176- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Where didflamencocome from?
Start poking around in the origins offlamencoand before
long someone will get crabby.The long debate about
where the song, music and dance combo actually comes
from is coloured with acrimony. However, certain facts
appear reasonably well established. First things first,
it’s Andalusian, not Spanish. And it seems the basic
ingredients probably came from India via the Middle East,
brought west by gypsies from the 15thcentury onwards.
They encountered Arabic and Jewish culture, hiding
from persecution in the mountains of Andalusia, and as
music, song and dance mingled and merged, new forms
evolved. Somewhere along the line, only first recorded
200 years ago,flamencoemerged kicking and screaming.Thegitanosof the Guadalquivir delta, in Seville, Jerez and
Cadiz, have been seen as the true keepers offlamenco
ever since. Marginalised, introspective and poor, they
relied onflamenco– indeed, still do – to liven life’s slog,
rather like an Iberian version of the blues. But thenpayos
(non-gypsies) have danced and sung for two centuries as
well, today holding their own legitimate claims to the
cocktail of claps, wails and dextrous guitar work. In the
19 thcentury, with the rules offlamencoapparently set,
its popularity surged.Café cantantesplayed host to the
famous singers of the day in what some call a golden age.
Others, particularly thegitanoswho said spontaneity was
everything, felt the form was being diluted. By the 1950s
thefandangosserved up in bars and clubs bore little
resemblance to the genuine article. However,flamenco
came back from the brink.The traditional villages where
flamencofirst surfaced found themselves back in the
spotlight and new artists in the later 20thcentury
resuscitated the genre to great success. Some were
traditionalist, others, often to the diehards’ dismay, have
givenflamencoto new audiences by fusing it with other
styles.Flamencolight
Under Franco, the
manufactured image of
theflamenco gitanowas
pushed forth. Spotted
dresses, waistcoats,
black Cordoban hats and
unnecessarily tight
trousers were plucked
from the Andalusian
wardrobe of yore and
sold as Spanish culture.
Low shots from
the Low Countries
The origins of the word
flamencoare as debated
as the music’s history.
Popular assumption
points to its other role as
the Spanish word for
‘Flemish’, a term hurled
pejoratively at gypsies.
The Flemish had suffered
a bad reputation since
the 16thcentury when
the Habsburg monarchs
brought arrogant, greedy
Flemish advisors in and
bled Spain white.
4.1.2 Comeback king: the story offlamenco