was a lot of gigs she would bring us food... she would make some fucking croquettes.
When Alejandro released the second album
Más
, that was madness.
The clients brought it to be signed, the girls stood at the door... You have to see the stamina that María had, that she never made a bad face ».
In 1998, Alejandro unleashed these passions. JUAN FERRERAS
When the hairdresser closed, Sonia decided to keep the business, which ended up changing its original location in La Lonja (Moratalaz's best-known pedestrian boulevard of bars and entertainment).
Today,
the Alex Hairdresser is still active 300 meters below
, like a legacy with bits of nostalgia, on Calle Marroquina, 78.
The singer, who like the deities has one day in Los Angeles to pay homage to him -April
30, Alejandro Sanz's day-
, complained on one occasion that in Madrid he did not have "not a sad little pot" in his honor.
Said and done.
In July 2020, when Spain had just shelved the first State of Alarm, Sanz gave a surprise concert on the Estrella bridge, which joins Moratalaz and El Retiro on the back of the M-30.
After the recital, he discovered a plaque with
the new name of the walkway: the Puente del Corazón Partío
.
It wasn't a street, but at least it left its mark on a piece of concrete in the city.
On the other side of the bridge, very close to the Alex Barber Shop and the Lonja,
one of the owners of the Hermanos Silvosa Florist nevertheless claims the first monument to his most illustrious countryman
.
"When he said that he didn't even have a pot, we paid him this tribute," explains Antonio.
At the door of the business, in one of the gardens that decorate the entrance, a sculpture in the shape of a heart, on top of a basin used to wash wool, returns these three decades of glory to Alejandro.
"He always remembers the queues he had to stand on this sidewalk to buy flowers on Mother's Day.
And, by the way: we arrived before Almeida».
Antonio the florist, who is hanging around the same fifth as the singer,
also knew the bravest years of that Moratalaz that no longer exists
.
«I also flirted with the drug, but I was lucky to get out in time.
Many stayed behind me;
out of 50 friends, 35 may be gone.
The way I'm saying it, they give me chills."
But Antonio
turns the helm of the talk
: «Today people are delighted to live here.
It is a working-class neighborhood where we all know each other.
We just need to get the chairs out on the street.
La Lonja, bar area of Moratalaz.EVA RUBIO
In this sentimental atlas through the territory that marked the first Alexander, a neighbor gives one last clue.
The +Es+ bar, which, once again, is a tribute to the album
Más
by the famous singer.
"One of his most famous songs was written for the owner," he confesses.
-Were they boyfriends? What song?
-Go and ask around.
I have not said anything...
It's Tuesday at noon at the Lonja.
The Bar +Es+ has the metallic closure cast.
Today nostalgia has the day off
.
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