Costa del Sol Towns

Ojen, Historical residents

Bartolome Sanchez Ballesteros lived between the 17th and 18th centuries. Their descendants are part of the existing families with surnames Sanchez, Mairena, Garcia, and Rodriguez. He was a descendant from La Roda (Albacete), who was established in Ojen during the repopulation process in 1571.

He was a prominent member of the community among the residents of Ojen. He owned one of the medieval mill sites.

He was heir to the chaplaincy and was the son of the priest and pastor of Ojen, Don Lucas Sanchez Ballesteros, who, in his will dated 1807, left all his assets and income, including the mill and the rights of chaplains, to his nephew, Lucas Mairena Sanchez Ballesteros, who was the last owner of the mill and was buried in the family plot that existed under the high altar of the church in 1864. The mill is the one that now houses the Museum of Ojen.

Antonio Gómez Fernandez, aka “El Presidente,” was the son of Antonio Toro Gomez, a native of Marbella, who was taxing income in the population during the years of the reign of Alfonso XIII.

In his youth he emigrated to Brazil (Sao Paulo), where he returned in the ’30s. During the periods of the Popular Front and the Civil War, he was president of the local committee the CNT (anarchist politics) and the liaison committee.

He was convicted for his political activism by the national forces, initially receiving a death sentence but later sentenced to life imprisonment. A group of militia was sent from Malaga in 1937 to retaliate against those deemed right by all peoples of the province.

Antonio Gomez faced the risk of his life with the militia, allowing it to exact revenge killings against any neighbor or conservative in Ojen. Thanks to its value, one of the local owners, Don Martin, saved his life.

After the arrival of the regime of Primo de Rivera in 1923, which expressed hostility toward the anarchists, in 1924 he emigrated with his wife and children to Brazil and they never returned. Before his death he wrote a report in the form of a story to his grandchildren that recounts the circumstances of the mining strike of 1917 in the Iron Mine of Marbella-Ojen.

There was plasma around his ideal of social peace and the struggle for human rights. In 1919 he was the first president of the union mine in Ojen, called the “Sociedad Minera awakening.”

Lucas Mairena Marquez (Ojen, 1888–Cartagena, 1968). Lucas was the son of Juan and Ana Parra Mairena Marquez Gonzalez. He was captain of the Guardia Civil from the merger of the Carabinieri Corps, to which his father also belonged, as well as one of his sons.

 

Don Martin’s son was mayor in the ’50s and took part in the mitigation of Antonio’s sentence, allowing him to return to population, especially to attend the funeral of his young daughter, who died tragically at only 20 years old.

Because he lost an arm during the war, Gomez was also nicknamed “El Manco.” He died in 1977, shortly before the democratic process was clearly decided and the 1978 Constitution.

Lucas was Lieutenant of Carabineers de la Aduana de Algeciras at the start of the Civil War. The Carabineers section was integrated into a mixed unit in the Pavia Infantry Regiment with the Camp of Gibraltar (companies include Algeciras, La Linea, and San Roque), which participated in the conquest of the national sector of Jimena de la Frontera-Casares integrated in a column under the command of captain of the regular Herran, with garrison in Larache (Morocco Protectorate).

He then moved to an exclusive carabineer, which was established in the front line, “Arroyo Vaquero” (Estepona). His section was responsible for the post of The Angel (Marbella) in January through February of 1937 by contacting the national forces that had occupied Istan before the occupation of Marbella.

After these performances Marquez became a military commander of Manilva, moving in March to manage the office of Algeciras. For his services, especially for his work as head of the Office of Algeciras, in 1939 the government awarded him with several medals (the Order of Italy and Medahuia and the Campaign Medal).

He later received the medal in recognition of San Hermenegildo for seniority of their services. Lucas also helped his family during his trip to Brazil in 1924. Oral testimony by relatives suggests it is probably related to the fact that the garrison events in Marbella in January 1937, at the time of the battle front in this city, came to complete the columns sent by national the Duke of Seville, and even the forces of the Civil Guard of Marbella were struggling against national forces.

These facts are rated as critical history in the national occupation of Marbella at the end of January 1937, and the occupation of this position was considered strategic for a few days after the occupation of Malaga, whose “fall” had a profound effect on the press and on the morale of the Republican side.

When he became aware of the internal quarrels, the intervention of Ojen’s proceedings of the first local authorities with the national regime helped save the lives of his relatives, Antonio Mairena Lorente, who was a member of the Liaison Committee Ojen red, and his brothers Joseph and John, who, although they had no political affiliation, had to hide to avoid their deaths.

Jose Mairena Lorente was tortured by the Phalangists and members of the local civil guard when they were trying to get him to reveal where he was hiding his brother. In the process Lucas Mairena Marquez, who was unable to return to Ojen, sent on his behalf another Carabineer/civil guard from Ojen known as Romero paralyzing the pace of these iniquitous acts.

Among the Carabineer infantry commanders were Seville and Cadiz, Cape Command Carabineers of Malaga between 1917 and 1924, and in 1924 sergeant of the guard in front of the Estepona Carabineers, which went to the Brigade in Algeciras.

For years he hid and was part of the “fugitives” who lived in the mountains of the region of Marbella. His family suffered the rigors of persecution and always helped at the expense of their personal safety.

Gomez finally surrendered in 1944, moving to the district prison of the town and then to Malaga, where he suffered through sentence of six years, after which he was deported from Ojen and moved to La Linea and Gibraltar. In the 1960s he was allowed to return to reside in Ojen.

Mairena Jose Parra. Born a natural descendant of Ojen, his paternal family settled in Marbella from the Rock of Gibraltar after the expulsion of the Spanish population by British occupation in 1704.

His father and paternal grandparents were mayors and chairmen of the Board of Local Ganaderos Ojen. Parra was also a descendant of the major lineages of people living in Ojen, Marbella, and Coin castles through the 15th and 17th centuries.

His family owned property, including a flour mill, a chaplain in the parish of Ojen, a house in the Street of the Knights of Marbella, land in Coin, the Rock of la Huerta, and the Lightning in Marbella.

He studied at the Seminary of Malaga. In his youth the anarchist doctrine was formed. Following the economic ruin of his family, Parra went to work at the Iron Mine Rock (Ojen-Marbella), where he played a prominent role in the organization and preparation of strikes for the years 1917 and 1918.