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In the world of flamenco, they don't talk about anything else.

The

arrest

of

Diego El Cigala

in a hotel in Madrid for

alleged gender violence

, following the complaint filed by

his partner, cantaora Kina Méndez,

who accuses him of alleged physical and psychological abuse that

continued for two years.

Dolores Ruiz Méndez was

born in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) in 1978, into a flamenco family on all four sides: that of her aunt, La Paquera de Jerez.

Both at home and artistically, everyone knows her as Kina Méndez.

An only daughter, she

studied at the College of Sisters

of the Company of Mary.

From a young age, she knew that she

wanted to be a cantaora,

something normal as she comes from a family in which almost all of its members sing and dance.

He began his professional career

in the 90s

singing at private parties, accompanying Manuel Moneo, El Torta and the bailaora María del Mar Moreno.

He sang for two years at the Los Gallos tablao, surely

the most prestigious in Seville,

and in the 2000s he was part of the Manuel Morao company, highlighting

his vocal qualities

and his live performances.

In 2006 he made his debut with Mario Maya's company, and also

toured the world with La Cuadra, led

by Salvador Távora.

After recording the Sevillian album

De Sevilla y Jerez

in 2009

, he

decided to take a radical turn in his life and

traveled to the United States,

where he was recording a flamenco por bulerías album.

He began recording in Jerez in 2015, at La Bodega studios, which he thought would be

his first major project,

an album entitled

Me nace del corazón

with influences from different musical cultures, and which he wanted to finish in the United States.

See this post on Instagram

There she went to work for a few weeks, time passed and

settled in Nevada City

(California), taking the opportunity to learn English, and where she found

her first husband, Gopal Slavonic,

a flamenco guitarist who had lived two years in Seville and during which he was trained at the Fundación Cristina Heeren school in Triana, also visiting cities such as Granada and Jerez often.

Both were part of the Flamenco del Oro company, a flamenco group that

performed in various places in California, such

as at the place called B44, where they offered their art every Thursday night at that time.

Kina and Gopal

were married there, in California,

in a wedding their family attended via Skype.

The marriage had no children,

the relationship ended

and Kina decided to return to her native Jerez.

She met Diego El Cigala, currently without marriage, and

with him she has had two children.

See this post on Instagram

People close to him say that Kina has gone on several occasions with El Cigala to

family celebrations

in Jerez, such as birthdays, and that they have also been seen together going to the supermarket.

The sources comment that they never saw anything out of the ordinary, because "if these things happen - in reference to possible mistreatment - they stay at home, and

outside, nothing is known."

And a detail added by these same sources: "Since Kina and El Cigala are a couple, I think she has not returned to work."

See this post on Instagram

Although he did want to sing in a special and emotional moment, such as

last Easter,

in the midst of a pandemic, when, spontaneously, in a private visit to the temple of Nuestra Señora de las Viñas (Jerez),

he started with an arrow

dedicated to the Holders of the Brotherhood of Exaltation.

Time - and justice - will tell.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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