MUNICIPAL AUTONOMY

After the conversion of the Santa Clara castle into a parador and residence for foreigners, in 1933 Mrs Carlota Alessandry Tettamancy, owner of numerous lands in La Carihuela , decided to turn her countryhome in Cucazorra into the parador of Montemar with seven rooms.
Already in the 1940s, the hotel La Roca opened and in the next decade, Torremolinos shaped itself as a pioneer of world tourism and the cradle of today´ s famous Costa del Sol. First, it was discovered by an elite of tourists coming mainly from England and, occasionally, the United States.

Later, from 1959 onwards, with the opening of the first luxury hotel in the area ( the Pez Espada), Torremolinos started to build up fame and difussion until in the 1960s it had 32 hotels, a total number of beds of about 10,000, thus becoming a major tourist destination able to receive thousands of visitors. It was the so called tourism “boom” which meant the arrival of famous people from the cinema industry and the show business, as well as well-known politicians of the time and prominent businessmen from all over the world who, delighted with their stays in the area, became real ambassadors of the tourism excellencies of Torremolinos and helped the municipality of today to fulfill its role of pioneer of tourism in Europe.

During the summer months, Torremolinos was the very centre of national high life, with all the popularity and hustle and bustle this entailed.

However, this spectacular development towards the end of the 60s also brought along the verification, which was becoming more and more evident every day, that Málaga did not cater for the needs of Torremolinos or the demands that its leading role in tourism involved in the least and made the nonexistent response to the increasingly more demanding requests for better services which, on the other hand, were starting to be a reality in other municipalities of the Costa del Sol obvious.

Towards 1968, the first uneasiness about independence appeared, which was not turned into effective results since it was led by a negotiating assembly of “notables” coordinated by the well-known lawyer from Málaga Victoriano Frias , in whose office meetings of no more than twenty people born or closely related to Torremolinos such as Enrique Reyes de la Vega, Antonio Caffarena Martin or Pedro Fernández Montes were celebrated.

The dictatorial regime in power in Spain , although it was in decadence, had always regarded with suspicion, not to say negatively, any germ of a segregation process, even if it was in the municipal sphere and there was provision in the law or such cases. Consequently, it was relatively easy for those who were in charge of the political destinies of the capital city of Málaga at the moment to take the necessary steps before the civil government in order to cancell – moments before it was going to start and with expeditious methods, a constituent assembly that had to take place at the hotel Alay and where many hopeful neighbours were intending to state their inequivocal feeling of municipal independence.

The cancellation of this act was a big scandal, for both the form and substance, and it provoked many protests and the determination to continue in the “fight” towards the constitution of an association to promote segregation.

But it was a weak project at its roots. Most of the “notables” who promoted the movement could not put up with the institutional pressure aimed at stopping the process and the wish to continue of a lot of people from Torremolinos was frustrated by the conclusion of those who, from the assembly of notables, understood that “for the time being, it is not advisable to continue”.

In 1979, being the democratic town halls constituted and with the expectations generated by the new democratic situation, some parties reflected the project of independence in their electoral programmes and Torremolinos saw the birth of a big civic movement based on two motivations: on the one hand, the deep feeling of the citizens of Torremolinos of wanting to recover their identity as a people; on the other hand, in spite of the fact that Torremolinos was the indisputable tourism pioneer and leader in the Costa del Sol and in Spain, the neglect they were subject to by Málaga which did not cover the essential needs of an area of these characteristics, propitiating a deterioration of the image which , contrariwise, was rising in other municipalities of the area, and thus relegating Torremolinos to the background.

NINE YEAR OF INTENSE FIGHTS

There were nine long years of hard and intense fight which had as a reference date the 11th of July 1979, the day of the formal constitution of the Negotiating pro- Autonomy Assembly in the hotel Cervantes. All the political parties and civic movements were represented in the Assembly and it approved the proposal of Pedro Fernández Montes of writing a Manifesto to establish the bases and philosophy that should rule the civic movement and to express the explicit motives of the request of segregation from Málaga, establishing as well the “laws of the game” in the initiative so as to avoid the partisan capitalization of the movement.

