The\u00a0pe\u00f1as flamencas<\/i>\u00a0came into being as an initiative by groups of aficionados who would share the cost of the stews and drinks, later becoming more organized as non-profit societies, with monthly fees and their own regulations in the civil governments of each province. Then came the politicians offering public subsidies and appointing party members to the\u00a0pe\u00f1as<\/i>\u2019 board of directors or as their presidents, aiming to secure votes for upcoming elections.<\/p>\n
First came the federations, and later the\u00a0Confederaci\u00f3n Andaluza de Pe\u00f1as Flamencas<\/i>, an umbrella organization for the provincial federations. That resulted in the politization of the\u00a0pe\u00f1as flamencas<\/i>, with party members taking part in the board of directors both of the\u00a0pe\u00f1as<\/i>\u00a0and the provincial federations and also of the Confederaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n
For almost forty years, the\u00a0pe\u00f1as<\/i>\u00a0have been surviving thanks to, in part, the meagre subsidies of the Junta, city councils and, occasionally, financial entities such as Cajasol, to name the one who has contributed the most in behalf of flamenco and its promotion. With the political change that has recently taken place in Andalusia, some leaders of the world of\u00a0pe\u00f1as<\/i>\u00a0who are members of some political parties in this province, such as the Partido Socialista, have started to speak against budget cuts, claiming that the future of the\u00a0pe\u00f1as<\/i>\u00a0is now bleak.<\/p>\n
The complaints have been particularly loud from the\u00a0Confederaci\u00f3n<\/i>, an entity which has seen its subsidies cut, as there are more than two hundred thousand euros which have not been properly accounted for, as the organization seems to be run on the buddy model, with no transparency or paper trails, precisely because in the world of the directors of\u00a0pe\u00f1as<\/i>, there\u2019s a sizable number of members of the socialist party and other parties who seem to act as if public money was their own. After forty years of silence, with the recent political change they\u2019ll start saying (as they\u2019ve done so already) that the parties of the right have returned to ruin an art form with two centuries of history.<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that the Partido Socialista has promoted flamenco and that the Junta de Andaluc\u00eda has done a lot in behalf of this artistic genre. Yet, there has also been a deplorable interference and we know what happens when politicians interfere with art. Thus, it\u2019s fair to thank the Junta and the Partido Socialista for all they\u2019ve done in behalf of flamenco, but those who for forty years shamelessly politicized this art should stop whining.<\/p>\n
The new government at the Junta should take in account the importance of flamenco and all its evolution in the last three or four decades, particularly because it\u2019s an important source of income for the province\u2019s coffers. Also, because it\u2019s a well-known art form all over the world, and it would be inconceivable that it started being neglected. So, it\u2019s too early to whine.<\/p>\n
Translated by P. Young<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The new government at the Junta should take in account the importance of flamenco and all its evolution in the last three or four decades, particularly because it\u2019s an important source of income for the province\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-archivo"],"yoast_head":"\n