Journalist Valeria Vegas builds in this beautiful book an emotional, fun, and full of surprises and anecdotes portrait of the main women who have built, against all odds, one of our essential identity markers in the last century: flamenco folklore.
They are the voice of our musical culture, they "españolearon" around the world and lived thrilling lives in difficult times, brave, talented, and... so flamenco.
Questioned, undervalued, and often unfairly forgotten, our folkloric women are volcanic by nature, who sang and lived love and drama like no one else. Their stories, in times when being female was not an advantage, show that they were clever, that they managed to control their lives and get ahead of their times while building our most international cultural legacy, becoming some true stars of cinema and music, and relating to the great intellectual figures of their era.
Flamenco folklore has been disparaged for decades due to its apparent closeness to the Regime and its certain musty smell; however, through the history of its most outstanding women from the early 20th century to today, journalist Valeria Vegas wants to do justice and show how much we owe to all of them and how brave they were. Through the sharp wit and the ironic and affectionate gaze of its author, we will learn the anecdotes, curiosities, and everything that made that unique and pioneering species of women who, for better or worse, whether we like it or not, are our heritage and our culture, our history and our brand.
"This is not a manual for flamencologists, purists, or scholars, who could from the start question the vindication of some of them, but rather a review of the life and work of twenty-seven women who stood out in copla and national folklore. They were the soundtrack of a changing country, in continuous transformation, reflecting the rawest emotions and the most passionate feelings. The figure of the folkloric woman reaches us today in the form of an emoji and a fridge magnet, as an obvious reflection of her impact on the collective imagination. A hallmark of a Spain that recognized itself in them, they were also the unavoidable appointment for any discerning foreigner passing through here. And if not, they went to the country in question to demonstrate their talent, and as one said, 'españolear por el mundo.' Backed by sharp lyricists and composers, they performed with passion songs that spoke of heartbreak, furtive relationships, incurable sorrows, unspeakable secrets, and various torments. They also delighted the audience with humorous songs that ironized on singleness, age, marriage, or women's freedom. In short, they gave voice and attitude to what many people thought, dreamed, or desired, and those women, many of humble origin and sometimes almost illiterate, proved to have the necessary talent for evocation, in the difficult art of being storytellers." – Valeria Vegas
