Ethnic History of Andalucía and Flamenco

Andalucía is the southernmost region of continental Europe. It extends from the south of the Iberian Peninsula between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and it is separated from Africa by the 14 kilometers of the Strait of Gibraltar. The region covers 87,595 square kilometers and has a population of around seven and a half million inhabitants. Andalucía is one of Spain’s seventeen Autonomous Communities, and is divided internally into eight provinces with their respective capitals: Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville.

A land of marked contrasts, Andalucía features an exceptionally wide variety of landscapes, from long beaches and rocky bays to agricultural land, desert, woods and Alpine mountains. The river Guadalquivir provides a great place for cultivating land in the center of the region between the gentle mountain range of the Sierra Morena to the north and the steep profile of the Sierra Bética to the south. Rising up in the middle of these mountains is the Sierra Nevada.

From the Neolithic period on, Andalucía was at the forefront of progress in agriculture, livestock keeping and mining, all of which attracted Greek and Phoenician settlers. This civilizing influence gave the rise to the Kingdom of Tartesos, a remote territory in which the columns of Hercules marked out the borders of the known world. This was followed by the development of Iberian culture in the interior of the region, as well as the presence of the Carthaginian civilization and the period of Roman rule, which left a permanent influence. Under the Romans, this region became the province of Bética, the location for flourishing cities such as Córdoba, the capital of the province, and Itálica, birthplace of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian.

After the brief period of Visigoth rule, the Muslim presence would mark out Andalucía’s destiny for almost 800 years to come. Until the 10^th century, Cordoba, the capital of Al-Andalus (the Muslim region of the Spanish peninsula) and court of the Ommeyad Caliphs stood out as the great city in the West. Seville, Almería, Málaga , Jaén and other cities acquired walls, fortresses, mosques, schools, baths, palaces, markets and entire quarters where people of different races and religions lived together.

Andalucía enjoyed one of its most splendid periods, as a great cultural beacon between the East and Europe. The advance of the Christian reconquest confined the Muslims to the present limits of the region and the rapid reconquest of Córdoba, Seville and the Guadalquivir valley by Ferdinand III in the mid-13^th century pushed the Moors towards the eastern realms of the kingdom of Granada.

1492 is a key date in the history of Andalucía. The year began with the conquest of Granada by the Catholic kings. In the summer, Christopher Columbus set sail from the Andalusian port of Palos in Huelva en route to America. This was also the year when the Jews were expelled, to be followed in the 17^th century by the Moors, depriving the region of two of its most active communities.

Flamenco

Flamenco is the music, song and dance of Andalucía, particularly of the gypsy community. It is associated especially with the provinces of Seville and Cádiz. The rough wailing voice of the singer is often unaccompanied except by rhythmic clapping, but to this is often added the rapid strumming of a guitar. Songs are never less than full on passionate and express a range of emotions, mainly sadness and torment. Sometimes the singer and guitarist provide the soundtrack for the dancer who is usually female. In true flamenco style, neither the song nor the dances follow a prescribed script. They are never done exactly the same way twice and performers continue for as long as their emotions dictate and stamina allows.

Flamenco began in the 18^th century in Andalucía, where gypsies sang songs of oppression, lamentation, and bitter romances. It could be described as a kind of blues that by the 19^th century began to catch on among all the other people of Andalucía. Gypsies used to call each other “flamencos”, which is an insulting term dating back to the days when Charles V’s Flemish (flamenco) courtiers bled Spain dry. In the Middle Ages, the gypsies arrived in Andalucía from India and they brought with them new tunes and euphoric rhythms which eventually combined with the “cante jondo”, or deep song, and the Moors’ heartstring guitar created what we know as flamenco. By the late 19^th century, flamenco was being performed in the back rooms of cafes in both Sevilla and Malaga.