Pedro Fernández Montes himself contributed with a draft of Manifesto constituted by 14 items which, subject to deliberations and reduced to only 12 items, was definitely approved on the 16th of August 1979. The date of the following day was established for the politicians and representatives of associations and entities to sign formally the Manifesto pro- Autonomy of Torremolinos in the same hotel Cervantes.

So it was intended to give the greatest public projection to the act which was considered the true starting point of the realization of the independence in the short term, bearing in mind that the signatory political parties had a vast majority in the town hall of Málaga which a priori guaranteed that the process would follow its course rapidly if political coherence prevailed. It was not the case. The surprising attitude change, against what they had maintained until that very moment, both of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) and the Partido Comunista de España (PCE) of Torremolinos completed in their refusal to sign the Manifesto arguing “questions of point of view, internal politics and party discipline” and announcing their abandoning of the Assembly.

This sudden transformation represented a setback for the aspirations of independence since PSOE and PCE had absolute majority in the town hall of Málaga, while the rest of groups and collectives maintained their position and subscribed, as it was planned, the Manifesto Pro- Autonomy of Torremolinos.

Nine months after these initiatives, the movement already had 3,000 members from the 9,000 adults censed then in Toremolinos, many of which joined the multitudinous constituent assembly celebrated in the old bullring on the 7th of June 1980. There the Assembly Pro- Autonomy of Torremolinos was formed, the main singularity of which was undoubtedly the co- presidency of five people: Eusebio Arribas Castillo, Manuel Campoy Hernández, Pedro Fernández Montes, Roberto Olarra Pappalardo y José Sánchez Escaño, being assigned José Ramón del Cid Santaella; vice-secretary , Antonio Abril de Toledo; treasurer, Domingo Avisbal Márquez; counters , Antonio Caffarena Marín, Juan Montes Pinto, Francisco González Leal y Juan Vallejo Martín, and the members , Salvador Alarcón Mercader, Salvador Buendía Rodríguez, Francisco Cabrera Cerdán, Antonio Fernández Jiménez, José Fernández Montes, Manuel Flores Cruzado, Luisa Gimilio Amate, Rafael Gómez Martín, Antonio Gómez Quesada, Angeles Guerrero, Ernesto López Serrano, Antonio Muñoz de la Rosa, Lázaro Navarro Pérez, Gilberto Peña Ferre, Salvador Porras Canales, Manuel Rascón Medina, Francisco Rivera Márquez, Francisco Romero Avila, Francisco Tejada Gómez y José Isidro Villanueva, and Isabel Manoja Serra, assigned as coordinator.

The new assembly started a difficult task the objective of which was no other than show irrefutably the reasons that justified the segregation. In order to do that, an important decision had to be adopted first: the choice of a professional team to deal with the juridical process also bearing in mind the important financial costs of a measure of this nature. Finally, after a lot of contacts, it was decided to commend with this task the lawyer from Granada Antonio Tastet Díez, who eventually was the true juridical artificer of such a complex and vast procedure, which he joined with enthusiasm, honesty and great professionalism, merits recognized nowadays with the baptism of a street that perpetuates his memory.

To start with, the requisites demanded to obtain the condition of municipality were summarized in three:

Enough territory to develop the activities characteristic of a municipality, an aspect which was surpassed since Torremolinos had its municipal boundaries perfectly limited beforehand from the time when it was a independent municipality. Therefore, it was just a matter of copying the old map of the Torremolinos of 1924, update it with the new neighbourhoods, districts and new towns appeared between that year and 1980.

Counting with popular will. An aspect apparently easy, but not as easy regarding its juridical demonstration, specially if we take into account that the law did not provide for the celebration of a referendum. So the only way of giving proof of that popular will was the individual signing of a document supporting the segregation of Torremolinos from Málaga. The campaign to this end started on the 15th of February 1981 and was planned to last for three months. The Assembly Pro- Autonomy had to be prolonged because the official census, revised that same year, had increased in people over 18 until 12,000 inhabitants, which meant that since it was necessary to give proof of the “popular will” in a number over 50 per cent of the population, the number of demandable signatures reached 6,000.

