When most people think of Spain, they think of a country filled with sun, flamenco music and dance, ladies in colourful dresses sitting on the backs of horses at the annual fairs and that constant rhythmic clapping. This is a very real and well known vision of Spain but not everyone realises that the roots for the music which reminds them so much of Spain, the dancing and the colour, is all due to one group, a very small group, of some 500,000 people within a population of 48 million, a group who are not Spanish in origin – they are the Gitanos or Spanish gypsies.
Northern Europeans tend to have a rather jaded view of gypsies, a people of lower class, living a nomadic lifestyle, with a hand to hand existence, a rather secretive group, involved in criminal behaviour and causing upset to the locals. Yet, these are the very people who give Spain much of its colour and while we may have liked over the years, to surgically remove both the flamenco music and dance from the gypsy image and turn it in to some sort of slightly more polished, tourist friendly spectacle, it is still very much part and parcel of a gitano´s life and culture.
The original roots of al gypsies is still open to argument but it is generally accepted through genetic and linguistic research the the people we now call gypsies came out of India about 1500 years ago, they travelled across Europe, through the Balkans, and down in to southern Europe where many settled in Spain. It is certainly recorded that many entered through Barcelona around 1447 and there are records showing their existence in Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon, as early as 1425.
Where did they come from, well, there are various views on this but one view suggests that they came from the Domba, an ethnic or social group. The word in Classical Sanskrit means a “man of low cast living by singing and music”. Another theory says they were part of the military in Northern India. When Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi invaded and defeated these soldiers, they migrated west into the Byzantine Empire around 1000 to 1030AD.
How they came to be, will be a source of speculation for centuries to come and it is likely that their exact roots will never be discovered. One thing is for sure, they have not had an easy time of it. Acceptance has always been a problem and persecution yet another. In Paris in 1427 a Parisian journal described them as dressed in a manner that the Parisians found “shabby”, and there are reports that the Church ran them out of town because they practised palm-reading and fortune-telling, neither of which sat well with the religious beliefs at the time.
Even earlier in 1385, a transaction is recorded for the sale of a gypsy slave in Wallachia and Sigismund of the Holy Roman Empire issued safe conduct for his transportation. A series of countries expelled the gypsies, Germany in 1416, Lucerne in 1471, Milan in 1493, France in 1504, Catalonia in 1512, Sweden in 1525, England in 1530 under the Egyptians Act, due to the misunderstanding that they had originated in Egypt. So a nomadic lifestyle has very much been forced upon them as an ethnic group.
Some countries went yet further, Switzerland ordered any gypsy found to be put to death, then England followed with a similar ruling in 1554 and Denmark in 1589, followed by Sweden in 1637. Some countries felt that if they could not rid themselves of the scourge, they may as well use it to their advantage and Portugal began deportations of gypsies to their colonies in 1538. In Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia, gypsies were enslaved for five centuries until abolition in the mid 19th century. Catherine The Great of Russia declared Romanies “crown slaves” and superior to serfs and in 1595 Stevan Razvan born in to slavery became the Prince of Moldovia.
Although they were originally accepted in Spain, and even given protection by many local authorities, their good luck was short lived. Certainly when the official persecution of the Jews and Moors in Spain began in 1492, gypsies were included in the list of peoples to be driven out. Spain passed anti-Romani laws and subjected the Gitanos to the Inquisition as heretics. For 300 years, they were the victims of laws and prejudices designed to eliminate them from the country. Settlements were broken down, gypsies had to marry non gypsies, they were denied their language and rituals, excluded from public office and from membership of craft guilds. They were even forbade, in 1560, to travelling in groups of more than 2, and gypsy traditional dress was banned.
No harder time was had by the Gitanos than during the Second World War when their persecution was continued by General Franco in Spain and the Nazis throughout the area of Europe held by them. It is estimated that they murdered between 220,000 and 1,500,000 Romanies in an attempted genocide commonly known as the Porajmos. Gypsies were sentenced to forced labour and sent to concentration camps alongside the Jews.
After the death of Franco, the government of Spain took a more sympathetic approach to the Gaditano regards social welfare, education and social services. Many Gitano were illiterate and as a result had to take work as blacksmiths, horse traders, musicians, dancers and fortune tellers, where reading and writing were not a necessity to their daily trade. This drove the Gitano into a submerged underclass which they are still trying to emerge from today, but the one thing their hardships and struggles did was help to create the mood of flamenco which we see in Spain today. Many Gitano chose to settle amongst the Andalusians who are not an ethnically distinct people, but they do constitute a culturally distinct region of about 7 million people and populate the eight southernmost provinces of Seville, Malaga, Almeria, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada, Huelva and Jaen.
Some Gitano settled in Triana on the Guadalquivir river in Seville which is an important flamenco centre, while others continued south to “la cuna del cante” or the cradle of song in Jerez de la Frontera. Sadly due to the mirgration of rural Spaniards to the cities in search of work, many areas became shanty towns inhabited only by the Gitano people. Conversely, Triana came up in the world following the redevelopment projects of the 1970´s and the Gitanos were pushed out.
Blas Infante, known as “The father or Andalucia” strongly defended his belief in the Aran origins of flamenco. In his work Origenes de o flamenco y secreto del cante jondo (1929 – 1931) he alleged that the word flamenco derived from the Andalusian Arabic “felahmengu” thought to mean “escapee or expelled peasant” He believed that many Muslim Andalusians who became Moriscos mixed with the Gitanos rather than returning to their land of birth after the fall of Al Andaluz to the Christians. On the other hand, Thomas Andrade de Silva totally refuted the role of the gypsy in flamenco as nothing more than folkelore. Many others, including the German composer Edgar Istel are in accord with Infante though, he joined with de Falla and Lorca in writing about the Gitano infusion in the music of Spain.
