American writer Estela Zatania has a new book in Spanish titled Flamencos de Gañanía (Ediciones Giralda, 2007), which focuses on the historical cortijos (Andalusian haciendas) of the lower Guadalquivir region. The book is an insider’s look at a formerly undocumented era of recent flamenco history which the author presents as an important stopover on the way to today’s globalized theatrical flamenco.
Estela Zatania, native New Yorker who moved to Spain in 1970, has spent a lifetime not only writing about flamenco, but performing it as well. Tourists who yearn to see “the real thing” instead of what is offered in dives that dot the Spanish coastline, will enjoy this privileged look into the most authentic of all flamenco settings from a time and ambience when the art was practiced, not for the marketplace, but as family tradition, during Spain’s postwar period.
The book contains 16 first-hand accounts by key individuals, survivors of an era that ended only 40 years ago, but which has never before been written about. There is also historical data, a study of the oral transmission of flamenco, verses and an extensive listing of the most relevant farm-haciendas where this activity took place, among other supplementary information.
Hardcover. 200 pages with 35 pages of black and white images. In Spanish.
Available from De Flamenco.
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
