JEREZ AND FLAMENCO

Oh, gypsy town!

Once seen and never to be forgotten

Town of pain and musk,

with cinnamon towers.

Water and shade, shade and water

running through Jerez de la Frontera.

(Federico Garcia Lorca)

Jerez is home to a large gipsy settlement, one which over the years has generated the richest and deepest wealth of gipsy song: from Tío Luis el de la Juliana, far back towards the end of the 18 th century, right to the present day. Flamenco is alive in Jerez and has been passed down through several flamenco family lineages: Los Junqueras, los Charamuscos, los Chicharrones, los Paulas, los Vargas, los Valencias, los Sotos, los Zambos, los Carrascos, los Moneos, los Carpios, los Agujetas, los Marrurros, los Moraos, los Monjes, los Fernández, los Antúnez, los Cepero, los Gálvez, los Méndez, and so many more families which have given birth to artists such as Juan Mojama, Manuel Torre, Fernando Terremoto, Tío Borrico, Tía Anica, La Paquera, Sordera, Agujetas, Manuel Morao, Parrilla de Jerez, Manuel Moneo and, more recently, José Mercé, Antonio el Pipa or Moraíto, amongst so many others.

It is thanks to this living tradition that Jerez has discovered a central sign of its own identity, and the Flamenco City will continue to support, enrich and promote flamenco throughout the world, an on-going tradition which in the words of Félix Grande is "one of the most beautiful types of music on earth, one of the most replete with consolation and grief to ever have been invented by the genius, pain and memory of man. A voice which tells us of the sorrow and arrogance of a marginalization which has ended up converting itself into an authentic work of art".