Press release
Round Table – Book: ‘El Habichuela: A life in cinema in Almería’
26th, April 2007
A “little man” with a far away look on his face, weather-beaten from the sun of his homeland, put all his hope into an unknown industry still in its early stages in a poor and forgotten Almeria. Cinema became the driving force in the life of this unrepeatable figure in this province and in the film world, José Galera Balazote (1936-2005), known as Pepe 'El Habichuela' to everyone and probably the most famous extra of all time.‘El Habichuela’, una vida de cine en Almería tells the life story of this film extra, who won the hearts of the professionals in the seventh art as well as those of his fellow countrymen. Hearing the story is a discovery of the film adventure in the province of Almeria, a land that in the early 60s was drowning in a harsh reality, one that little by little began taking off thanks to productions that saw its landscapes as the best place to make their histories come to life. ‘El Habichuela’ jumped on the film bandwagon. In a short time, he was one of the locals who managed to work full time on film shoots.
In his daily life, he acted as the lead character in a movie being filmed daily, one in which he was the main star. He specialized in Westerns. He was always dressed like a cowboy, with his pistols, his vest, his hat and a sheriff’s badge, which symbolized what he dreamed of being in life. Everyone remembers him riding his bicycle through the city as though he were on a beautiful steed. He might well have taken part in the all full-length films shot in Almería. He met and hung out with all the directors and production heads who visited his beloved city, with his friend José Salcedo, and the big stars Anthony Quinn, Brigitte Bardot, Yul Brynner, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Burt Lancaster, Sofía Loren, Richard Harris, Charles Bronson, Terence Hill, Bud Spencer...
'El Habichuela', una vida de cine en Almería, published by La Voz de Almería in partnership with the County Council’s Department of Culture, compiles the deeds of this authentic and dearly loved character through memories and anecdotes from the people who knew him, from his closest confidants to actors and directors with whom he worked. Important personalities in the world of film give their opinions on film in Almería and 'El Habichuela', including Gil Parrondo, Joaquín Romero Marchent, Eli Wallach, Carla Leone, Giuliano Gemma, Sancho Gracia, Enzo G. Castellari, Fabio Testi, Mariano Ozores, Andrés Pajares, Eduardo Fajardo, Frank Braña, Aldo Sambrell, and more.
This film was also made possible thanks to the collaboration of the production director José Salcedo, who authored the prologue, and the filmmaker Jesús Franco who is in charge of the presentation, and the director José Luis Garc, who wrote the epilogue in which he describes 'El Habichuela' as "an angel dressed as a cowboy, someone for whom a director, a production head, and a gentleman were the same thing: a friend. Rest in peace, stranger, in that land where the sun always rises in the West”.
Juan Gabriel García
Journalist and author of 'El Habichuela', una vida de cine en Almería