El Cojo de Málaga
Who is El Cojo de Málaga?
Joaquín Vargas Soto, known artistically as El Cojo de Málaga, was born in Málaga in 1880. He began his artistic journey in Linares, where he trained in the taranta style and the cantes de Levante, while also drawing on the Málaga school represented by Juan Breva and La Trini, two fundamental references of the cante of his homeland.
Career
At the start of the 20th century he popularized the cante por marianas to the point of earning the nickname “Cojo de las Marianas.” In flamenco’s golden age at the turn of the century he shared the stage with some of the genre’s great figures, among them Chacón, Escacena, Niño de Medina, Vallejo, la Niña de los Peines and Manuel Torre, which gives an idea of the level he reached within the cante of his generation. He lived for a time in La Línea de la Concepción, where he had to be hospitalized due to illness and a benefit festival was organized in his honor; from 1931 he moved to Barcelona, a city where his career gradually faded.
Palos and discography
He specialized in the cantes de Levante — tarantas, murcianas and cantes mineros — and in the malagueña, of which he created his own interpretations within the tradition inherited from Juan Breva and La Trini. He left an extensive discography centered on these styles, which today stands as documentary testimony to his contribution to the tradition of Levante and Málaga cante.
Legacy
Despite his prominence on the stages of his era, El Cojo de Málaga ended his life in relative obscurity in Barcelona, where he died in 1940 and was buried at public expense, an ending that contrasts with the company of great masters of cante he had kept during his years of artistic prime.