Our concept of aesthetic is not limited to the voice, the dance, or the instrument. Flamenco is a world with vast horizons, because it is also a choice of living, an attitude towards life, a form of existence that impregnates the Andalusian experience.
Flamenco is a philosophy about the being, about life and death which integrates as well the world of Tauromaquia (art of bullfighting). The art of bullfighting and the art of flamenco are inherently attached, as the history of their heroes is as well. The line between these two worlds is so thin it makes it very hard to determine where one ends and the other begins.
There is a mother history for Andalusia and an old mysterious father: the “art”. The natural sons of this pagan matrimony are the bull and the flamenco voice. They both have their birth origins lost in the beginning of time. However, the culture and the social group where they grew up are very clear. Their childhood was the pain of a marginalized sector of the Andalusian population whose life was considered little more than a game.
It is impossible to explain the life of the Andalusians without mentioning bullfighting and flamenco. They are not capricious expressions of leisure, but the result of a socially founded aesthetic debate in which the Andalusians impose their forms and ways.
Today cosmopolitan cities of Andalusia still contain the echoes of the rural life. The rhythms and beats are still the scenario of Flamenco, inseparable from the aesthetic of its neighborhoods. The streets and the patios are still the family hub and the social meeting points where the people chat in the summer and celebrate weddings and baptisms.
Flamenco has always suffered rather than taken advantage of fashions and commercialization. Currently, Flamenco lives with the danger of the necessary evolution, the boldness and the lack of respect of those whom consider Flamenco a menial art. The popular culture that Flamenco represents is still alive thanks to those who respect heritage and ancestors.
