Antonio Machado and Alvarez, Demophile (Santiago de Compostela, 1846 – Seville, 1893), was convinced of the culture of the people, of its importance in the human and social development of a land – that of the south of the south, for example – to which the rest of Spain turned its back with the greatest ease in the world. For this reason, he dedicated a large part of his life to the study and analysis of our knowledge. from a musical and literary perspective, looking at the people, in front of him, from his republican and anticlerical positions. A believer in what later came to be called "the culture of blood", who says that his grandmother never crossed the bridge to go to Seville, that in Triana she had everything.
Demófilo —who died from an illness contracted in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he had to go to get beans for his family— identified the concept of “flamenco"with the gypsy, explaining it with his bit of serious Sevillian humor, that not everything in the city is the teller of easy jokes and the one in the tight jacket. In his well-known Collection cantes flamencos From 1881 he gives a mischievous, humorous version of why it is called "flamenco"and why his identification with the gypsy world. According to the father of the authors of Lola goes to the Ports, people told them “flamencos” to the gypsies for the dark color of the gypsy complexion as opposed to —here's the joke— the white and blond of the natives of Flanders. He already wrote it Luis Montoto“The disheveledness of his person contrasted with the polish of his conversation and the finesse of his manners and his treatment.”
The year 1881 was fundamental for flamenco literature. At the dawn of Andalusian folklore, three publications appeared that we could describe as fundamental: the aforementioned Demófilo, the The cantes flamencos, Hugo Schuchardt, as well as the First songbook of flamenco verses, Manuel Balmaseda Gonzalez, a man from Ecija who was born as a “son of work” and died of hunger and sorrow in Malaga.
We can affirm that Collection cantes flamencos It is the first work - between an essay and a collection of popular lyrics - that has art as its main and only theme. flamenco, filling cantes flamencoand oral literature, laying the foundations for later studies on popular culture. It is the first work that he approaches flamenco in a scientific way, at the hands of the so-called folklore movement, of which Demófilo - which means "the friend of the people" -, burdened by economic hardships and his poor health, was an essential pillar.
Compilation and essay, since its pages are even full of harsh criticism. For example, this sentence referring to Silverio Franconetti: “Could this genre be ennobled by taking it from the tavern to the café? We believe not, and that the idea of the Andalusian singer, although generous in its origin, is mistaken and counterproductive.” As we can see, the pessimism that always surrounds the future of flamenco It is nothing new: it is older than the black thread. And it is that, according to Machado and Álvarez, art flamenco should still be within the family, behind closed doors. According to him, we would still be living in what they called the Hermetic Stage. And that is not it, Don Antonio. It is not that. But these things must be contextualized and understood at the moment in which they are thought and said. Demófilo has been judged harshly for the current flamencology. A serious mistake, I think. His work must be assessed from the perspective of time, because he started from scratch and we, thanks precisely to men like him, did not.
«The pessimism that always surrounds the future of flamenco It is nothing new: it is older than the black thread. And it is that, according to Machado and Álvarez, art flamenco It should still be within the family, behind closed doors. According to him, we would still be living in what they called the Hermetic Stage.
The publication of the work in 1881 —“scientific reconstruction of history and culture”— was a milestone in the flamenco, since it is the first rigorous approach - more or less solid - to our art from an anthropological perspective that would serve in the future as basic documentation for the study of art. flamenco, to know “the timbre of the voices of the earth”. It provides us canteand pregones lost in the years. And, perhaps, what is more important: names and data of singers among the mists of time, remembered by Juanelo from Jerez, Such as Uncle Luis de la Juliana —a legend never confirmed—, La Serneta —a myth for soleá— or The Colorao —who sang imitating the Frenchman—. In addition, as we said, he recovers and collects lyrics, canteand cries that were heard in taverns, at family parties and in the streets throughout the life of God.
And as an example, here's a button: in its pages it contains these lyrics that he sang Buggies —bullfighter, singer and bandit— in the Peteneras section, including some variants. Here it appears in the following form:
A woman was the cause
of my first loss:
There is no loss in the world
girl of my heart!
There is no loss in the world
that he does not come for women.
Your son Manuel He describes it thus: “My father (…) was an excellent folklorist, he has a volume of folklore, which you can see in the National Library. He was the first in Spain to deal with the popular soul. I have not yet followed that path, and this is reflected in my work. Also in Antonio’s.” For his part, Antonio would write: “(…) / My father, in his office. —The high forehead, / the short fly, and the straight moustache—.”
With Demófilo —who met the woman who would become his wife and mother of his children on the Triana bridge, once several dolphins had gone up the Guadalquivir river— a saga of poets begins flamencos —yes, flamencos— who are honored and remembered, which is more important, these days next to the San Bernardo bridge. It is not a matter of missing such a great literary event and flamencoBecause flamencos are the ones that appear in that family portrait. ♦
→ See the first installment of this series here: 'The Machados, family portrait' (I): Cipriana, the woman from the stories
