El Salto del Negro: the secluded village in Malaga province with an uncertain origin

All of the buildings are modern and not even its narrow streets give clues to Andalucía's past, but it is one of those places you have to visit to get to know one of the many faces that the Axarquía area to the east of Malaga province has to offer.

Officially, El Salto del Negro belongs to the village of Cútar, although it is closer to the village of Benamargosa. There are just over fifty inhabitants living in the small village centre. Some people stop there just to read the name of the town twice. Many people think of a town in the Canary Islands and a famous prison with the same name.

But this remote part of the Axarquía is not connected to either a prison or the Canaries. In nobody really knows how the village got its name: 'El Salto del Negro' literally means 'the jump of the black'.

There is a tile mosaic in the main street that tries to shed some light on the matter. It describes up to three possible origins for the name

The first of the hypotheses mentioned on the mosaic is the one that refers to the owner of the land centuries ago, Pedro Moreno, who would have had a dark complexion and of Moorish origin, 'moreno' meaning brown.

There are other, more dramatic versions with an unfortunate ending for the protagonists. One of them refers to a Moorish slave who, according to this account, decided to jump in a nearby area rather than fall into the hands of his pursuers. The belief that it was an African slave who accidentally fell in his attempt to escape is very similar.

The village is relatively modern with houses that for the most part have only been standing for a few decades. The roofs give away the fact that this is not a traditional village, although there are traces that suggest otherwise.

As in other remote places in the province of Malaga, the church is an old school chapel dedicated today to the Virgen de la Victoria.

There is also another nod to the past in one of the few remaining outdoor ovens in the province of Malaga. It can be found in Calle Larios, right next to where, until recently, the village bakery was located. Today, there are no bars, although there is one shop with a surprising variety of products.

Much of the attraction of Salto del Negro lies in its surroundings. It's located near the Benamargosa river, which, with few exceptions, is usually dry. From high up you can see the fertile valley, once occupied mainly by citrus trees and today more by subtropicals.

A lot of the land was once used to grow sugar cane, which explains the existence a few metres from the village on the road to Benamargosa, of the old San Rafael sugar mill. Today its chimney tower and a good part of its structure are still preserved.

This small village, which is halfway between Vélez-Málaga and Riogordo (just over 15 kilometres from each of them), is on the winding MA-8107 road. The road runs parallel to the course of the Benamargosa river, which further upstream is called Las Cuevas. This winding route connects it to another charming Axarquía village, Las Zubias.