The myth of Negre Lloma buried next to José Antonio in the Valley of the Fallen

Get to know one of the urban legends of the popular culture of the city of Alicante

The exhumation of the remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera from the Valle de los Caídos recalls one of the urban legends that pervade Alicante’s popular culture, that of the final destination of the “Black Loma”. We still wonder if the body of the iconic character remains buried inside the Falangist mausoleum, a fact that, if true, would be quite ironic.

at the beginning of twentieth century, specifically from the year 1914 until the start of the Spanish Civil War, the city of Alicante witnessed the peculiar life of a popular vagabond, commonly known as the “Negre Lloma”. His real name was John Moore and worked as a cook on an oil tanker that caught fire in 1914. Although he had the option of returning to his country, he preferred spend the night in the main streets of the town and live on charity.

His ethnic features meant that he will not go unnoticed by passers-by, making him a mythical figure of the Alicante identity. wandered drunk down the Esplanade, with her shoes tied around her neck, complimenting women they gave him food.

A fragment of the work “Alicante a city in memory” written by the chronicler Fernando Gil Sanchez, describes him: “With his giant, broken and worn shoes. With the threadbare sack of pita, on his shoulder. With his monumental figure, made more enormous by his blackness. With his smile of red tongue and white teeth. With his head of ringed hair, dirty and white with earth. With their rhythmic gestures and movements like dance steps, like magical rhythms. With his baggy pants and his jacket always unbuttoned and flapping. with his bottle of gasoline from which he took sipsastonishing us by throwing a violent jet on a burning cotton to put it out later inside its mouth”.

Did “Negre Lloma” and Primo de Rivera share a grave?

Some popular rumors maintain that the founder of the Spanish Falange and the friendly drunk ended up buried in the same common grave. The same day that Antonio Primo de Rivera was shot by the Republican authorities, November 20, 1936they found the corpse of the “Negre Lloma” in a ditch near the neighborhood of Beautiful view. The emblematic homeless man ended his days dead from hunger, cold or alcoholism, as published by the cultural association Alicante Live.

Once the Civil War ended, the Falangist leaders traveled to Alicante to recover the body of Primo de Rivera with the aim of giving him a “worthy of burial.” Neighbors claimed that the mythical homeless man was among the remains of the five thousand Falangists who moved to Madrid.

Although it is quite comical to think that the drunken cook rests in peace with the dictator, the General Registry of Burials of the Alicante Cemetery has declared that it all comes down to an urban legend. However, the officials have identified a profile that coincides with the death symptoms of the wanted person, who is hiding under the name of Juan Mallol.

The “Negre de Lloma” still lives in Alicante’s memory

The popular saying “you were lazier than the black loma” is a colloquial proverb that the people of Alicante use today.

In addition, the historian Fernando Gil assures that the illustration that recreates the silhouette of a man with a laurel wreath on the shield of the soccer club of the city of Alicante, Hércules CF, It is inspired by “Negre Lloma” himself. She was about to even have a street in the city.