Moreover, the PSOE, with a vast majority in the town hall of Málaga and an electoral triumph in the electoral colleges of Toremolinos, started from the local executive led by Francisco Bóveda, deputy mayor of the town hall of Málaga then, a concealed opposition campaign to the collection of signatures which made this initiative even more difficult and which motivated strong discrepancies in the bosom of the party, where prominent local leaders such as the previous responsible in Torremolinos Francisco Prieto Tejada , nowadays no longer a socialist militant, disagreed openly with the position imposed by Francisco Bóveda because he considered that going against the autonomy was a betrayal of his own people. As for the PCE, having also refused to sign the Manifesto, did not campaign against the collection of signatures, allowing freedom to its militants, a decision which was influenced by Brenea Chaves, resident of Torremolinos and then councillor of the town hall of Málaga.

Finally, all the obstacles were overcome and thirteen months later, in March 1982, the collection of signatures was finished with more than 8,400 explicit proofs of support which constituted 70 per cent of the official census of that moment.

Having financial self- sufficiency

There were no doubts in that respect, although the formal promise of the mayor of Málaga at the time Pedro Aparicio to the Assembly Pro- Autonomy of facilitating all the financial details related with Torremolinos turned into complete secrecy about the matter, so it was specially dificult to demonstrate this self- sufficiency of the municipality with documents. In fact, being conscious of the impossibility of proving the contrary, the mayor of Málaga argued on several occasions that Torremolinos was showing a deficit and thus, its survival depended on the contributions from Málaga.

A lot of patience and the overcoming of a lot of obstacles were necessary before the members of the Pro- Autonomy Assembly managed to gather the necessay socio- economic data that would prove the importance of Torremolinos and the income it could generate in order to cover the necessities that a self- government would entail. In spite of the problems, a fictitious budget of 2,100 million pesetas was finally elaborated and was later confirmed as viable by the experts of the Justice and Local Administration Department who valued the obvious thoroughness of this budget which was moreover confirmed by the fact that the first budget of the new municipality reached exactly the same amount, 2, 100 million pesetas.

Once the juridical file demonstrative of the ability of Torremolinos to meet all the demanded legal requisites was concluded, the document of segregation, the most complete that had ever been elaborated in Spain, with 3,500 sheets of paper, was presented by Antonio Tasted Díez and some members of the Pro-Autonomy Assembly on the 30th of April 1982. That same day, as a manifestation of support to the administrative procedure, more than 5,000 people showed up at a popular demonstration in Torremolinos.

From that moment on, everything depended on the town hall of Málaga. If they voted favourably, the file would have a rapid procedure. If they voted against, the Pro- Autonomy Assembly would be forced to pursue a litigious procedure.

Although the PSOE of Torremolinos had been contrary to the autonomy, there were many who hoped that, once the categorical popular support to the segregation process had been demonstrated and the capacity of financial survival of Torremolinos had been proved, the PSOE would vote in favour of the independence. Moreover, there was the hope that Francisco Bóveda, who was not born in Torremolinos but had been living in the town for more than twenty years as maximum responsible of the PSOE in Torremolinos and also deputy mayor of the town hall of Málaga would be a positive influence on the final decision. But that was not the case. Finally, what many labelled as “betrayal to his own people” took place on the 29th of May 1982 when Bóveda like the rest of his party comrades, put his personal interests and his status of councillor of the town hall of Málaga before the wishes of the people of Torremolinos voting against the initiative of independence.

The majority’s rejection of the town hall of Málaga to the segregation of was a major setback to the Pro- Autonomy Assembly and the thousands of residents of Torremolinos who had dreamt with seeing their dream fulfilled almost straightaway. Nevertheless, in July 1982 the corresponding notice of appeal was given and it was dealt with by the plenum in Málaga in ordinary session on the 30th of September of the same year. Again, Francisco Bóveda and the other socialist representatives objected to the independence of Torremolinos which, on the other and, was no surprise. Moreover, in that session, not only was the appeal rejected, but it was also decided to archive the file following a proposal made by the spokesman of the PSOE and consequently, not to proceed with it as the law demanded.

