Now, more than three decades after his passing, a grandson of Anzonini\u2019s has lovingly taken on the job of reviving and honoring the inimitable art of his grandfather with a series of talks. \u00a0Antonio Mac\u00edas Berm\u00fadez discusses the project.<\/p>\n
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Antonio, when did you first realize your grandfather had been a well-known flamenco personality?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ever since I can remember.\u00a0 In Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda he was known by everyone, people always talked about him, his appearance, blond with blue eyes, his stature, his restrained elegant way of dancing and his extraordinary comp\u00e1s, out of the ordinary, and that he played castanets with all his fingers.\u00a0 My grandmother always used to say he was \u201can artist\u2019s artist\u201d.\u00a0 Ever since childhood I heard\u00a0 stories and anecdotes about the people who visited my grandfather\u2019s house: La Perla de C\u00e1diz, El Beni, Miguel Funi, Paco Valdepe\u00f1as, Los Paulera of Jerez, Los Sordera, Terremoto, Lola Flores, a very young\u00a0Rancapino and his brother\u00a0Orillo, Pansequito, El Negro del Puerto and many others seeking out Anzonini. When I was old enough to understand the dimension of all these people, I began to realize my grandfather\u2019s importance within flamenco.<\/p>\n Is he remembered in Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda?\u00a0 Were you in contact with him?<\/strong><\/p>\n As time passes there are fewer and fewer people who had direct contact with him, his contemporaries are over 60, but whenever I come across someone who knew him, they tend to remember Anzonini with emotion and nostalgia.\u00a0 Young flamenco fans know who he was, but not those foreign to flamenco.\u00a0 What\u2019s really surprising is coming across foreigners, mostly Americans, who knew him or know of his fame.<\/p>\n The reason I\u2019m doing this series Anzonini del Puerto, Cien a\u00f1os de Comp\u00e1s <\/em>is precisely in order to preserve the memory of who he was, sometimes I think there ought to be some public recognition, but of course, the administration is precisely the sector that knows the least about Anzonini.<\/p>\n My grandfather died in 1983 when I was just 14, I remember him with affection, he used to visit us now and again around the beginning of the 1970s when he was living between Mor\u00f3n de la Frontera and M\u00e1laga. Towards the end of the decade he moved to California although he occasionally returned to visit us.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve put together a fine presentation about Anzonini, where is it being presented? \u00a0How are people reacting?<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2016 the Ermita\u00f1o Cultural Association in Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda proposed doing a talk about flamenco to help people distinguish the various flamenco forms.\u00a0 This conference was called The ABCs of Flamenco Forms<\/em>and it was very well-received.\u00a0 In 2018 I was asked to do another series of talks, always based on flamenco.\u00a0 I proposed the topic Anzonini del Puerto, A Hundred Years of Rhythm, <\/em>a reference to the centennial of my grandfather\u2019s birth.\u00a0 I debuted the talk in the summer of 2018 at the Tom\u00e1s el Nitri flamenco association in El Puerto for friends, relatives and locals with the attendance of people who had known Anzonini in Spain or in the United States.<\/p>\n Thanks to Jer\u00f3nimo Velasco in Mor\u00f3n de la Frontera, the organization of the Gazpacho flamenco festival of 2018 included the talk within the parallel cultural activities of this event, including the performance of two terrific singers, Antonio \u201cEl Carpintero\u201d and Antonio Chac\u00f3n, both of whom had been flamenco buddies of Anzonini\u2019s.<\/p>\n The next talk is at the Hospitalito Municipal Museum in El Puerto, an activity organized within the 21st<\/sup>edition of the Fiesta de los Patios of Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda devoted to Flamenco Dance.<\/p>\n What was Anzonini\u2019s relationship with Mor\u00f3n de la Frontera?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mor\u00f3n adopted Anzonini and was absorbed by the Mor\u00f3n flamenco scene around 1963.\u00a0 He was looking for a canvass to paint his bohemian soul, and found it in Mor\u00f3n.\u00a0His friendship with Diego del Gastor, Fernandillo de Mor\u00f3n, Joselero, Andorrano, Agust\u00edn R\u00edos, Juan <\/strong>andPaco del Gastor<\/strong>among others, in addition to the proximity of Utrera with Fernanda, Bernarda <\/strong>andPerrate<\/strong>, and Alcal\u00e1 de Guada\u00edra with Manolito de Mar\u00eda<\/strong>, was the perfect setting to cultivate a kind of flamenco that was free, inspired, spontaneous and fresh.<\/p>\n In the flamenco ambience of that era, well-to-do patrons played an important part.\u00a0 They were the ones who organized gatherings in which these artists would perform.\u00a0 Particularly noteworthy was the firm relationship between Anzonini and the businessmen Antonio and \u00c1ngel Camacho of Mor\u00f3n.<\/p>\n Add to this the revolution that took place due to the large number of Americans who went to study flamenco, attracted by the guitar-playing of Diego del Gastor, many of them lodged at the Finca Espartero run by Donn Pohren where organized fiestas gave additional support, both economic and artistic to the artists of the era.<\/p>\n How did you go about gathering data for this investigation?<\/strong><\/p>\n At home, from the time I was small, we were always awaiting news about grandfather Anzonini, there was always someone who had run into him at the bullfight or at some fiesta.\u00a0 We were continually collecting documents, photographs and posters that came our way.\u00a0 In 2001 I met Andr\u00e9s Gonz\u00e1lez G\u00f3mez on an internet forum devoted to flamenco.\u00a0After carrying out an exhaustive investigation, he published his book Al comp\u00e1s de Anzonini del Puerto<\/em>in 2013. I was fortunate enough to\u00a0collaborate with the author on the part regarding the era of Anzonini in Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda, searching for and providing information, organizing meetings with friends and relatives of Anzonini, all of which allowed me to delve into the people surrounding him.