What we can be sure of about with flamenco, is that the original form was only voice accompanied by a rhythm beaten out on the floor by a wooden staff or cane. These styles are called Palo Secos or dry styles, and they are amongst the oldest form of song known to man. The Palos fall in to three classes. The first is cante jondo or cante grande meaning “deep song” which is the most serious form. Then cante chico, a lighter more frivolous form and for anything which does not fall in to these two categories, cante intermedio. Cante jondo has very clear traces of Arabic and Spanish folk plus traces of Christian, Jewish and Byzantine religious music. Likewise, the martinets are the songs of the blacksmiths, the rhythm being supplied by the hammer beating on the anvil, the cacelareas or prison songs and the debla thought to have a connection with a gypsy religious rite.
Flamenco is made up of four elements, cante (voice), baile (dance), toque (guitar) and jaleo “hell raising”. This latter category covers the handclapping, foot stamping and shouts of encouragement which are part and parcel of most flamenco performances. Jaleo is not reserved only for those with talent and is performed by not only the artiste but the audience as well. While handclapping or palmas might look easy, it is not, and the handclappers when skilled, can produce intricate rhythms in to the song. The zapateado or tap dance style footwork linked with the palmas form the heavy beat so often associated with flamenco.
The addition of guitar is shrouded in mystery, the exact date it started to appear in flamenco is not known. Likewise, the element of flamenco known as duende is something of a secret. Much written about by poets and writers, the word means a spiritual significance that goes beyond human understanding. Lorca romanticised it by saying “Duende could only be present when one sensed that death is possible”.
Duende is regarded as probably the most difficult word to translate from Spanish. It appears in dictionaries translated as “elf” or “magic” or as “a quality of passion and inspiration”. It seems, duende is difficult for anyone to express in simple words.
To begin with, flamenco was not rated by the Spanish, it was played in Gitano homes or at Gitano gatherings, but soon its rhythmic music and often erotic dance was noticed by the romantic writers of the time. It was not long before those not of gypsy lineage became intrigued and this brought it to the attention of the “señoritos” or the toffs and they wanted a piece of the action. Hiring flamenco musicians, singers and dancers to perform at their Juergas or private parties became the in thing to do. The rich would entertain themselves with alcohol, prostitutes and flamenco. This allowed some of the performers to make a name for themselves and a whole line of famous flamenco starts followed including one of the most famous, Camaron de la Isla.
He was always known as Camaron but his real name was Jose Monge Cruz and he was born and raised in San Fernando, just to the south of Cadiz City. His mother was a basket weaver and cleaner, his father a blacksmith. The family were poor and he would sing at bus stops and in ventas to get a few pesetas, with Rancapino or Alonso Nuñez Nuñez, as he was christened shortly after his birth in Chiclana. One of their favourite haunts was the Venta Vargas, a very popular spot because it lay just outside the city limits and therefore the local licensing hours did not apply. The venta could stay open serving customers, making merry, in to the small hours of the night.
At 16, Camaron won first prize in the Fesitval del Cante Jondo and moved to Madrid where he became a resident artist at the Tableo Torres Bermejas for the next 12 years. Camaron or “the shrimp” as he was nicknamed, is undoubtedly one of the most influential flamenco stars. He worked with all the greats and held their respect. They queued up to play with him and record with him.
Sadly, his career was cut short, some say from a heroin overdose, he had been an addict for many years, but his official cause of death was recorded as lung cancer – he was 41.
Camaron is only one of the many famous flamenco starts and not all are of Gitano origins, like Adrian Brenes. The young and very rapidly rising flamenco dancer from the Cadiz province. He is a “payo” or non Gitano. Born in 1986, he started to study flamenco dance at age 8, after 2 years away from dancing he recommenced at age 14 and never looked back.
He has been taught by, and danced with many of the greats. His career now means that he is based in Madrid but he frequently visits his old stomping grounds, and in 2012 he famously directed the Shakespèare play “A Midsummer Night´s Dream” with Jackie Cornwall, the writer and theatre director at the San Francisco theatre in Vejer de la Frontera.
He also appeared at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Opera House in London and with the Alba Flamenca in Edinburgh where he performed for a season. Adrián is now based in Madrid, where he holds classes at the Instituto Flamenco La Truco and is negotiating contracts both national and international for this year.
Flamenco is not purely the reserve of the Gitano people. It is a tradition enjoyed by a large proportion of Spaniards and of course it is highly popular with tourists. Flamenco dress has been adopted as the national dress of Andalucia and it is certatainly the apparel most frequently associated with Spain and most often worn to the annual Ferias.
The outfits add glamour and colour to the festivities. Women, young and old, wear their full flamenco outfits and children are festooned in their costumes from the time they can walk. There is always great excitement in the family when buying a child its first Feria outfit.
The fathers on the other hand are not so excited, as flamenco dresses especially the more elaborate, can run to several hundred or even thousand euros. So, being the father of four girls is never a happy time around Feria. It does however bring in extra business to the specialist retailers and dress makers and of course, the dry cleaners who are required to sort out the aftermath of the Feria and get all sorts of stains and marks out of the, embroidery, jewels, silk and satin.
Likewise, flamenco music, guitar and dance are all very much part of the annual fairs along with a good dollop of hell raising and of course, sherry.
No matter what their origins may be, the Gitano people, their colour, music and dance are the heartbeat of Andalucia and they have enriched many lives, and will continue to do so, for centuries to come.