I saw the blighter, walking through the Taramay tunnel, as I was coming back from the inauguration of the autovia. What struck me, although not literally, was the cross that he was carrying. Even though I was on my bike, I was reluctant to turn round and speak to him, being in a rush to get home and write up a report on the autovia. Now I wish I had, because he fell over with heatstroke and ended up in hospital.
Quite a few people have seen Justo Marquéz around town, especially in front of the law courts, where he staged a one-man protest, complete with the 3-metre long cross, to bring attention to his cause: water for his cortijo.
At the beginning of the month he tried a hunger strike, but didn’t manage to cause any rumblings other than his stomach, so he hit on the idea of dragging a cross around; a sort of, “This-is-the-cross-that-I-bear,” idea.
After getting no joy in Almuñécar, he decided that he would march on Madrid, starting with a stomp over to Motril – he was on his way when I saw him. He got there OK, despite the temperature being in the 30’s, but collapsed just outside Motril on his 500 kilometre ‘drag’, because when you’re carrying a bloody-great, 3-metre cross, it’s impossible to keep the thing off the ground. A motorist found him, lying on a roadside bank, next to his cross.
The problem is that Justo wants water from the water deposit on family land, but his aunt won’t let him have it…