It had been a while since I last enjoyed a\u00a0fiesta flamenca<\/i>\u00a0like the one I attended last Saturday in Mairena del Alcor, a stone\u2019s throw from where I live, in an old inn with a large patio (where Manuel Torres reportedly once performed) with good friends from this town such as Diego Manolete, father of the local\u00a0saetero<\/i>\u00a0(singer of\u00a0saetas<\/i>) Hornerito.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Fundaci\u00f3n Antonio Mairena<\/i>, the\u00a0Casa del Arte Flamenco<\/i>\u00a0and Mairena\u2019s Town Hall organized this event titled\u00a0Sea usted bien recib\u00edo<\/i>\u00a0(loosely translated as \u201cYou Are Welcome<\/i>\u201d), a conference about patios and flamenco by Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Morente, who gave a very enjoyable lecture, although it had some incorrect data. After the lecture we had lunch and then, without even time for a\u00a0siesta<\/i>, we had a\u00a0fiesta flamenca<\/i>\u00a0which will go down in the annals of this town\u2019s history as something truly extraordinary.<\/p>\n
The protagonists of this\u00a0fiesta<\/i>\u00a0or gathering were the\u00a0cantaora<\/i>\u00a0Remedios Reyes, from Chiclana (sister of\u00a0cantaor<\/i>\u00a0Antonio Reyes); Antonio Hermos\u00edn, from Alcal\u00e1, the best singer of the\u00a0sole\u00e1s<\/i>\u00a0of that land; Fernando Canela, one of the sons of Canela de San Roque; Jos\u00e9 El Pa\u00f1ero, from Algeciras, brother of the great Perico El Pa\u00f1ero, also present; El Remache, from M\u00e1laga,\u00a0cantaor<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0bailaor<\/i>; and the guitarists Jos\u00e9 de Pura, from Chiclana, and Rub\u00e9n Lara, from M\u00e1laga.<\/p>\n
What these artists offered without a stage or microphones, in a gathering in the purest flamenco style, was truly priceless. It was something which cannot be compared with any other type of flamenco show. It\u2019s the most natural expression of this art, which precisely was born in the tenement\u2019s yards or patios of C\u00e1diz, Seville, M\u00e1laga, Granada, Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda or Jerez. As an artistic genre it owed more to the theaters than to these patios, but the basic essence came out of the family parties. The old newspapers of Spain (and even those from outside of our country) are filled with accounts of these parties, not to mention the books written by those romantic travellers who came in the 1800s to some of these cities of Andalusia to enjoy them, and then tell the world about it.<\/p>\n
Although this is rarely mentioned, these parties were not improvised, but were often organized by people who did this for a living. In the middle of the 19th century, there was one P\u00e9icker who organized flamenco parties for foreigners in Seville\u2019s Triana district. This would even have happened many years before, as was most likely the case with the famous party described by the writer from M\u00e1laga Seraf\u00edn Est\u00e9banez Calder\u00f3n in his book\u00a0Escenas Andaluzas<\/i>, which was certainly a party organized to honor Est\u00e9banez himself (who at the time, in 1838, was governor of Seville province), with invited artists who would already charge to perform in such parties, such as El Planeta, El Fillo, Curro Pabla, La Perla, Juan de Dios and El Jerezano.<\/p>\n
Regarding how the invited artists in this party in Mairena\u2019s old inn sang and danced, it\u2019s something impossible to describe in one article. It was something to behold, and those who didn\u2019t attend just missed it. Incidentally, there was barely anyone from Mairena in attendance, and among the many\u00a0cantaores<\/i>\u00a0of this town, Antonio Ortega Sr. was the only one present, although just as a spectator. The idea was to feature artists from out of town, from the provinces of M\u00e1laga and C\u00e1diz, with the exception of Antonio Hermos\u00edn who was from Alcal\u00e1 (Seville province). It was all a great success, and it was such a special day that it will be hard to forget. A day of art, harmony, love and respect. A gathering to be long remembered in Mairena\u2019s history, which was much more than a good party. We\u2019re looking forward to having another one like this very soon.<\/p>\n
Translated by P. Young<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It had been a while since I last enjoyed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-archivo"],"yoast_head":"\n