Salvador Ruiz I Málaga, (EFE) “It is very pretty”, but “there is a certain gentrification”.
«There is something beautiful because there are parts that maintain the essence, the center has changed a lot, it is very beautiful, but it is true that something similar to a phenomenon that I am observing in Seville and other cities is happening: that there is a certain gentrification» or displacement of the original population, confesses in an interview with EFE.
De la Torre, who will present the next edition of the 2023 Goya Awards together with Clara Lago, to be held in Seville on February 11, points out that some parts of Malaga are a bit like “a theme park”, full of “locals franchise”, and although he is happy about the strength of the city, he would like to know “how are the people in the neighborhoods”.
In this sense, he details that there are “voices critical of municipal management” that tell him that “the center is very beautiful, but the neighborhoods are a little more forgotten.”
His opinion, like that of a “guiri”
De la Torre acknowledges that he “unfortunately” visits Malaga less than he would like, so his opinion, he says, is “a bit like a foreigner”, having lived in Seville for 22 years, and his vision is partial. He hasn’t visited the neighborhoods for a long time and, when he comes, he usually goes to “the noble areas”, like the center of the city, which he thinks is “wonderful”.
When he is in the capital of the Costa del Sol, he sometimes goes for a run along the Paseo del Parque or goes to the Pedregalejo area or the El Palo neighborhood, on the edge of the Mediterranean.
«I love visiting Malaga and seeing a center that attracts tourism, that is very beautiful, but I am very interested in the Malaga of 600,000 people from Malaga, I am very interested in everyone’s quality of life. Cities, I suppose that is my way of understanding life, have to be a bit ‘distribute game’”, he highlights.
For this reason, a city model that attracts income, wealth and tourism seems fine to him, although this should also redound “to all the residents of Malaga, not only to those who live in the downtown area”.
Sea, Climate and quality of life
In examining the keys to success in his native Malaga, he highlights the “obvious beauty of the entire downtown area”; the weather, although “quite unpredictable with climate change”; the fact of being a place with “a great quality of life for those who have money”, and the sea.
The climate, he adds, “attracts many people from the technological professions” who can afford to come here to live because it is a “very attractive” city for them.
But fame, he insists, sees it “linked to the fact that the entire population benefits from that success, not just a part.”
And how can Malaga improve? Antonio de la Torre is clear about it: “In redistributing wealth, which is what I think humanity can improve.” And he takes the opportunity to connect with current events: “The news has come out that Spain is the country in Europe that has the most bankers charging more than one million euros a year.”
In fact, the journalist also points out, correcting inequalities is the pending task of all rich countries: “There is plenty of wealth for everyone to live well, it is a pending task and in Malaga as well,” he stresses.
His favorite corner: An “expert” hotel
Asked about his favorite corner of Malaga, he does not hesitate for a moment: the Málaga Palacio, the usual hotel in Malaga. When, as a young man, he met at the door of Zaragozano, the old bank at the entrance to Calle Larios in the center, a classic meeting point for friends for decades, he thought: “What an expert (Málaga expression used to say that you like something) the Málaga Palace». He considered it “the hotel of the rich.”
Now, at the age of 55, “luckily” life gives him “the opportunity” to stay in it from time to time. He enjoys having a drink on his terrace, the viewpoint on the 15th floor, and contemplating the image from that vantage point: “My Malaga, my port.”
The hotel now turns out to be one of the temples of the Malaga Festival and he stays there when he goes to the event, he has made friends in the establishment and when he goes they receive him “very well, with much affection.”
He likes to dream of his days as a young man, dating on the street and thinking, “Who could ever stay here? It is my youthful dream come true, it is like an emblematic place, it has something symbolic», he affirms.
This information is part of a series of interviews that EFE has carried out with prominent Malaga professionals from different fields, such as cinema, music, cooking or sports, to find out their opinion on the transformation that the city has undergone, the keys to its success and the aspects that the capital still has to improve. EFE
