Although tales of bandits or highwaymen and their daring escapades still have the power to fascinate, most people believe that they belong firmly in the past. In Spain, however, that past is very recent and within living memory, especially in the Ronda region.

The road (M5402) from Ardales (on the N357 62.5km northwest of Malaga) to El Burgo, some 20km distant, is known as the ‘bandoleros route’ and it is rumoured that as recently as 1975 the Guardia rode shotgun on bus services along that road for fear of attacks by bandits.

Officially however, the last bandit is said to have been Pasos Largos (Big Steps) who lived in a cave and roamed the El Burgo area during the early decades of the 20th century. He was killed in 1934 during a shoot-out with the Guardia.
There is not much sign of the bandits now and if there were they must have a pretty Spartan existence out there. The road (M5401 out here) is lonely, desolate, awe inspiring and spectacular as it winds through the foothills of the Sierra Nieves. There are no villages or wayside inns; very few farms and no sign of human life at all. Dark mountainsides rise starkly on either side and tower menacingly above the road.

El Burgo, a typical Andalucian white town, lies in a sort of basin surrounded by mountains covered with gall oaks and pine groves. The approach to it is along lower and more level ground. Olive groves and masses of deep purple clover line the roadsides. El Burgo is a pleasant and welcome oasis with shops, banks, café bars, several ‘pescaria’ (fishmongers) and a petrol station.

Then it is back on the road (A366) which climbs the white limestone peaks steadily towards Ronda. Today this is National Park country but old green tracks leading away from the tarmac road have echoes of the bandoleros on horseback, wild and unkempt, some with women, riding to their hideaways high in the mountains. At the summit of the A366 there is a plateau where miniature deep blue iris grows in profusion and the raw beauty of the scene is stunning.

This road drops down into old Ronda with its steep quaint streets and once here it is a must to visit El Museo del Bandolero. This located on Calle Armiñan in Ronda (tel: 952 877 785) and it is open from 10.00-20.00 Mondays-Sundays. Apart from the usual tableaux, weapons, costumes and documents, the museum has a fascinating display of portraits and photographs of many of the bandoleros, together with the women who loved and married them. The museum also holds many of the originals of the bandolero’s personal papers such as birth and burial certificates.

The best known of them all was El Tempranillo (1805-1833) otherwise known as José Maria Hinojosa Cabacho. He was born in Jauja on 21st June 1805 near Alameda which is in within easy reach of Ronda. Like most bandits he and his family were poor and his bandit activity began when he was just thirteen. At this tender age he killed a man, because of an attack on his family, and went on the run. He established his own gang of young bandits and operated from a cave near the Despeñaperros (literally dogs thrown over a cliff!) Pass.

El Tempranillo (the ‘early riser’) was a ‘charming self-publicist’ who famously announced that the King ruled Spain but he (El Tempranillo) ruled the Sierra Morena. He married a girl named Maria but she died giving him a son in 1831. He rode into Grazalema (north-west of Ronda) to baptise their son in the church of Nuestra Señora de la Aurora with a guard of fifty or so other bandits and the authorities could do nothing about it.

The artist, John Lewis, inspired by writer John Ford’s description of El Tempranillo as ‘
the love of Andalucia
’ painted the bandit. His portrait shows a small dark haired man with blue eyes, a Roman nose, and a large mouth, wearing a shirt and a velvet jacket with silver buttons.

El Tempranillo was the Robin Hood of his day and a folk hero among the poverty stricken peasants of Andalucia. He regularly robbed the rich and gave to the poor and such was his popularity that the King, Fernando VII, offered him a pardon in 1832 on the condition that he would renounce banditry and work instead for the ‘other side.’

This El Tempranillo agreed to do. Ironically he was killed in a gun battle attempting to arrest another bandit, El Barbarello of Estepa, on the Alameda-Mollino road. As the notorious English highwayman-bandit, Dick Turpin, said, on realising that he had shot a colleague, ‘
What! Dog eat dog!
’ El Tempranillo died on 28th September 1833 and was buried ‘
in a carved tomb
’ at the church in Alameda.

This fate was perhaps preferable though to the fate he might have suffered. Many bandits used the caves in the high cliffs around Ronda and its famous gorge as hideouts. Here they were virtually untouchable and the local military and populace gave them a wide berth. However when the bandoleros ventured out on their pillaging parties they were vulnerable to attack and capture themselves. If caught in Ronda their fate was almost certainly to be thrown to their deaths from the high cliffs of the gorge. It could be termed Hobson’s Choice to coin another cliché. Shot to pieces or smashed to pieces. But these were desperate times and the bandoleros were desperate men.