Some people think that getting off the tracks of flamenco orthodoxy is something new, but it isn\u2019t. Whenever a flamenco artist does anything that looks like a novelty, the mainstream Spanish media (which long ago turned its back on traditional flamenco) focus on them, and they are featured in countless reviews and interviews. \u201cShe sings standing up!\u201d, they say. Besides, she\u2019s a feminist, how odd! And if someone is homosexual, then it\u2019s mayhem. I have to ask myself, without meaning to create controversy, what does any of that have to do with the quality of\u00a0cante<\/i>,\u00a0baile<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0toque<\/i>? Nothing.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, to be a feminist in flamenco is trendy. Yet, a century and a half ago (and some people may faint when they hear this), there were\u00a0cantaoras<\/i>\u00a0who would not take a \u201cno\u201d for an answer, and if they were told they were not allowed to sing, they would just slam their fist on the table and sing, anyway. That\u2019s why some female flamenco artists of the 19th century sang, danced and even played the guitar, performing in cafes and even in theaters in Spain and overseas. Among them, there were lesbians, of course. Yet, they didn\u2019t try to use this as a selling point, among other things because, it\u2019s true, in those days society was somehow more sexist than it is today.<\/p>\n
When a\u00a0cantaor<\/i>\u00a0releases an album, all I care is the music it contains, regardless if the artist is homosexual, communist or right-wing, because that wouldn\u2019t be anything new. It would be a novelty if, for example, the artist turned out being an alien. Some of them look like one, it\u2019s true, but up to this day there isn\u2019t any flamenco alien that we know of. I\u2019ve read some interviews of Rosario La Tremendita,\u00a0cantaora<\/i>\u00a0from Triana, and the topics of feminism, sexism and being a female artist often come up.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, besides being a great artist, Rosario is a person with very clear ideas who doesn\u2019t play that game. Yet, why isn\u2019t she ever asked about the content of her albums? Because that\u2019s something few people care about. What they care about is getting a feminist\u00a0cantaora<\/i>\u00a0to talk about all the sexism that exists in flamenco, so they can have grabbing headlines, like happened a few month ago with Roc\u00edo M\u00e1rquez, who creates controversy whenever she speaks. I don\u2019t mean to say that she\u2019s unable to say things that makes sense, but not a lot, at least regarding\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0in the last few years.<\/p>\n
La Tremendita, in an interview by Silvia Cruz Lape\u00f1a for\u00a0Vanity Fair<\/i>, the journalist brings up the first LGBT flamenco festival, which took place last year in Madrid, and the artist commented:<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that I don\u2019t have my doubts about this topic: on the one hand I see that\u00a0there is no equality<\/b>, but on the other I always think that if we create separate festivals we are\u00a0enlarging the difference<\/b>\u00a0and, somehow, we\u2019re not acting with naturality.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
There is no equality in what regard? Is that why that senseless festival was made, because there is no equality? Following what La Trememdita says above, what difference is she speaking of? Are women discriminated in today\u2019s flamenco on account of their gender? The other day I heard someone say that we should be careful with flamenco lyrics, regarding equality. Are we going to censor flamenco lyrics, laying out what can or cannot be said, ending the freedom that has always existed in\u00a0cante<\/i>? There are lyrics by Antonio El Chocolate which are shocking by today\u2019s standards, but they were written half a century ago, and they are the product of the culture and society of those days. What should we do, burn all his records?<\/p>\n
At the end, La Tremendita claims in that interview that \u201cI\u2019ve never experienced an uncomfortable moment for being lesbian\u201d. That would have been a great headline to counter this campaign to attack the supposed intolerance in flamenco, seeking catchy headlines, yet Silvia Cruz Lape\u00f1a is not the kind of journalist who seeks catchy headlines, but the true essence of things.<\/p>\n
Indeed, La Tremendita is a great artist, but that is because she has a lot of talent and is a courageous person. Everything else is not anyone\u2019s concern, just bait and being a pain in the neck.<\/p>\n
Translated by P. Young<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some people think that getting off the tracks of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-archivo"],"yoast_head":"\n