Award for mayor who saved a town

FORMER Mojacar mayor, Jacinto Alarcon, is to receive a ‘Golden Indalo’ award posthumously this year.

In the 25th anniversary of the awards, Alarcon will be recognised for his work, during the 1960s and 70’s in regenerating the town. Alarcon became mayor in 1960 when the crisis-hit village was crumbling and many families and young people had left.  He came up with the idea of giving houses away on the understanding that the new owners would reform and rebuild them in order to inject life back into the village.

The plan worked, dozens of new residents arrived from across the world to take up the offer and Mojacar as we know it today was born.

The iconic mayor died in the early part of the millennium but is still known as a local hero.