The circumstances
Under the period of the reign of the Moors, Andalusia became one of the richest parts of Spain. After the ‘Reconquista’, movement of Christian rulers to take over Arabic rule in Spain and Portugal, Andalusia was still one of the key provinces for economic growth since it became the centrum for Spains transatlantic trade. In the beginning of 17th century we see the start of economic decline in Spain. Different wars and the loss of colonial power lets the powerful position Andalusia once had slip away. The loss of Gibraltar to the British in 1713 and the devastation caused by plague further worsened Andalusias situation. While other European countries and Spanish regions thrive during the industrialization, Andalusia, traditionally an agricultural region, did not benefit from the rapid change. This caused political unrest and economic decline in the beginning of the 20th century. The conditions fostered a sense of solidarity among Andalusians and hostility towards central authority, Madrid. This period saw the rise of proto-socialism, anarchism, and Marxism, with significant unionization and social unrest. The socialist movements were brutally suppressed by Franco, who recognized Andalusia as a center of discontent. The region remained underdeveloped and neglected, with mass emigration to industrial centers in northern Spain and Europe.
a type of Spanish dance music, or the dance performed to this music
If you were to ask a random person on the street where they think Flamenco originated, chances are they would answer Spain. They wouldn't be entirely wrong, but the truth is that many more influences deserve recognition. Today, flamenco is seen as a national symbol of Spain by people both inside and outside the country. However, this has not always been the case. How and why did this perception change?
Flamenco has been shaped by three major influences: the traveling Romani who settled in southern Spain, the Arabic influences from the time of the Moors, and the socio-economic status of Andalusia.
Romani experience
There are a few different terms that are being used to describe the ethnic group of people who have travelled from India to Europe and are known to have nomadic lives. To be clear, Romani is used to describe this whole group of people and also the overarching language that is being spoken. In Europe overtime they split into three different groups: Roma, Sinthi and Kale.
There are already references from 8th century Greece to ‘Athingani, Greek for ‘those who do not touch others and do not wish to be touched by others’, a term used for the new arrivals from India, probably because of their strict and possibly foreign view on purity, but some say it could have been a mix up with the heretic sect also known as the Athi Ngani. All the other terms used for the Roma in the Byzantine Empire, like Aigupti or Lori, all mention them as either practical makers or acrobats and musicians, jobs that are still associated with them nowadays.
Research on the Romani language with the Indian language, has shown us that the Roma undoubtedly originated in India. Other analysis on the language has also proven that on the way to Europe they must have spent quite some time in Persia and Armenia. Many Roma still follow unwritten laws and custom that would have come from their Indian heritage. How and when they exactly got from India to Byzantium is not entirely known, since there are now written sources.
It is possible they arrived on European territory while trying to escape the Black Death which took Constantinople by storm around 1347. The Roma settled though Greece and have been living there in communities ever since. What came after was a big struggle with citizenship and same rights. Only since 1955 could Roma people in Greece acquire Greece citizenship. These struggles have followed Romani through settlement in whole Europe. They were not allowed to speak their language, they had to pay more fines or taxes and sometimes even had to take punishments or forced labour, like in France around 1600 and 1700. One can imagine that the Romani who settled in Spain have had to deal with similar circumstances from around, which is why they mostly settled outside the city areas. It is in these specific places where Flamenco as we know it started to develop.
Original view on Flamenco
Flamenco started to take shape after Jews, Moors, and Roma people were expelled from Granada following the Inquisition. They moved to the remote mountainous regions of Spain, where flamenco became a key part of Andalusian culture. Andalusia, in southern Spain, has been the heart of flamenco since it began. Although there aren't many early theoretical texts about flamenco, a lot of rhythms, structures, melodies, and songs developed over time. This resulted in a lot of different styles, or “palos,” that cover a variety of feelings and experiences all influenced by their specific identity.
The high regard for flamenco we see today is relatively new. When flamenco first became popular in Spanish culture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it was looked down upon by the upper classes. As a product of the “gitanos,” a derogatory term for the Roma people, flamenco was rejected by prejudiced Spaniards, continuing the historical persecution of Jewish and Roma communities. The sensual and emotional nature of flamenco music and dance scandalized many upper-class Spaniards, who found it inappropriate for artists to express themselves so freely and publicly.
