From Lúcar to Canal Sur afternoons: Juan y Medio, the illustrious resident keeping older people company for 17 years
Juan José Bautista, Juan y Medio, was born in Lúcar in 1962. A year after his Gold Medal, we look back at what ties him to his village and to older people.
Automatic translation: this article was translated with artificial intelligence from the original in Spanish. Read the original
On 16 August 2025, Lúcar began its Virgen del Carmen festivities with a tribute to one of its best-known sons. In the Salón Cultural Marín de Poveda, Lúcar Town Council named Juan José Bautista Martín, Juan y Medio, an illustrious resident (vecino ilustre), and afterwards residents made their way to the Plaza Real de Isabel II to hear his pregón (opening speech). According to La Comarca, the presenter did not hide his emotion or his pride at being from this Almanzora village, where he has his roots.
Three months later, on 16 November 2025, Almería Provincial Council presented him in Balanegra with its highest honour, the Medalla de Oro de la Provincia (the Province’s Gold Medal). Monday 16 November marks one year, and the day before, Sunday 15, the Provincial Council hands out the 2026 medals at the Teatro Óvalo in Vélez-Rubio.
It is a good moment to tell the story of a man from Lúcar who has spent seventeen years coming into Andalusian homes every afternoon with a very specific aim: for older people who feel lonely to find company.
From law and music to ‘Inocente, inocente’
Juan José Bautista Martín was born in Lúcar in 1962. According to the Andalusian regional government (Junta de Andalucía), he holds degrees in Sociology and in Law from the University of Alcalá de Henares and even practised as a lawyer for a time. Before television came music: the Provincial Council recalls that he was manager and promoter of Hombres G “at the height of the band’s popularity” and that he also worked with Luz Casal.
His television debut came in 1992, as a stooge on ‘Inocente, inocente’, on Telemadrid, a programme he later ended up presenting. In 2003 he landed at Canal Sur with ‘Punto y medio’, which was followed by ‘Menuda noche’, fifteen seasons on air. Along the way he has presented shows on Antena 3 and TVE, trodden the boards in the play ‘Triple salto mortal’ and appeared in films such as ‘El día de la bestia’.
Seventeen years of afternoons against loneliness
On 7 September 2009, ‘La tarde, aquí y ahora’ premiered on Canal Sur, the magazine programme he now presents alongside Eva Ruiz. According to the channel, it has been on air for seventeen years without interruption and has passed no fewer than 4,000 live programmes, from Monday to Friday in the afternoon. The Provincial Council summed it up when awarding him the medal: on the programme, he “gives visibility to older people”, so that they can find a life partner and do not suffer unwanted loneliness.
On 26 October, the programme recorded its best audience figure of the last seven years, according to Canal Sur. The following day, on set, Juan y Medio recalled that the format was born on Andalusian television and spoke of “this format of helping people who are alone”.
In 2024, the Junta awarded him the Medalla de Andalucía de la Solidaridad y la Concordia (Andalusia Medal for Solidarity and Concord), an honour that, according to the Provincial Council, he wanted to share with his audience. And the Provincial Council, when presenting him with the Gold Medal, highlighted the “marked and important social role” he has displayed since his beginnings in television.
“Nowhere do I feel as I do here”
In Balanegra, visibly moved according to the Provincial Council’s account, he spoke of his homeland: “My values are the ones the people of Almería have instilled in me.” And he added: “Nowhere do I feel as I do here; I don’t know what it is, but I feel at ease among my own people, among you. I have a good time with humble people who have sacrificed themselves to the limit and who have achieved what they have thanks to their work and their ingenuity.” He rounded it off with a “Proud to be legañoso” (a popular nickname for people from Almería).
Lúcar and its older people
Lúcar has 829 residents, according to the 2025 padrón (municipal register) of the INE, Spain’s National Statistics Institute. This very summer, the town council named the Salón de Mayores (older people’s centre) after Josefa Martínez Galera, ‘Pepa la de las Lanas’, and wanted it also to be a place of recognition for “a whole generation of women and men who, with their effort, have helped to build the village we know today”, as reported by La Comarca.
From elValle Actualidad, we can only celebrate that a man from Lúcar has spent seventeen years keeping older people across Andalusia company, every afternoon.
