Chorrojumo Statue

At the entrance to Sacromonte, Granada's traditionally Romani neighborhood, stands a statue of a man who helped turn the city into a major tourist attraction. Mariano Fernández Santiago, better known as "Chorrojumo" ("jet of smoke"), was born in Sacromonte in 1838 as the son of a blacksmith. After taking up various odd jobs in order to barely get by, his life forever changed in 1868 when he caught the eye of painter Mariano Fortuny. Seeing him sing with a couple of other Romani while striking an anvil, Fortuny asked Fernández to pose in an old-fashioned costume.

Fernández took this idea and ran with it. He began wearing such costumes with a catite hat, as depicted in the statue, and became a tour guide leaning into Granada's "exotic" Moorish past. Tourists paid to take photos or buy postcards of him. In addition to styling himself "Chorrojumo," he also made himself known as the "King of the Gypsies." (The terms "gypsy"/"gitano" are controversial, with some Romani attempting to reclaim it in recent years.) By the end of his life, Chorrojumo had become a symbol of Granada, with his face appearing in magazines and his name being mentioned in songs.