Flamenco Essay
To what extent is Flamenco iconic of Spanish cultural identity?
The passionate imagery conjured by the flamenco art form of colour, life and exoticness are characteristics often associated with perceptions of Spain. In saying that, within contemporary society flamenco has now become an icon of “Spanish culture” however the degree to which its resemblance accurately portrays Spanish, or more specifically the Spanish nation’s cultural identity is limited due to it being more an expression of regional identity that has been portrayed to be a national symbol (Malefyt 1998). This argument can be seen in the examination of how it is tied to the social identity of the southern locality of Andalusia, its exploitation as a politicised art form and its re-creation into different non-traditional forms which further complicates the idea of flamenco as an icon as it resists a fixed conventional style that has been followed through tradition. Furthermore, underlying this discussion is association between politics and ethnicity in regards to identity, as the evolution of flamenco to have a place within modern popular culture is revealed as a construction rather than a natural process.
One of the foundational understandings of flamenco is that is it is a music of the Gypsy (or ‘gitano’) people, yet this is a common misconception. Despite the world only having heard of this performance art for the last two centuries, its origins can be traced back to the Christian reconquest in 1492 when the last Islamic stronghold was taken in the city of Granada. The Moors who had ruled for 800 years and the Jews were driven out and forced underground along with their music, with its form recognisable in the early nineteenth century in Serafin Estebanz Calderon’s description of a dance in Seville (Jordan 2002, p.87). Such a historical background has lead Totton to make the claim that “Certainly the Gypsies are important, but flamenco is not exclusively theirs” (2003, p.14) as while they have
The passionate imagery conjured by the flamenco art form of colour, life and exoticness are characteristics often associated with perceptions of Spain. In saying that, within contemporary society flamenco has now become an icon of “Spanish culture” however the degree to which its resemblance accurately portrays Spanish, or more specifically the Spanish nation’s cultural identity is limited due to it being more an expression of regional identity that has been portrayed to be a national symbol (Malefyt 1998). This argument can be seen in the examination of how it is tied to the social identity of the southern locality of Andalusia, its exploitation as a politicised art form and its re-creation into different non-traditional forms which further complicates the idea of flamenco as an icon as it resists a fixed conventional style that has been followed through tradition. Furthermore, underlying this discussion is association between politics and ethnicity in regards to identity, as the evolution of flamenco to have a place within modern popular culture is revealed as a construction rather than a natural process.
One of the foundational understandings of flamenco is that is it is a music of the Gypsy (or ‘gitano’) people, yet this is a common misconception. Despite the world only having heard of this performance art for the last two centuries, its origins can be traced back to the Christian reconquest in 1492 when the last Islamic stronghold was taken in the city of Granada. The Moors who had ruled for 800 years and the Jews were driven out and forced underground along with their music, with its form recognisable in the early nineteenth century in Serafin Estebanz Calderon’s description of a dance in Seville (Jordan 2002, p.87). Such a historical background has lead Totton to make the claim that “Certainly the Gypsies are important, but flamenco is not exclusively theirs” (2003, p.14) as while they have
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