Tune in to this sentimental radio station and let's take a look back at the history of Spain.
Did you know that Chaplin stole the music of a couplet for one of his most famous films? Or that Nietzsche said that "the strongest thing" he had ever heard was a zarzuela by Federico Chueca? Have you ever thought of the copla as a strategy of female resistance?
The soundtrack of our grandmothers takes us by the hand through a not-so-distant past, where official discourse and subversion coexisted in a popular culture that helped to cope with life. Oh, bell ringers!Lidia García's book is a journey through the stories behind these songs, filled with female transgressions, social class differences, and a yearning for freedom that, despite everything, seeped through every crack it found. This remarkable book brings us closer to the inner workings of a world of cabaret singers and bandits, seamstresses and working-class women, and such formidable women as Raquel Meller, Concha Piquer, Lola Flores, Sara Montiel, and Rocío Jurado.
Lidia García García (Montealegre del Castillo, 1989) holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Murcia, with a dissertation on copla and camp practices. She is the author of the podcast Oh, bell ringers! and the book of the same name (Somos B, 2022). He regularly collaborates on the programs Neighborhood cinema, from Spanish Television, More tomorrow, from Radio Nacional de España, and The window, from Cadena SER.
