Motril town hall finally agrees to honour LGBT+ icon who suffered years of homophobic abuse

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Hairdresser and artist Antonio Bueno has been campaigning since 2018 for the town hall to fulfil its commitment to pay tribute to Juan Alabarce 'La Juanita' who faced many years of homophobic abuse and who died in 2009

Mercedes Navarrete

Granada

Friday, 24 April 2026, 14:32

La Juanita died in 2009, at the age of 85, after a lifetime of abuse and social rejection simply for being transgender. Several generations of people from Motril on Granada province's Costa Tropical accept that they persecuted and made fun of La Juanita for decades, calling her names and even phyically attacking her. But after each attack, La Juanita would put a carnation in her hair and go out into the street with her dignity intact. She never left Motril.

Juan Alabarce Maldonado was born in Motril in 1924 and lived life as 'La Juanita'. Juan identified as a woman and was ahead of her time, never hiding her sexuality despite the physical and psychological abuse she suffered. Often dressed in denim shorts with a carnation in ther hair, a crochet cap tied with hairpins, make up and and pink nails. Cropped T-shirts, old flip-flops and probably the first denim shorts ever seen on the Costa Tropical completed La Juanita's look.

Determined that not only those who knew her, but also present and future generations, should know who 'La Juanita' was - so that history never repeated itself - the Motril hairdresser and artist Antonio Bueno, started to promoted a movement in 2016, with the support of friends, to redress to repair the figure of this icon who paved the way for the LGTB+ movement on the Costa Tropical.

After a successful campaign to collect signatures to honour the memory of 'La Juanita', in September 2018, Motril town hall unanimously approved to name a street after her and to commission and statue in her honour. In May 2019, the historical debt was settled with the placement of a plaque in tribute to 'La Juanita' in Calle Cervantes.

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But Antonio Bueno is not satisfied and has been fighting for eight years for the tribute to be completed with the sculpture that would make 'La Juanita' a symbol of Motril as a town that stands for freedom and difference.

For the last eight years, at least once a week - and so far in 2026 every day - Antonio Bueno has been going to Motril town hall to ask when La Juanita's sculpture will be ready. Over the years he has sent countless letters at the town hall's secretary's office asking for information and has involved different NGOs that defend LGTB+ rights in Spain, including the Pasaje Begoña association. He has also asked for help from the Spanish government, the Andalusian regional government's department for equality, the Andalusian Ombudsman and Juan Alabarce's own family members all to get involved.

He doesn't mind being annoying and has no intention of stopping because, although he shies away from the limelight, it is clear to him that his fight for La Juanita is "justice". And the reward for his eight years of perseverance has finally arrived in April's full council meeting this April. Mayor of Motril, Luisa García Chamorro (PP) announced that "the budget was sent to us this morning. Now we have to look for funding, we are going to see how it fits in, whether it will be done by means of cash surpluses or how we pay for it, but we are moving forward".

The mayor added that there has "always been a desire to pay tribute to La Juanita". She also recalled that it was a personal commitment of the late deputy mayor Antonio Escámez, which her colleagues are willing to fulfil.

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"Thanks to those who paved the way, I can go out on the streets today".

Antonio Bueno was fascinated by the figure of that woman trapped in a man's body. As a child he remembers her coming to paint at his mother's house and asking her for some lipstick. Her dignity and courage were always an inspiration to Antonio. "Thanks to La Juanita and those who paved the way, I can go out on the streets today. Thanks to them, today the LGTB+ collective is free", Antonio says emotionally.