This is going to be a slight detour from the LGBT history that I normally cover, a detour that will take us to a small side street in Torremolinos in Spain to be exact. I visited in 2024 and came away rather shocked at the history, and wanted to know more. There is information online but it’s scattered over a number of websites, many in Spanish, so I decided to pull this together.
Pasaje Begoña (Begoña Passage), was created when the Begoña Building was constructed in 1962, on Palma de Mallorca Avenue, close to the central train station in Torremolinos. Over the following decade the street developed a permissive atmosphere with strip bars and jazz clubs, but it became most well known as the main location for the town’s LGBT bars and clubs.
Thanks to the right-wing dictatorship of General Franco, a number of law reforms re-criminalised homosexuality in Spain during the 1940–1960s. Despite this a few places emerged in the 1960s as counter-cultural destinations with underground gay scenes: Barcelona, Sitges, and Ibiza. The fishing village of Torremolinos became the equivalent location on the Spanish south coast, attracting the chic youth of Europe, with Pasaje Begoña as the town’s hotspot for queer tourists and locals alike.
The queer history of the passage has been recognised in the last few years and it’s become a bit of a tourist attraction, although of a very niche nature (for people like me, and I’m guessing you too). Along with some commemorative street art there are information panels along the walls (in Spanish and English), detailing what is known about the bars and clubs that used to exist there.
Three of the old bars have also had replica neon signs installed: The Blue Note, Pia Beck and Le Fiacre Club. Two new signs have been added in tribute to significant venues in LGBT history: Stonewall Inn and Pulse.
Anything I’ve put in quotes below comes from those wall panels, installed by the Instituto Andaluz de la Juventud, and the Consejería de Igualdad, Políticas Sociales Y Conciliación.
Twinned with Stonewall Inn
“From late 1962 until June 1971, Pasaje Begoña became an international reference of freedom, diversity and respect for gender identity and sexual orientation.
“Both the Andalusian Parliament and the Spanish Congress of Deputies, unanimously approved the restoration of Pasaje Begoña in 2018 and 2019, as a site of memory and birthplace of rights and freedom for the LGBTI+ community.
“On the 26th of June 2019 the twinning ceremony between Pasaje Begoña and the legendary The Stonewall Inn took place in New York, where the famous 1969 riots gave birth to the LGBTI+ liberation movement.”
So why was it twinned with The Stonewall Inn?
La Gran Redada (The Great Raid)
“A great raid took place in Pasaje Begoña on the 24th of June 1971. More than 300 people were involved, 114 of which were arrested on charges of ‘violating good morals and manners’. Some people were imprisoned that night and all foreigners arrested were deported. These charges went into their criminal records and those under arrest were threatened to be placed ‘under police surveillance’, with even worse consequences in case of recidivism.
“This ‘great raid’ was an attack on the Pasaje Begoña, as its venues were shut down forever. But above all, it was attack on freedom, bringing shame upon the world.”
Ramón Cadenas
Ramón Cadenas had opened Bar Gogó in Pasaje Begoña just a month before La Gran Redada took place and was witness to what happened:
“It was horrific. The police blocked all exits of the Pasaje Begoña. They brought machine-guns. At first they came with four or five vans, but afterwards buses arrived too, to take all those who had been arrested, he said.
“The most fortunate were freed from the police cells in the early hours with a fine of 3,000 pesetas. Tourists were deported back to their countries. It caused a scandal that angered the international press. The raid was covered by Der Spiegel, the most important weekly magazine in Germany. The Sunday Times reported on the story with the following headline: Tourists held in nightclub raids in Spain.
“They didn’t arrest me during the first raid because I silenced all the customers and closed the door and the windows. When the police called we didn’t answer, but afterwards, they arrested me many times.”
Quote by Ramón Cadenas is from an interview in SURinEnglish in 2018.
Sandra Almodóvar
Actor and trans woman Sandra Almodóvar was also present during the raid and has told her story.
“They told us to stand on the left and on the right, depending on whether we were Spanish or foreign,” she told Vanity Fair.
“There was a ‘secret agent’ with a brute face who looked at us contemptuously and said to a colleague “what a pigeon coop there is here”, and when he saw our ID, he said contemptuously: “you are such a faggot, I’ll call you Luis or Luisa. This could be fixed by shooting you in the temple.”
She was forced to sign a confession for theft and was sent to prison for a year and a half.
The treatment in the prisons was horrendous and humiliating, full of abuse and harassment by the officers themselves. If you didn’t let yourself be raped, they made your life impossible.”
Quotes from Sandra Almodóvar are from Vanity Fair in 2018.
