PolvisCoin

Next July 2 marks the 28th anniversary of the death of José Monge Cruz, “Camarón de la Isla”, one of the great singers of the last century, who renewed flamenco and symbolized, along with others like Lole and Manuel, an era of cante. Last year was the 40th anniversary of his most revolutionary album, "The legend of time." It should be a day of commemoration for all flamingos and, in general, for culture lovers. At the end of the day, that is “cante grande”, “cante jondo” or, in short, what we call today “flamenco”. They are not the same, but they are in that field of popular creation that, expressed in toque, cante and baile, arises from the cultural miscegenation that occurs in Andalusia since the arrival of the gypsies in Spain in the 15th century. . As Lorca recalled in his famous lecture “El cante jondo (primitive Andalusian song)”, “the historical events referred to by Falla, of enormous disproportion and that have so influenced the songs, are three: the adoption by the Spanish Church of the liturgical song, the Saracen invasion and the arrival in Spain of numerous bands of gypsies ”. In the tonás, the oldest known forms of cante, therefore, a part of the history of Spain beats. For a long time, cante jondo was regarded with contempt. It was attributed to the popular classes and, within them, the last of the last, the most despised: the gypsies. There is the monumental “Memoria del flamenco”, by Félix Grande, to remember that suffering that underlies the roots of cante. Only after the studies of Machado and Álvarez, “Demófilo”, the father of the great poets Antonio and Manuel, as well as other scholars of Andalusian art and culture, did the beauty of flamenco begin to be appreciated. As Manuel Bernal Romero recounts, the cante jondo contest held in Granada on June 13 and 14, 1922 marked “a before and after in the conception of flamenco”. From the hand of the poets of '27, flamenco was given the recognition it deserved in its own right. Today he is one of the great ambassadors of Spain. The toque, the cante and the dance have carried the name of our country all over the world. They have filled theaters. They have won awards. They have spread our culture across all continents and have illuminated, as represented by Camarón's own cante, some of the most luminous moments in contemporary art. But the consequences of COVID-19 threaten flamenco. Festivals, concerts and tours have been canceled or postponed. The academies have suspended their activity and not all of them have been able to continue teaching through the internet or remotely. The tablaos and concert halls are dying. Casa Patas, the famous Madrid tablao, has announced the closure after 32 years of being an art benchmark in the capital of Spain. Federico Escudero, president of the National Association of Flamenco Tablaos of Spain (ANTFES), has declared that "if they don't help us, flamenco tablaos disappear". In Barcelona, ​​the Tablao de Carmen, named in honor of the famous Carmen Amaya, is in danger. ANTFES denounces that flamenco is in "danger of extinction" and calls for a "national aid plan" that includes extending the partial unemployment plans for employees until December 31, as well as subsidies to compensate for the lack of tourists. As the season progresses, the situation becomes increasingly desperate. Flamenco is now suffering the blows of a crisis completely alien to the sector and in which none of the creators and entrepreneurs have had any participation. It is not up to them that there are tourists, nor do they set the regulations on capacity or any of the other circumstances that threaten the sector. It seems difficult to find reasons against flamenco aid and, on the other hand, arguments in favor abound. One could now invoke the most utilitarian ones - the jobs in danger, the income that flamenco generates, its role in building the Spain Brand around the world - and all of them are legitimate and valuable, but I think there are more reasons. to help flamenco -that is, to those who create it, maintain it and spread it- in this time of adversity. Flamenco, in a way, is Spain with all its contradictions, its tragedies and its greatness. It was born here, it has grown here and, from here, it has become universal. It says something about us as a people and the human condition that we share with our fellow men. In the pain, grief and loneliness of the darkest cantes - I'm thinking of the debla, for example - and in the sparkling joy of the bulería beats the humanity that unites us all. By helping flamenco, we are not only rescuing a cultural industry - and that is a lot - but a form of creation without which the world would be poorer and more gray. By saving him, we also saved ourselves.