Flamenco came to symbolize the shame Spanish elites felt about the country’s declining status as a great power in the modern era. Critics of flamenco were divided into three main groups: the Catholic Church and its conservative allies, left-leaning intellectuals and politicians, and leaders of revolutionary workers’ movements. During the turbulent period between the Restoration and the beginning of the Civil War (1875-1936), these groups used flamenco to critique Spain’s political, economic, and cultural issues.
Positve change?
In the late 19th and 20th centuries flamenco got a huge boost outside Spain. Different artist had visited Spain and watched flamenco performances in small bars around the south. This gave especially also Romani flamenco performers a platform on a lot of World’s Fairs. The ‘Cante Jondo’, deep song, got a lot of recognition by European avant-garde artists like Sergei Diaghilev and Claude Debussy, who attended flamenco performances at the Paris World’s Fairs of 1889 and 1900. It was seen as pure and authentic emotion. Slowly also Spanish intellectuals and artists like Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca came to elevate this form of flamenco to “high culture.”
After its "Golden Age," flamenco kept rising in popularity within Spanish culture until the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, bringing Francisco Franco to power. During this time, large-scale flamenco performances almost disappeared. Both the Catholic Church and Spain’s Fascist party disapproved of the genre, discouraging Spaniards from attending flamenco shows because of its association with the Roma people and its hypersexualized reputation. Spanish institutions resisted integrating flamenco into popular culture.
After the Spanish Civil War, flamenco performances in Spain significantly declined. The Catholic Church and leaders of the Sección Femenina (the female wing of Spain’s Fascist Party) disavowed flamenco, promoting folk dancing and singing instead. They aimed to create a new national identity based on Spanish regional diversity, free from flamenco’s controversial reputation.
Design project
For my design project I wanted to bring light to the history of Flamenco. I did this by focusing on one part of the 'costume' from nowadays: The shawl, specifically called a Manila shawl. This piece of clothing has been acquired by the Spaniards after colonising the Philippines. For me it symbolised the way the Spaniards also took Flamenco out of its original context.
Franco's regime
By the 1950s, after years of being isolated internationally, the Franco regime needed to boost the economy. This led to a change in policy, with the regime promoting flamenco to attract tourists. Tourism promoter Carlos González Cuesta said, “We have to resign ourselves touristically to be a country of [Spanish stereotypes], because the day we lose the [Spanish stereotypes], we will have lost 90 percent of our attraction for tourists.”
The Franco regime took advantage of tourists’ fascination with flamenco by increasing the number of flamenco clubs, featuring female flamenco dancers in tourism and airline brochures, encouraging professional flamenco performers to appear in Hollywood films, and showcasing performers on international stages. These strategies succeeded and attracted millions of tourists, contributing to Spain’s economic boom in the 1960s. It was a huge contrast to Franco's earlier years. Intresting to notice is that Flamenco originally has been focused on the singing in combination with the music, dance more fo a byproduct. But since the singing was not meant to be as 'clear' as western singing at the time, they have really marketed the dancing. Nowadays if you go to a flamenco performance in a southern Spanish city, they often are based on the dancing.
Franco’s descision to forget all his, and his parties, resistance against Flamenco culture, to suddenly benefit enormously of it, is a prime example of cultural appropriation in a scale you might not even think about. All of their distaste of this art form is rooted in racism and classism. And most of all after all it got them in the difficult times Spain faced, is that Romani people still have to live in marginalised position.
Sources:
- 'The Roma Journey' - 2007, Cia Rinne (text) and Joakim Eskildsen (photgraphy)
For information and Images
- 'Andalusian, Gypsy, and Class Identity in the Contemporary
Flamenco ComplexFlamenco Complex' 1989, Peter L. Manuel
- 'Flamenco Heritage and the Politics of Identity' - 2023, Cristina Cruces Roldán
- 'Flamenco & Franco in the World's Fair' - 2024, Joseph Brant
article on Tastemakersmag
- 'History on Andalucia'
https://www.andalucia.com/history/home.htm
- 'The appropriation of Flamenco heritage beyond
its borders' - 2011, Fernando C. Ruiz Morales
Consulted not as much used