Sandra later appeared in the Pedro Almodovar film ‘Bad Education’ (2004), under her stage name Sandra Montiel. You can read more about her in an article in El Espanol (in Spanish), published the month before she died in May 2023.
The bars and clubs of Pasaje Begoña
While I was looking for pictures of the thriving LGBT venues that used to be available down Pasaje Begoña, I discovered the torremolinoschic.com website. It’s a wonderful resource preserving the cultural life of Torremolinos and “the golden age of the Coast del Sol”. As you can tell from the watermarks on the photos that follow, almost all come Torremolinos Chic, and many of the photographs were donated by the owner of Bar Gogó, Ramón Cadenas.
Tony’s Bar (1962–63)
“It is considered the first gay bar in Spain. Its first owners were a British homosexual couple. It was mainly visited by tourists. Due to the constant repression of the Spanish dictatorship, it was a place of temporary nature with different addresses in the area of Pasaje Begoña. Several testimonies place it at the beginning of Cauce Street and on Antonio Girón Street.”
Bar La Boquilla (1964–68)
“La Boquilla was one of the first gay bars on Pasaje Begoña. It was frequented by Salvador Dali’s beautiful muse Peki d’Oslo, later known as Amanda Lear. Other illustrious clients were fashion designers Herrero and Ollero, Sara Montiel and Nati Abascal. The owner, was a North American woman of Jewish origin, whose grandfather was from Triana.”
Bar La Sirena (1964–69)
“It was owned by the Basque Ángel Larrinoa. Testimonies define this place is fun and diverse. Despite being a small place, the most glamorous parties on the Costa del Sol were celebrated here. At the time, this venue was inspected many times and it received numerous warnings of closure by the authorities. Later on, it was called Bar Larri.”
Night Club El Refugio (1964–70)
“Located on the first floor of Pasaje Begoña, this place was frequented by the owners and waiters of the neighbouring bars. Here, on February 1967, a successful meeting was held among the owners and tenants of the party halls, bars and clubs on Pasaje Begoña, where a coexistence regulation, which would bring important improvements, was approved. The famous ‘Operation Crystal’ was also organised here: it was an agreement for the selective collection and sale of ‘returnable’ glass bottles, and the funds were dedicated to social causes. The owner was Diego Quiroga.”
La Cueva de Aladino (1965-69)
“This bar was known for the stalactites hanging down from the low ceilings. It was one of the favourite gay bars, highly frequented by foreign tourists. As many others, it was under inspections and suffered police searches very often. After the ‘great raid’, many homosexuals took refuge in the Holalda Bar, despite not being a specifically gay place.”
Club The Blue Note (1965–69)
“Its owner, Pia Beck (1925–2009), was considered the best jazz pianist in the world. She was one of the first artists to openly declare her homosexuality. Pia Beck promoted a concert in Holland to raise funds against homophobia. She faced American homophobic artist Anita Bryant. The Netherlands Pride continues to be inspired by that confrontation. Much of her legacy can be found in Holland, and one of Amsterdam’s bridges is named after her.”
Right: Arin, Lucy, Suze, Marga, Pía Beck, Gino, Glenn, Irene, Vivian, Ingrid. Also provided by Gino Felleman.
Sala Don Quijote (1968–72)
“It was said that sequins, high heels and bright colours, imposed their law here. This famous club was very trendy. Here you could drink whiskeys from the world and listen to the latest music hits that came from the most remote corners of America and Europe. Once a week they prepared sangria with quitapenas wine for groups of foreigners. Some claim that this place was one of the locations of the legendary Tony’s bar.”
Bar Gogó (1971)
“It was a temporary venue. It opened a month before the ‘great raid’ and escaped the mass arrests, as they closed and locked their doors just before the arrival of the police, but received such serious threats, that it never opened again. The owner, Ramón Cadena, was one of the exceptional witnesses of the splendour of Pasaje Begoña.”
Postcards
I originally heard about Pasaje Begoña when a friend John Rossington sent me the postcard for ‘La Sirena, Torremolinos’ that you can see below. I got in contact with Spanish artist and photographer David Trullo (instagram.com/davidtrullo) as his name was on the back. He explained that he was artist in residence in Torremolinos in 2018, and he produced a series of fictional tourist postcards for some of the venues using historic photographs.
The street was actually renamed Pasaje Gil Vicente in 1981, presumably an attempt to wipe Pasaje Begoña off the map, literally. It’s original name was returned in the work building up to the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the raid in 2021.
Although Pasaje Begoña was looking a little unloved when I visited, it still felt like some great work had been done to preserve a significant moment in queer history, while celebrating the ordinary folk who socialised there, and acknowledging that some of them paid a heavy price.
If you want to more there is lots of info on on this Wikipedia page: Great Raid of the Pasaje Begoña.
