As Beaches Were: The chiringuito

Once upon a time, no one really worried about what you might put on a beach. Even if there were regulations, which generally there were not, there were unlikely to be too many officials around to ensure that regulations were being adhered to, while any who might have been would probably have been only too happy to have accepted an invitation of some folding pesetas and looked the other way.

So it was, for instance, with the tents that were put up on the French beach in Puerto Alcúdia. The beach came to be known by this name, though it was actually a Belgian who was responsible. He was Gerard Blitz, and the tents were those of Club Méditerranée. How Blitz came to choose Alcúdia for the original Club Med, how he was able to get permission to put the tents up, I have no idea, though it is not for want of trying to find out: Club Med themselves don't really seem to know. But tents there were in 1950. The story of Club Med in Alcúdia is blurry to say the least. It would seem that it only lasted two summers, and in 1951, rather than tents, there were more solid structures. They were referred to as "stone", but they had roofs of the style that was to become associated with Club Med - a thatch. And reed for a thatch is abundant in the Albufera wetlands, of which there was a great deal more in 1951 than there is now.

It wasn't officialdom that did for Club Med in those early years, it was the clergy. They weren't bothered about what was being put on the beach, but they were bothered about the lack of clothing of those who were inhabiting the beach accommodation. It was to be some years before Club Med were to get a permanent base in Porto Petro. 

It is the thatch, though, which is central to today's story. As also is putting things on beaches. In the days when no one took much notice, a temporary structure could appear: right on the sand. The beach bar was born, and it had its own name - the chiringuito.

As with the uncertain history of Club Med, so the chiringuito's history in Mallorca is one of competing versions. It is claimed that the first one appeared on the eastern coast in S'Illot at a time, around 1953, when there was virtually nothing else there. But whenever or wherever it was, the chiringuito was to become established, as was its image - the one with the thatch for a roof. In the collective consciousness and memory of the beach holiday, the thatch - be it for a sunshade or a chiringuito - is as symbolic as the sand, the sea and the palm tree.

The first ever chiringuito in Spain, so legend has it, was in Sitges, and it appeared as long ago as 1913. There were to be later ones, such as in Torremolinos. These were apparently upside-down fishing boats with presumably some thatch affair, and from these improvised structures, the wives of fishermen would sell fish dishes and beers to tourists of the 1940s. There may be something in this story, as chiringuitos did tend to have a shape that was reminiscent of a boat.

The word itself comes from the Caribbean. A "chiringo" was a measure of coffee that was served to workers on the sugar plantations of Cuba, and so the bars where the coffee was to be had was named a chiringuito. There is a less specific theory that "chiringo" was a generally used colloquial word in Cuba and Puerto Rico to refer to something short or small and that it was applied to various drinks, not only a small coffee but also a shot of rum. But for the use of chiringuito, as in meaning a beach bar, one has to go back to Sitges. The bar that had emerged in 1913 wasn't called a chiringuito. Rather, it was known as "El kiosket" and remarkably it survived numerous batterings by the sea (and reconstructions) until 1949 when it was renamed "El chiringuito". So popular was this bar that - and bear in mind the times - it would attract journalists and intellectuals who would come for a coffee and to chew the fat (such as they could in those days).

Nowadays in Mallorca, there are all sorts of chiringuitos, not all of them by any means by the sea. Of those which are, if they are actually on a beach then all sorts of hoops will have been gone through to allow them: these are days quite unlike those of the 1950s. And there is one chiringuito in particular which stands out from all others. It is partly because of where it is: right by the remarkable beach of Es Trenc. It is also because it has a reputation for being what you would like a beach bar to be: a place of music but with a laid-back aura and something of the hippy. It is S'Embat. And tomorrow at 4pm, it re-opens for its tenth anniversary season.

Photo: From the S'Embat Facebook page.