There are two poets in Spain that you hear especially in the Spanish schools: Lorca and Machado.
Flamencos usually know Federico García Lorca. He and his imagery has been really important for flamenco dissemination. In the second case we the can read something about the second name in records. But Antonio Machado was not a really important for flamenco. "Sevilla without sevillanos, what a wonderful” was one of his sentences and he prefered to live in Castilla. But, Curiously, his father, Antonio Machado Álvarez, is so importat for flamenco as Paco de Lucía.
One the most important historic places for flamenco amateurs should not be a tabern or a stage. It is a cathedral. It sounds rare, but it is. The catedral of Cadiz in not only a temple por christians but a flamenco a temple. The reason are the long time that Enrique "El mellizo" was there, seating, hearing the organ sounds, thinking in music.
'El Planeta' (The Planet) is the very first flamenco singer that can be found in historical documents. Of course, there are other singers like "Tio Luis el de la Juliana" from which we only have oral tradition of his existence. El Planeta lived during the first half of the XIX century. We can see his genuine look in the draw above, painted by Lemeyer,
There is nothing in Western music as the flamenco style (palo) called siguirilla and their close styles. When Velvet Underground and others started investigating the darkest side of human behavior, suiguirillas were their long time ago talking about depression, death, disproportionate hate, alcoholism, diseases, etc.
Is very difficult to understand deepest and most interesting styles (palos) of flamenco without understand this tragic sense of these ancient styles. Guitarist should know that they should help the singer but also regulate this tragic sense of the song and understand that the expression of the singer of these dark feelings. And some of the most beautiful guitar compositions in flamenco are siguirillas, usually as a kind of requiem (i.e. Luzia of Paco de Lucía).
We have heard a thousand times the terrific history of the roots of blues. Human beings treated as animals, crossing the Atlantic Ocean in infra-human conditions from Africa to Caribbean islands by boat and generations of slaves devoted to the cotton harvest. But, what about the roots of flamenco?
Outcasts
and flamenco.
Flamenco consolidated in the South od Spain, within a context of marginalization which includes Moorish, gypsies and probably salves. Moorish, defeated in Granada by the Christians during Elisabeth I and Ferdinand II period was another problematic portion of population. There were also slaves from other countries in the Iberian Peninsula.
Gypsies, probably the most important group for flamenco, arrived to Spain in the XV century but is pretty uncertain what the paths were. It seems that during the next decades politics and ethnics where dominated by persecution and discrimination. Gipsy nomad culture crashed against Spanish habits. Marginalization did not stop. Gypsies were systematically discriminated. In turn, gypsies resort to robbery and other kinds of delinquency. A long chain of laws were ordered against nomad people without dedication. Castellan punishments include enslavement, jail and other. But the most used was the forced labor in galley ships. During the XVII, Spain was no the best place to stay if you were not Christian and white.
Galley ships were a terrific place. The survival rate was really poor. The 10% of the crew (prisoners o not) died annually. They sleep, ate and do the 99% of life was in their position. Wiping was a daily thing and Sunday mass was one of the few entertainments. Humidity and illness were the partners of the oarsmen and the crew should were completely renewed in 7 years. Some cotton fields were summer holidays in comparison.
Gypsies, Moorish and slaves were concentrated by decree close to Cádiz. Málaga and Cartagena, epicenters of flamenco. There was also a very important concentration of gypsies in Sevilla. Mercury mines were another 'good' place for these outcasts.
The
result: The tragic sense of flamenco.
Taking into account all the hardships crossed by the Spanish gispsy and related outcast people, we can understand the lyrics and poetry of the hardest and oldest styles (palos) of flamenco as siguirillas, tonas or martinetes. All these songs are impregnate of sadness, tragedy, depression, pain and death references. In order to conclude this post, we finish with some of these lyrics.
Dios mío, ¿qué es esto que me está pasando? se me ha liado una soga al cuello que me está ahogando.
Oh my God! What's happen to me? A rope has been rolling around my neck and it's choking me.
Cuando me muera mira que te encargo que con la cinta de tu pelo me amarren las manos.
When I die I ask you for the band of your hair to tie my hands
