The headquarters of the Andalusian Institute of Flamenco (IAF), in the Seville neighborhood of Santa Cruz, hosted the presentation of the congress 'Fernando Quiñones and the Flamenco', which will be held from November 13 to 16 in Chiclana, Cádiz. This meeting is organized by the University of Cádiz, the Fernando Quiñones Foundation and the IAF, sponsored by the Provincial Council of Cadiz. The event brought together the professor of Spanish Literature at the UCA Alberto Romero Ferrer, the writer and journalist from Algeciras Juan José Téllez and the actress from El Puerto Montse Torrent at Casa Murillo.
The press conference was opened by the director of the IAF, Christopher Ortega, which emphasized the flamenco style of the famous writer from Chiclana, the suitability of bringing Fernando Quiñones himself to Seville through this event in the house of the flamencos –«although the congress is held where it should be held, which is in Cadiz»– and the inclusion of this event in the celebrations of the International Day of Flamenco.
Juan Jose Tellez, for his part, representing the Fernando Quiñones Foundation, of which he is secretary, justified the organization of this congress by the fact of paying tribute to Quiñones coinciding with the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. The meeting will have two venues: Chiclana de la Frontera, the writer's birthplace, and the capital of Cádiz, a city to which he felt a lifelong bond. "Fernando Quiñones is so much from Cádiz that I think it is urgent to take him out of Cádiz, take him for a walk," said Téllez. "There are personalities who have an absolute value for Andalusian, Spanish, universal culture, and Fernando Quiñones is one of them. In Cádiz his legacy, his memory, is maintained, but like many other intellectuals of the time he seems to have faded away in other places where he is condemned to oblivion. This may be the case of other writers who approached the flamencoas the Manuel Rios Ruiz, Jose Manuel Caballero Bonald o big felixI think it is important to keep them alive not only as authors, poets, storytellers, but for their contribution to art. flamenco, often against the regime's guidelines."
«Fernando Quiñones was one of those who claimed that behind this Lorca sclerosis or flamencoism tinged with Francoism there was a deeper fact. Therefore, the objective of this congress, in the words of Alberto Romero, is to place Quiñones within this claim of the flamenco as a culture with capital letters"
According to Téllez, the congress aims to reflect on the contributions of Fernando Quiñones to flamenco, which were many, some of them debatable. «A book like From Cadiz and its cantes for the first time puts in writing the tradition of singers, dancers and guitarists of Cadiz in the sixties, in an analytical way and with the rigor of the time. El flamenco, life and death, other titles by Fernando, his passion for dissemination in the program flamenco of Spanish Television that he directed Miguel Espin, his tireless activity in the peñas… Fernando went with a little box of slides and showed the Planet with his eternal guitar, Henry the Twin with that huge hat. He did for himself at that time what the Andalusian Institute of Flamenco and the Ministry of Culture: to bring the flamenco to the institutes, to the schools, to try to make the values of art flamenco "they met."
"Fernando was a snail collector, but that did not stop him when it came to defining Manolo Caracol like a kind of tired ox facing the whirlwind of colors that was Lola Flores", added Juan José Téllez, who has signed works on Paco de Lucia, Chano Lobato y Carlos cano, among others, and that recalls the master's degree in vein that meant being an hour and a half with Beni from Cadiz when he was only twenty years old there in Prado del Rey while Quiñones was taking a siesta. «Fernando also wrote flamenco lyrics, Andalusia on its feet He was a spectacle through his scripts. And he said that he sang 'with a small but unpleasant voice'. That's not true. In some videos you can see him singing fandangos, those lyrics of The little soldiers of Spain are falling by the millions for taking advantage of the Count of Romanones».
Téllez concluded with two anecdotes about Fernando Quiñones. "He used to say that good Andalusians come from all over Andalusia. That is why we want this congress to serve to bring Quiñones to his full territory, the Andalusia that he loved so much. And another of his famous phrases when explaining the rare magic of the origin of this art: he said that the flamenco "It was like Russian salad and the gypsies were the mayonnaise."
The professor later took the floor. Alberto Romero Ferrer, the director of the conference, who stressed the Cadiz spirit of Fernando Quiñones. “Cádiz is the best thing about Fernando, but it is also one of his greatest enemies, as it seems to reduce the value of a novelist, poet, flamencologist of universal value to the local level.” Romero recalled a first round table held in 2018 in which the author's knowledge of art was discussed. jondo. «We saw that the flamenco It was not just another topic for Fernando Quiñones, but rather it was part of his spinal cord in his capacity as creator, promoter, researcher, anthropologist... There we decided to organize a great meeting that would make known Quiñones' contribution to the flamenco».
«Quiñones used to say that the good Andalusian is from all parts of Andalusia. That is why we want this congress to serve to bring Quiñones to his full territory, the Andalusia that he loved so much. And another of his famous phrases when explaining the rare magic of the origin of flamenco was that the flamenco It's a Russian salad and the gypsies are the mayonnaise.
Alberto Romero recalled that the Cadiz University He has a pioneering interuniversity master's degree in studies flamencos, the only academic program of these characteristics in all of Spain, and that by 2026 the first doctoral program of studies will be launched flamencos. «Last year we held a conference on the flamenco side of Lola Flores, on the occasion of her centenary, and the idea is that from time to time we organize events of a certain academic nature around the subject. flamenco. That is where we find extraordinary allies such as the Fernando Quiñones Foundation and the Andalusian Institute of Flamenco to hold this conference, which will be published thanks to the collaboration with the University of Seville."
On the lines of the congress 'Fernando Quiñones and the Flamenco', Professor Alberto Romero highlighted practical aspects beyond the theoretical sessions, such as the performances of Carmen de la Jara o Mediazuela Theatre, which will add audience and impact. The opening conference will be given by the former counselor of the Junta de Andalucía and professor at the Olavide Juan Manuel Suarez Japan, who has always claimed flamenco culture from the anthropological study. «I always tell my students that they should not be surprised by the study of flamenco. flamenco in the university setting. The flamenco It is one of the great cultural roots of Andalusia. Today the flamenco It has prestige, it has an economy behind it, institutions that welcome it. But when we leave Andalusia there are sectors of politics and intellectuals that come closer to it. flamenco with a certain disdain. This is part of the very essence of flamenco. When Lorca publish Gypsy romance or Poem by cante jondo, the unsympathetic part of the Generation of 27 –Vicente Aleixandre and company– says that very well, that it is very well written, but that if you want to be an important poet you should stop writing things about Andalusia and flamenco, as if it were a minor poem. These prejudices have always existed, since the seventh Moroccan letter of José Scaffold, which describes the flamenco party in a country house between Cadiz and Seville as a waste of time for youth instead of working. There is the great prejudice of the 19th century that comes to us today. Fernando Quiñones was one of those who claimed that behind this Lorca sclerosis or flamencoism tinged with Francoism there was a deeper fact. Therefore, the objective of this congress, in the words of Romero, is to place Quiñones within this claim of the flamenco as a culture with a capital C. A starting point for future editions with other Andalusians. "Fernando was there when almost no one else was," he said.
