The late writer, poet and flamencologist Manuel R\u00edos Ruiz, from Jerez, was instrumental in the awarding of my 2010\u00a0Premio Nacional de la C\u00e1tedra de Flamencolog\u00eda<\/i>\u00a0prize, a double acknowledgement for all my many years working as flamenco critic and flamencologist. I thanked him for his gesture back then, and I do so once again, wherever he is now, as he passed away last Wednesday in the Spanish capital. I knew his health was frail, but I never imagined he was close to death.<\/p>\n
Manolo R\u00edos, like Juan de la Plata called him, was one of my role models. He, Jos\u00e9 Blas Vega, F\u00e9lix Grande and a few others were essential in my development as aficionado, first, and then as a critic and writer of flamenco topics. Manolo wasn\u2019t what we would call a researcher, although he did a lot of research and wrote several important books. Above all, he was a great writer and poet. Last time I saw him in Seville he told me that he never thought of himself as a flamencologist and that he admired those who did a lot of research seeking to find the truth about the origins of flamenco.<\/p>\n
Some writers from Andalusia used flamenco to succeed in the world of literature, but that wasn\u2019t the case with Manuel R\u00edo Ruiz, who never neglected flamenco, devoting dozens of years to this art. His work hasn\u2019t been valued as it should, like it\u2019s also the case with Jos\u00e9 Blas Vega, F\u00e9lix Grande, Antonio Murciano and Jos\u00e9 Luis Ortiz Nuevo. It\u2019s sad writing about this now, because it\u2019s not fair that people like the pass away, as in the case of Manolo, without being properly acknowledged.<\/p>\n
The first time I had the opportunity to talk with Manolo R\u00edos I realized right away how we had in common. Regardless of his merits as writer and poet, he was extremely humble, a trait that greatly endeared him to artists, aficionados and colleagues. Manolo would give lectures in small\u00a0pe\u00f1as<\/i>\u00a0just as he would go to the best theater in Madrid to write a review for the ABC newspaper. He wasn\u2019t controversial at all, quite the opposite: he preferred going unnoticed, and always succeeded…<\/p>\n
The last time I attended one of his lectures was in Seville, on occasion of Manolo Caracol\u2019s 100th anniversary. It was an unfortunate lecture because he just repeated the same old things, without adding anything new, and I complained about this in my newspaper column. He got quite upset, and he told me so in a letter. Yet, soon after we met in Madrid and he gave me a hug. \u201cIt\u2019s all forgotten\u201d, he told me. That goes to show the kind of person this man so important for Jerez\u2019s flamenco was.<\/p>\n
Just like we\u2019re running out of role models in\u00a0cante<\/i>, we\u2019re also running out of role models in flamenco critic or flamencology. It\u2019s life, but it hurts. Manolo R\u00edos was little less than a god to me, and his death has been as painful to me as if he had been a close relative. No more, no less. He was already a leading writer of flamenco before I had even considered writing about flamenco for a living. So, it\u2019s natural that I feel devastated by this irreparable loss of a writer and a friend.<\/p>\n
His writings, which are very important, will keep his memory alive. That\u2019s the advantage of those who write or sing for a living. Think about it, when I was born in 1958, Manuel R\u00edos was already writing and working in behalf of flamenco, an art which, at the time, didn\u2019t have a fraction of the prestige it has today. He contributed to make our art acclaimed the world over. Thank you, don Manuel, for so many years of devotion and love for an art that gave you as much as you gave back to it.<\/p>\n
Translated by P. Young<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The late writer, poet and flamencologist Manuel R\u00edos Ruiz, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-archivo"],"yoast_head":"\n