To sum up, it was a matter of taking the process to a “dead end” since the only possibility to proceed with the file, through the Council of Ministers, forced to have recourse to the law and , consequently, to a years long procedure which would probably propitiate the expectations and ilusions of the people o Torremolinos to rise up.

In this situation, the Pro- Autonomy Assembly decide to ask for a report to the Public Prosecutor Office and the Ministry of Regional Administration, which concluded that the segregation file had to continue its procedure and could not be filed away. The mayor of Málaga, Pedro Aparicio, and the rest of his comrades ignored that pronouncement to the extreme of not wanting to give the minutes of the plenary session of the 30th of September in order to delay the whole process.
The Pro- Autonomy Assembly had always understood that the decision to archive the file was an unfair decision taken knowingly, a deed which is legally typified as breach of trust. However, it avoided the penal process and continued the litigious process instead in order to avoid the process to go on forever.

Three and a half months were necessary for the town hall of Málaga to notify officially its plenary resolution of archiving the file on the 14th of January 1983. Immediately, the corresponding appeal was prepared and presented in February to the Regional Court of Granada.

Some time before, the Pro- Autonomy Assembly renovated its Board of Directors since the professional obligations of some of its members did not let them dedicate enough time to the Assembly and it had been proved that the co- presidency of 5 members which had been agreed on initially was excessively complex when it came to matters of signature and representation. Those were the reasons why the election of one only president was decided. By secret vote of the 28 members of the Assembly present, Pedro Fernández Montes was appointed with 26 votes, while Jose Sanchez Escaño obtained one vote, and another vote was cast blank.

On the 17th of December 1982 the new Board of Directors was constituted by unanimity, it was formed by Pedro Fernández Montes as president ; José Ramón del Cid Santaella (Secretary); Luisa Gimilio Amate (Secretary); Domingo Avisbal Márquez (Treasurer); Eusebio Arribas Castillo, Antonio G. Guillamón Maraver, Francisco Gómez Pérez y Juan Vallejo Martín (Counters); Isabel Manoja Serra (Coordinator), and as members Miguel Alarcón Alarcón, Salvador Alarcón Mercader, Elena Avisbal Moreno, Antonio Caffarena Martín, Francisco Campoy Carrique, Manuel Flores Cruzado, José Fernández Montes, Antonio Gómez Quesada, Francisco González Leal, Angeles Guerrero de Bóveda, Ernesto López Serrano, Antonio Márquez Zaragoza, Juan Montes Pinto, Roberto Olarra Pappalardo, Antonio Pedraza Pérez, Manuel Rascón Medina, Francisco Rivera Márquez, Francisco Romero Avila y Francisco Troncoso Rueda.

With the situation at an impasse, the Pro- Autonomy Assembly, like thousands of citizens, got ready to wait for the development of the events, but, contrary to what some wished and gave for granted, discouragement did not spread and, before the long wait they suspected, it was decided to multiply the activities to continue raising funds and, above all, to maintain the vindictive spirit high.
The news letter “La Voz de Torremolinos” appeared then, which gave coverage to the festivities, children festivals, popular paellas and other events. In this same publication, the distinguished Manolo Blasco, born in Málaga but honorary citizen of Torremolinos, signed the celebrated article “El Bacherama” on the abandonment suffered by Toremolinos by the own hall of Málaga.

Twenty months after the appeal in the Regional Audience of Granada, this passed a sentence agreeing with the Pro- Autonomy Assembly and forcing the town hall of Málaga to see to the procedure of the file which, complying with the mandatory steps, was object of public exhibition in March 1985and no allegations were made. However, months went by and the mayor of Málaga, Pedro Aparicio, did not take the file again to the plenary meeting. So it was a new obstruction to the process.

Popular indignation increased in Torremolinos. The Pro- Autonomy Assembly, avoiding the legal initiative which would prolong extraordinarily the time of procedure of the file, resolved to propitiate a civil mobilization able to show the socialist leaders the real power of the movement and its firm resolution to persevere in its aims.