\u00a0The investigation carried out by this author, both in Spain and the U.S. has made it possible to access a great deal of information about which I\u2019d had no former knowledge.<\/p>\n At the same time, I met Jer\u00f3nimo Velasco of Mor\u00f3n de la Frontera at the book presentation, and we became great friends.\u00a0Jer\u00f3nimo is involved in the organization of the Gazpacho festival of Mor\u00f3n since the its beginning.\u00a0 A great deal of information comes from Jer\u00f3nimo\u2019s Fondo Flamenco, and much data furnished by flamencos of the era has made it possible to get a glimpse of what those times were like.<\/p>\n You play the guitar, and you also dabble in singing and dance.\u00a0 Do you aspire to follow in your grandfather\u2019s footsteps?<\/strong><\/p>\n Flamenco has fascinated me ever since childhood, I began playing the guitar when I was eight, and when I got older I studied in Jerez with \u201cEl Carbonero\u201d.\u00a0 I sing and dance however it comes out, in this respect I have very little discipline.\u00a0 It seems like a great responsibility, and I rarely get up on stage.\u00a0 I think my grandfather felt the same way, I prefer close-up informal flamenco, the improvised get-together and having a good time at an informal party.\u00a0 In this sense I aspire to be like Anzonini, to enjoy the kind of flamenco that just happens and isn\u2019t premeditated.\u00a0 Anzonini didn\u2019t approach flamenco as a job, he developed a philosophy of life using the vehicle of flamenco.<\/p>\n Does your family like flamenco? \u00a0Are there any other artists?<\/strong><\/p>\n Flamenco is rooted in my family, I was born listening to flamenco.\u00a0 Anzonini\u2019s descendants are few: my mother had three children and my aunt, four.\u00a0 One way or another, each one has been touched by flamenco, but none has become a professional artist.<\/p>\n Did Anzonini create a school, or did he follow an established path?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s clear that Anzonini left his personal mark in dance and that he did something special and genuine, in the same line but different from all the other fiesta artists.\u00a0 One way or another he contributed a style that led the way for current artists.<\/p>\n Although I\u2019m not able to corroborate this, a cousin of his, Mar\u00eda Berm\u00fadez from Jerez de la Frontera, (no relation to the current dancer of the same name), speaking about her infancy when the cousins lived together at the age of 13 or 14, told me that Anzonini was always marking flamenco rhythms, playing castanets, adopting gestures and bits of dance.<\/p>\n There are also references that Anzonini followed a style expressed by \u201cLas Coquineras\u201d, especially the fiesta dancer Antonia Gallardo \u201cLa Coquinera\u201d (1874-1942).<\/p>\n What do you know about Anzonini\u2019s years in the United States?<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s a very big question.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had contact with some of the Americans who spent time with him, for example Paul Shalmy who accompanied my grandfather and was at my house during his last visit in the spring of 1983.\u00a0 I know it was he who helped Anzonini move to California in the middle of the seventies.\u00a0 My grandfather was very well-received and carved out a place for himself at Berkeley.\u00a0He gave flamenco dance classes and made the most of his aptitudes as cook and butcher, selling sausages he made with artisan methods, thus allowing him to subsist.\u00a0 There are many anecdotes about this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During his stay in the U.S., he participated in a documentary about the importance of garlic in a variety of cultures, and of course, he represented the Spanish part.\u00a0 The documentary was produced by Less Blanc, Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers, <\/em>an absolute jewel!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I know he also was connected with the universities of San Diego in California and Washington, giving talks in which he was accompanied by dancer Marcia S\u00e1nchez \u201cLa Romera\u201d, guitarists Kenny Parker, Gerardo Hayes, David Serva and Chris Carnes among others.\u00a0 He had a special connection with the ethnomusicology department of the University of Washington with whom he collaborated on many occasions. \u00a0I also have indications that he made contact with Sabicas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is the legacy of Anzonini\u2019s flamenco?\u00a0 Is he still relevant for the current generation?<\/strong><\/p>\n The new generation of fiesta interpreters, no matter how young they are, have the reference of Anzonini and his special way with the dance, particularly in the triangle of Seville, C\u00e1diz and M\u00e1laga.\u00a0But what\u2019s really surprising is the community of flamenco fans he created in California, giving continuity to the seed that came about in the 1960s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do you think the art of the flamenco festero is in danger of extinction?<\/strong><\/p>\n I believe there are tendencies that are more developed in one era than others, it\u2019s obvious flamenco evolves just as society evolves, since it follows a way of externalizing emotion. Nowadays we have a crossing of industry with an economic component that is difficult to sort out, and it\u2019s possible not all flamenco can find a place in this powerful swirl of production.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t the sword of Damocles of fiesta artists, but clearly it endangers development.\u00a0The figure of the festero will surely continue to thrive in its own habitat of up-close flamenco and inspiration and will be reserved for those fortunate enough to witness it, as has always been the case.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anzonini con Fernanda de Utrera. Foto: Robert Klein<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not exactly a flamenco singer, nor precisely a dancer, but both, and much more. A festero. That flamenco specialty so difficult to define, so fundamental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":12204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estela-flamenca"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Anzonini](\"https:\/\/www.expoflamenco.com\/archivo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/expoflamenco-anzonini-fernanda-de-utrera-foto-robert-klein.jpg\")