The rich legacy of the Alpujarra is the result of all the populations that have lived here, as each has left its own cultural impression.
This has lead to peculiar parties and ceremonies, traditions and plays, original coplas, dances and charming tales and legends.
SOCIAL USAGES, RITUALS AND FESTIVE ACTS
Some traditions are common for all the region, although an enormous local richness exist in relation to festivities and costumes.
Parties and festivals
The Alpujarra celebrates countless festive acts. Together with the most popular celebration, there are other more thematic ones. Next, a selection is listed:
- Patronage festivals
- Festival of the Crosses
- Moors and Christians Festival
- Chiscos Festival
- The Fox’s Burial
- Autumn Fair or Wine Fountain
- Water and Ham Party
- San Marcos Party
- “August New Year’s Eve”
LA VARIEDAD GASTRONÓMICA
The gastronomy, rich and varied, is generalised, even though there are typical dishes in each town.
They are mainly based on the agricultural and livestock products of the area. They are rich in calories and adapted to the weather of the region. They contain olive oil and the wheat or the foods derived from the pig are some of its main components.
The cooking of the Alpujarra is influenced by cultures that have lived in the region. During the Pre-history, people used to eat fruit, cereals and honey. The Romans introduced a great number of foods, to which the rich Andalusian gastronomy was added. Later, the Christian tradition will also be part of it.
Typical dishes of the Alpujarra
STEW, VEGETABLE SOUP AND POTS. Fennel, cardoon and cabbage stew. Varied vegetable soups (with chestnuts, fennels, etc.). San Marcos’ pot, Palva’s pot and Gipsy’s pot.
MEAT. Pig, rabbit, hare, calf, fowl, hunting meat, lamb. They can be garlic marinated, fried or in brine.
SALADS. Remojón salad (cod, orange, black olives), salpicón (shellfish), moho (black olives and cod), tascaburras (dried tomato, black olive and cod), etc.
SOUPS. Garlic, beans or asparagus soups. Cold vegetable soups and ajoblanco. Alpujarreño soup (with smashed almonds).
MIGAS. Bread and semolina migas with meat (longaniza, bacon, black pudding), melon or roasted peppers.
PORRIDGE. Porridge of milk and breadcrumbs, summer porridge, spicy porridge and red soup porridge.
FISH. Alpujarreña trout.
The Alpujarreño Dish
This is the typical dish of the Alpujarra of both Granada and Almería.
It is made up of the most important products of the region: fried potatoes (a lo pobre), fried eggs, black pudding, chorizo, prosciutto and filet. There are variations depending on the area.
The Pig Slaughter
The pig is considered the basis of the gastronomy of the Alpujarrra. The tradition of the pig slaughter has always been part of the family economy. It has been made in every family in the winter at Christmas time. The slaughterer kills the animal, opens it, cuts it and airs the meat. Meanwhile, the black pudding is being prepared in the bowls. It is a festive day to share with the family.
The pigs are raised with country products and the house leftovers, in a natural and ecological way. The cold meat (black pudding, chorizo, etc.) is prepared in a traditional way.
The weather and the humidity of the area are ideal to dry the pork legs, which have a great quality.
The Pastry of the Alpujarra
They follow an Andalusian tradition. Many exquisite and original varieties that are mainly elaborated with eggs, flour, sugar, honey and almonds.
Among them, there is turron, soplillos, wheat bread, cheese, almond cake, buñuelos (sweet fritters), oil buns, hornazos (meat pies), all kind of bread rollos, mantecados, borrachillos (cakes dump in liquor), huesos de santo (marzipan sweets), torta de lata (cake) or the mulhacenes.
Alpujarreño wines
In the region there are several Vinos de la Tierra, a quality of Spanish wine that designates the rung below the mainstream quality wine indication Denominación de Origen (DO): Vinos de la Tierra “Cumbres del Guadalfeo”, Vino de la Tierra “Laujar-Apujarra”, Vino de la Tierra “Ribera del Andarax”. They keep the traditional cultivation and elaboration.
Cheese
It is traditionally elaborated. The cheese can be either goat’s cheese or ewe’s mixed cheese or it can also be mixed together. It can be found in oil or seasoned with herbs.
MIGAS FROM THE ALPUJARRA
Ingredients
- 2 glasses of water
- 4 cups semolina flour
- Salt
- 1-2 garlics
- 2-3 tablespoons of oil
Accompaniment
- Bacon
- Sausage
- Roasted Onion
- Roasted Garlic
- Fried green pepper
- Fried dried tomato
- Roasted or dried fish
- Salad
- Gazpacho
- Olives
- Wine
Preparation
1. Put oil in a pan and fry the chopped garlic. Cool it.
2. Add hot water and salt.
3. Add the semolina flour gradually to the boiling water.
Stir with the spatula to knead well.
4. Continue moving between ½ hour and ¾ hour over low heat,
until you get small golden balls.
MUSICAL PATRIMONY
In the traditional music of the Alpujarra, we can find the trovo (traditional music from the Alpujarra in which people improvise poetry with a traditional folk dance music), Mozarab Christmas carols, dances, ánimas songs for the dead people, remerinos (songs that people used to sing while they were doing agricultural jobs), serenades, mule songs (songs people used to sing while threshing) or the parranda (carnival song), among others. Special costumes and traditional instruments complement it.
The Traditional Music Festival of the Alpujarra, that is annually celebrated, offers the possibility of knowing almost all the folk traditional music of the region.
The Alpujarreño trovo
This is the most important musical-poetic composition of the Alpujarra. It consists of verses, normally five-line stanzas, which generate a discussion between two singers about a given topic (contemporary, philosophical, satirical, mocking, loving, etc.).
Trovos can be accompanied with music (guitar, bandurria and violin) and they can be danced in mudanzas and robaos. The typical dance used for the trovos are the fandangos (the danced trovos).
Dances
Even though each town has its own dance, the main and most frequent demonstrations are:
The robao. The dancers change partners. They “steal” each other’s partners.
The mudanza. A group of people dance and there is one, the “courter”, which dances among the rest.
MYTHS, TALES AND LEGENDS
By means of the oral tradition, myths, tales, and legends that tell great feats, battles and loves, which remind of important people, have been transmitted and they have remained almost the same.
One of the most famous legends is the one of Abu l-Hasan Ali’s tomb, the Legends of the Laguna de Vacares, the Legend of the chestnut and the six squires with their horses.
THE LEGEND OF THE TOMB OF MULEY HACEN
The legend tells that Muley Hacen (known as Abu l-Hasan Ali in English), unhappy sultan of the Nasrid Kingdom, defeated and overthrown by his son, who followed the orders of the spiteful Aixa, hid somewhere in Sierra Nevada. Zoraya, his favourite wife, accompanied him. Then, he asked her that, when he died, she should bury him in the entrails of the mountains, in some forgotten and unknown area. There, where anyone could arrive, he will get the eternal rest. He would not have peace if he was close to human meanness or dead bodies of strangers. Eventually, Zoraya and their children did what he wanted and they carried his body to the highest and most inaccessible place in Sierra Nevada for burial. Thereafter, and in honour of the unfortunate Sultan, the peak would be known as Mulhacen.