In September 1986, the people of Torremolinos went on the streets and before thousands of neighbours, Pedro Fernández Montes read a very harsh communicate claiming the enforcement of the law and warning that the patience of the people of Torremolinos, which until then had been exemplary civil, had a limit and under no circumstances would they remain passive before the evident kidnapping of their will perpetrated by Pedro Aparicio and Francisco Poveda.

Finally, in November 1989, after a new 2 year delay, the matter was taken to the plenum of the town hall of Málaga, where the person responsible of the PSOE of Torremolinos together with the other member of his party in the capital, voted against the independence of Torremolinos again. Besides, on this occasion, another councillor born in Torremolinos, Miguel Escalona Quesada, also voted against. He justified his position, as Bóveda did, stating that the support received by his party in Torremolinos came from people contrary to the segregation process.

It was not like that. Apart from a few exceptions, the immense majority of the residents of Torremolinos, regardless of political tendencies, were in favour of the autonomy and that is why many considered Francisco Bóveda and Miguel Escalona “traitors”. It is paradoxical that the latter was precisely the person who benefited most of the situation he never wanted or defended since, thanks to a coalition, he ended up being the president of the administration that managed Torremolinos from the moment of its regained administrative independence.

Indeed, despite in 1991 the PSOE obtained fewer votes than the Partido Popular led by Pedro Fernández Montes, a coalition agreement with IU let Miguel Escalona become the first elected mayor of the municipality of Torremolinos.

After the new agreement of the town hall of Málaga contrary to the independence of Torremolinos, four more years had to pass before the file (once again held back) was sent to the corresponding authorities. During this period, a relevant fact took place: the competence to decide the segregation was transferred from the Council of Ministers to the Council of Government of the Junta de Andalusia, ruled by the PSOE, so many times opposed to the independence. The uneasiness of the people of Torremolinos increased, and even more so after becoming known that the file sent Málaga was accompanied by a financial report, which explained the delay in the procedure, which main objective was to prove that Torremolinos did not meet the requisite of financial self- sufficiency, which offered the Junta de Andalusia enough legal argument to confirm that the concession of independence was not admissible.

And to top it all, the mayor of Málaga, Pedro Aparicio, and the deputy mayor of Torremolinos, Francisco Bóveda, did not cease to make public pronouncements in which they assured that Málaga collected about 600 million pesetas from Torremolinos while it spent much more. It was, no doubt, a position that few people believed, especially because of the contradiction it implied to aim at keeping what according to their words was a very important financial burden at all costs, against popular vindication and against the law.

When the Pro- Autonomy assembly had finally access to the above mentioned report, it took them only twenty days to and ridicule it to unsuspected extremes. As an example, it was brought forward a copy of payment of one construction permit given by a constructor which amount doubled the amount the town hall of Málaga claimed it was collecting in a whole year. Furthermore, among a lot of other evidence, it was proved that the income from the urban tax of Torremolinos amounted to almost half of the amount indicated in the controversial financial report. The president of the Pro- Autonomy Assembly accompanied by the lawyer Antonio Tastet and the coordinator Isabel Manoja travelled to Seville on various occasions in order to talk to the experts from the Junta de Andalusia who, we must admit, showed professionalism and asepsis in the face of the grotesque farce plotted by the town hall of Málaga against which the pro- Independence Assembly offered undisputable facts. So, in December 1986, the segregation file was informed favourably, which did not mean a triumph of the legal and administrative battle.

It was time then to wait for the final political decision of the Junta de Andalusia, a resolution which could not be contrary to the experts diagnosis, but which could e difficult in the political area, bearing in mind that the PSOE governed in Seville, Málaga and Torremolinos.

Attending to the experts´ report for sure meant to favour a hard confrontation between the regional PSOE and the PSOE of Málaga which would have serious political and legal consequences. That is why the Junta de Andalusia preferred to postpone the subject, leaving any decision aside, while the Pro- Autonomy Assembly decided on a two month deadline to start vindictive actions.
The deadline arrived and, in a daring and brave resolution, a general strike was called for the 24th of March 1986.

