Quinquis, Cinema and “El Pera”

Four decades after those first feature films showing the lives of young delinquents appeared in Spanish theaters, the interest in the quinqui phenomenon does not seem to have disappeared; however, at present this attention serves other purposes. The critical will that José Antonio de la Loma and Eloy de la Iglesia proposed with their films has given way, over time, to other approaches of a more academic or artistic nature. To the studies that examine the cinema of the Transition, in which it is almost necessary to dedicate a separate chapter to the quinqui subgenre, starting in the late nineties we need no add the publication of different works both inside and outside of Spain, whose intention is to examine exclusively the quinqui cinematography. To these research works, in addition, we should add the appearance of initiatives that aim to highlight the artistic aspect of those feature films, as would be the case of the exhibition “Quinquis de los 80. Cine, prensa y calle,” organized in 2009 at the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona—visited by more than 60,000 people—and in 2010 at the Casa Encendida in Madrid.

Going back to the cinematographic world, another example of the interest for the quinqui subject continues to resonate, this time in the twenty-first century, would be the feature film Volando voy. Released in November 2005, Miguel Albaladejo's film (Alicante, 1966) recounts the beginnings of Juan Carlos Delgado, alias “El Pera,” as a delinquent and his later rehabilitation into the society, for which he recreates certain spaces, a society and characters reminiscent of those presented in the quinqui cinema of the seventies and eighties. However, these quinquis, today synonymous with delinquent, have little to do with the adventures of “el Lute” collected in the press in the sixties and adapted into cinema years later by Vicente Aranda, where crime and sensationalist journalism meet, or with those delinquent protagonists of the seventies and eighties films.

Although it is difficult to assure with certainty what the origin of this group is, what seems beyond doubt is that for centuries they led a nomadic life apart from the rest of society and that they have not always been associated with crime.