For the cultured classes of Spain, until recently flamenco was nothing more than a “thing of the lower classes”; of taverns, violence, riotousness, drunkenness, and in the past, of beggars, thieves, bandits and gypsies. It was not until 1922 that a group of intellectuals (which included the composer Manuel de Falla and the young poet Federico GarcÃa Lorca) organised a “concurso the cante jondo”. The first time that the intellectuals of Andalucia acted as a group to study, understand and for want of a better word, protect flamenco. At that time famenco had almost completely been forgotten, substituted by a light operatic form known as “opera flamenco”.In the XVIII and XIX centuries Andalucia had virtually been abandoned to the four winds. Massive areas of land was owned by a few families who generally lived far from their estates in Andalucia. Some of these estates had been owned by the same families since the wars against the Moors, as a payment for services rendered to the Crown.
On these estates, during the XVIII and XIX centuries, absolute poverty was the norm whilst at the same time vast tracts of land was left uncultivated. This land was desperately needed by the andalucian population which was rapidly growing and suffering an increasing number of years in which famine was a reality. However, this uncultivated land was either abandoned, or used as hunting ranges. In whatever case, the andalucian population was unable to make use of such terrain – it was nearly always under armed guard.
These abandoned people nurtured what is known today as flamenco – an oral history of their lives and concerns; from the prisons, forges, mines, charity hospitals, and the gypsy “barrios”; from a people terrorised by poverty, superstitions and ignorance comes flamenco. In Andalucia, with such “poor” ingredients flamenco was born. Félix Grande and Fernando Quiñones have defined flamenco as “a tragedy in the first person” and “a protest without hope or destination”.
Today, in an age of high-tech leisure and massive unemployment, flamenco has been undergoing a revolution. In precisely the same areas where it was originally nurtured – Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar Cádiz to name just a few – the old ingredients are being mixed with new. The new wave of “flamencos jovenes” have not only changed the scheme of the “cante” and guitar, but are being accepted by the institutions of flamenco, such as the “Biennial de Sevilla”.