The support of the people was complete. First thing in the morning, even though the strike was called from 11 a. m onwards, the whole town stopped, including hotels which guaranteed minimum service. The events of the day were fully covered by the media not only in Spain but also abroad and the magnitude and the determination of the protest forced the Junta de Andalusia to promise that ” in two or three months maximum”, the segregation file would be sent to the Council of State so that it would write a mandatory though not binding report. It was the last step prior to the final decision.

On the 24th of April 1987, the councilor of the Partido Popular of Málaga Ildefonso Arenas presented a motion which required the revocation of the agreement of the town hall of Málaga denying the segregation of Torremolinos and the favourable pronouncement before the Junta de Andalusia. Confronted with this initiative, Francisco Bóveda (PSOE) justified the socialist opposition to the independence by praising the functioning of the Assembly of the Torremolinos district as a efficient means to solve the problems and defending once more the correct administration of the interests of Toremolinos and the idea that there was no need for segregation. Again, Pedro Aparicio, Francisco Bóveda, Miguel Escalona, together with fourteen other socialist councilors voted against Torremolinos and rejected the motion.

Time continued going by inexorably and the Junta de Andalusia was not meeting its obligations or the time limit. Meanwhile, outrage was growing in Torremolinos to the point that some were or “more radical measures” in spite of the exemplary civil behaviour of the previous years.

Given the general mood, the Pro- Autonomy Assembly feared that any multitudinous calling could derive in incidents perpetrated by illegal or uncontrolled subjects, whose actions would bring about responsibilities and dangerous consequences and a high risk of stopping the process or good. Nevertheless, since the silence from the Junta de Andalusia persisted, Enrique Linde, after considering it thoroughly and seeing the unstoppable popular anger, decided to call a demonstration for the 10th of September and accompanied this calling with an explicit one by the president of the Pro- Autonomy Assembly, Pedro Fernández Montes, for calm and peaceful protest.

Fortunately, this calling was listened to unanimously. The demonstration was a new sample of civism, although, at the end of it, many wondered how long could the calm be kept and the wishes of a minority to harden the actions be repressed. Actions which the Board of Directors clearly opposed to repeatedly and again bet for trusting the State of Law.

Anyway, Pedro Fernández Montes addressed in writing the president of the Junta de Andalusia at the time, Jose Rodriguez de la Borbolla, to tell him the serious consequences that could derive from the passivity of the regional government about this subject and urged him to take the last pending step: sending the file to the Council of State.

On Friday 11th December, the councilor finally announced the decision of the Junta de Andalusia, which adopted practically all the thesis from the segregation movement. In October 1987, the favourable report of the Council of State was known; it urged the Junta del Andalusia to approve definitively the municipal independence of Torremolinos.

Still, the Junta de Andalusia did not find the appropriate political moment to make such an important decision public, which motivated the most daring and ambitious initiative of the Pro- Autonomy Assembly: the calling of a demonstration outside the site of the Council of Government in Seville.

The complex logistics, which intended to move over 5,000 people to the capital of Andalusia, were a challenge to the Pro- Autonomy Assembly which was assumed being aware of the total popular support to the fight.

On the 25th of November the convocation notice announcing the demonstration on the 15th of December of the same year 1987 was made public and was immediately received with unforeseeable enthusiasm, to the extent that the seats of the 80 buses that had been initially hired were covered in a few days.

The majority of the residents of Torremolinos seemed to feel that this act was going to be decisive for the adoption of a definitive position about the independence by the Junta de Andalusia, and even more so after the petition of the Councillor of the Government himself, Enrique Linde, to have a meeting with the president of the Pro- Autonomy Assembly, Pedro Fernández Montes, two days later, on the 10th of December, in Torremolinos.

The scenery of that important meeting was the Molino de la Torre and there, the councillor Enrique Linde advanced the decision of the regional government to approve the segregation of Torremolinos, and asked for the cancellation of the demonstration in Seville since the announcement would be made on the following day and thus, Torremolinos would officially get its independence in June of the next year.

The members of the Pro- Autonomy Assembly, besides showing their satisfaction for the news, told Mr. Linde that it was impossible to cancel the demonstration at such short notice. However, it would now have a different tone, testimonial of the unbreakable will of the people of Torremolinos to see their autonomy dream come true.

