El Lagarto was born in Madrid on April 1, 1957. He belonged to a family of five siblings, two girls and three boys, who lived in the Lacoma area, very close to Barrio del Pilar, on the other side of Avenida del Cardenal Herrera Oria (also known as Carretera de la Playa, since it led to Madrid Beach, on the nearby Carretera del Pardo).
His brother Miguel, the youngest, grew up overprotected: if he went out he did it with his mother or his older sisters. All to prevent the same thing from happening to the Lizard and other kids in the neighborhood. In fact, Miguel barely knew Madrid as a child. His only itinerary was to walk from home to school and from school to home. He was only able to discover the story of his older brother, the Lizard, many years later, as an adult. In the early and mid-80s he remembers often going to visit his brother in Carabanchel prison, although he still did not know why.
At the end of the 70s there were many open fields and unbuilt areas in Lacoma. In fact, the gypsies kept horses that grazed in the meadows that populated the area (they also had chickens, sheep, dogs and guinea pigs). On the other hand, as in other working-class neighborhoods, there were a lot of drugs in Lacoma, in streets like Pico Balaitus or Cruz del Cura.
The Lizard, although he was a clown, also really liked animals. In fact, he was baptized as the Lizard because he went to the Pardo a lot and dared to put his hand in the holes that no one wanted to go near to hunt reptiles, some of them of considerable size. Once in his possession, he showed them to a teacher from the Apollo XI School, also an animal lover (it is said that another of his students, a companion of the Lizard, brought him birds).
After having problems at home with his father, as a young adult, the Lizard left the family home and built a shack in one of the nearby open fields, just behind the La Salle Sacred Heart School. I couldn't stay at home because, as Miguel comments: "When my father came home from the factory pissed off and started drinking, he would take it out on my sisters, my brother, me, the whole family, etc. He was a tinkerer at the Renault in Las Rozas. He took me every Saturday to the Renault and on Sundays to the Rastro de Marqués de Viana, in Tetuán. He bought me cars and miniature dinosaurs, which I really liked."
family tragedy
"After my mother died, I have often thought that I would like her to come back, even though we were fighting and fighting every day. Many members of my family have died: the Lizard, the Lizard, my mother, my father. I hear the silence in my house and I look somewhere in the living room, in the rooms, and there is no one. I have to play music to fill the void. I will never get over that."
In the shack, the Lizard began taking amphetamines with his friends, some of whom lived with him, who took in anyone who had nowhere to go. El Pelos was another amphetamine addict who also stopped by the area. Apparently, Pelos demanded amphetamines from the Lizard and an argument led to a fight. It is said that Pelos wanted to attack the Lizard, and he defended himself with an axe, hitting him in the neck and killing him.
Upon receiving the blow, the Pelos remained trembling on the ground, where the Lizard finished him off with a beak. After leaving the body abandoned in the shack itself for several days, he returned with his friend Rayo and dismembered the body and then tried to get rid of it. During those days, the Lizard's dogs, which were abandoned on the street, ate part of the corpse.
The violent death occurred in February 1983 and at the beginning of May the police managed to solve the case. Among other reasons, because those involved began to talk about the events with their friends, and they, in turn, told the police. She had found part of a body in a burned SEAT 125 on February 22 next to the walls of the Fuencarral cemetery.
Finally, both the Lizard and his friend the Lightning were condemned, the latter for helping him get rid of the body. In 1994, both were released from prison. Once outside, the Lizard returned home. His brother, Miguel, remembers how he made his own monopoly to play with his brothers, bigger than the original and with more streets. He also created paper banknotes. In addition, he made flags to entertain himself so he would not go out into the street to meet many of his former friends.
Although before entering prison he liked groups like Pink Floyd, Supertramp or Alan Parsons, in the 90s he became fond of bakalao and went to clubs like Friends, Space or Overdrive. I bought bakalao ribbons at Simago on Cuatro Caminos (today a Carrefour Market) or at Madrid Rock on Gran Vía.
He knew he had AIDS antibodies and wanted to make the most of the time he had left. He died in 2002, shortly after being kicked out of his home, again by his father. His brother, Lagartín, had died six years before of cancer. Like so many young people in the neighborhood at that time, the Lizard and his little brother lost their lives too soon.