The heavy downpour of the 15th December 1987 was not impediment for the thousands of citizens who started to get on the buses from six o’clock in the morning and set off on their trip to Seville, together with thousands of private cars, at 8 o’clock in the morning. The event paralyzed the whole municipality since commerce and those who could not go on the trip wanted to show their solidarity with the march. Over 7,000 people, well over the 5,000 initially thought of and practically a third of the total population of Torremolinos at the time lived a historical journey which is registered as one of the most decisive and emotive moments of the whole independence process with illusion and impatience.

In the evening, under the rain that ad not stopped all day, the multitudinous caravan was cheerfully welcomed in Torremolinos, which had been for the whole day almost a ghost city with bars and shops closed and all activity practically stopped.
Order and civism marked the concentration in Seville, where a vehicle with loudspeakers apologized to the residents of the capital and informed about the reasons of the mobilization. There was not a single incident to cast a stain on the civil example offered by the people of Torremolinos.

From that day onwards, there was nothing else to do but wait to see the spirits appeased and see fulfilled the dream to which the socialist power in Madrid, Seville and Málaga had been opposing in an unfair and obstinate way against the residents of Torremolinos and even the position of most citizens from Málaga who understood the justice of the vindication.
There started to take place Situations and personal positioning, not far from intrigues and intoxications of all nature which aimed at misrepresenting the process to the point where people who had for years spoken and acted radically against segregation, now claimed to have always been defenders of the autonomy. The maneuvers reached the point of propitiating that some members of the Pro- Autonomy Assembly proposed the immediate resignation of the president, Pedro Fernández Montes, arguing that it would help the completion of the independence process more rapidly. Whoever behaved in this way, probably with no bad intention but no doubt influenced, ended up admitting his error and thus, revealing the changes in attitudes of some personalities of the time.

On the 11th of April 1988, Pedro Fernández Montes had an interview with the Director General of Regional Administration and Justice , Jose Antonio Sainz Pardo, who informed him that the file of segregation of Torremolinos was completed and only the signature of the president of Junta de Andalusia, Jose Rodriguez de la Borbolla, was pending, a step planned for Friday the 15th or the following Monday, 18th at the latest.

It did not happen that way. The last “detail” of the process was still being delayed. On the 19th of May, the people of Torremolinos was moved by the sad news of the death of Isabel Manoja. This young woman, from her position in the Pro- Autonomy Assembly, had known how to unify the wills and had shown her love for Torremolinos in the 9 long and intense years of vindication. Her funeral was a genuine expression of gratitude and respect from all the people of Torremolinos who accompanied the coffin of this great fighter to the San Miguel cemetery. Nowadays, she is still very present in the memory of the town and has a bronze bust in the Avenue Isabel Manoja in public appreciation of her task.

On the 9th of July 1988, after contacting the law department of the Junta de Andalusia, it was confirmed once again that the file was completed and we were informed that its signature was planned for the 26th of the same month, date of the last meeting of the Council of Government of the Junta de Andalusia before the summer holidays. Once again, everything was postponed.

It was necessary to wait until the end of September, Tuesday 27th, for the so longed for formulism to take place. At nine o’clock in the morning of that historical date, the president of the Pro- Autonomy Assembly, Pedro Fernández Montes, received a phone call in his home from the Director General Sainz Prado, who informed him that the file was already on the table of the Council of Ministers and was to be approved that same morning. At last the autonomy! At last the independence! At last, after 64 years, Torremolinos was going to regain its municipality!

It was the day everyone had dreamt of. At half past two in the afternoon, Canal Sur broadcasted the piece of news and from that moment on, the streets and squares of Torremolinos were flooded by expressions of joy. The expression “ya somos catetos” (“we are no longer yokels”), not with the traditional pejorative sense, was the most repeated and celebrated motto in what became a real collective craze.

On the 11th of October 1988, in a moving discourse, Pedro Fernández Montes proclaimed his gratefulness to the people of Torremolinos for a long and exemplary fight of civism and perseverance , and announced his decision of not taking part in the new Administration that from that moment on would be in charge of the destiny of the new independent Torremolinos