The legend of a unique flamenco club: from the painting 'La Pasionaria' to the Nobel Prize for flamenco diffusion, and the death that was not

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It may have sounded chauvinistic that the

, spoke of Madrid as the "world capital of flamenco" in an act to rescue tablaos after the pandemic.

But immigrants from Andalusia, Extremadura and La Mancha planted such deep roots in the region that it is only a matter of airing the land to find precious vestiges.

And in the southeast neighborhood of Palomeras, one of the genuine ones survives, firm and fresh like no other:

.

Bastión, now, in a corner of the Rafael Alberti shopping gallery, its thirty members are a species, miraculous today, from the days of abundant flamenco in Vallecas.

But they celebrate: 30 years already;

the singularity of programming flamenco every fortnight, something unique among his peers, and a pure temperament, that is, singing without a speaker or microphone.

olé

La Peña, which was born and had its headquarters for two decades in a PCE headquarters, no longer has that painting of

camouflaged in the flamenco altarpiece.

But his artistic essence persists.

"Microphones are not allowed here. It is one of the things that we have strictly adhered to from the beginning. Whoever goes on stage knows what they are exposed to. It is what defines us," says Paco Catalán, president for 14 years

the the only one who lived with the foundational peñistas, in the Pozo del Tío Raimundo.

He clarifies it without rigidity, since between the

;

the

, and his

they form a Board of Directors that is family, and is joy: they start to the beat without posing;

they have joke

Examples?

"They made me vice president to come and set the tables. All of these are retired, only I work here," says Mariano, "the boy," they call him;

guitar varnisher who landed here after being widowed, "in a screwed up situation", and saw "the light".

As happened to José Luis: "Here

me in . I was widowed and when I joined the club, he helped me get up. We want to attract young people, who already have a lot of gray hair."

Again, Mariano: "They are

, and encourages: "The original flamenco is the most important thing, but the door must be opened to the modern one".

"With Agapito I have had two, defending aspects of

", puts in Miguel, at the controls of social networks and the image. After an hour and a half of interview, turned into a quarter of a brain, leaves a chest in his melomania: "Look, I have seen Elton John 40 times and I Things that I saw in other times have arrived, but

.

If the tear does not fall, the performance was not good".

They agree in this forum, and the public that packs the premises on Fridays attests: Duende is something else.

"Let's see if you expand. It's always full," complained, and celebrates at the same time, a fan from the networks.

And so it is.

The recital by Jeromo Segura and Álvaro de Mora (guitarist), in Duende. JAVIER BARBANCHO

"In the clubs is where flamenco is really maintained as it was lived in ancient times in the patios of Jerez, in families...", explains its president.

"To appreciate it, you have to experience it up close, you have to listen to how it is here, your perspective changes."

That is to say, in semidarkness, with some sixty people, absorbed in the lamentation of the glittering cantaor or cantaora, usually accompanied by

in the house, both a few steps from the circle of red chairs.

"Here there are eight cantes that an artist does, two hours. The other day someone told me: 'Don't give in'. Because a fandango has nothing to do with a seguirilla, with a taranto... They even bring us cantes in disuse , beautiful".

Respect, devotion and ambition are maximum.

That not giving up on fashion, taking care of the genre, is the seal of authenticity of a rock that has chained two nominations in

for its dissemination work.

That Oscar, that Nobel, will arrive soon, for a way of being that imposes even on teachers.

Manuel

[The father, a saetero since he was 18 years old], when he won the Mining Lamp, he came, in 2003, we were in El Pozo, and he said: 'I have butterflies, because I have heard the fans singing in the bar next door, and let's see how does one deal with this'”. that the first Sundays of the month they occupy the patio of the gallery to extend the party; that they celebrate their guitar and compás classes every Monday and, every Thursday, their meeting of cabals, as well as dance with Gabriela Garza; that every year they visit

Cante from Minas de la Unión or who are invited by colleagues, such as the people from La Platería, the oldest club in Spain, over 70 years old.

Occupations of flamencologists, of course, with their tirades about purity, but also precious stones today, among mass music, well, as another singer, Juan Pinilla, praised them: «Paco, you are

a cultural environment for flamenco».

Since his gestation, in 1992, already big.

appeared in this conservatory

... And the last one:

, winner of the Mining Lamp 2022 She appears mentioned several times, her and others, during the conversation.

These people, long before the feminist

, already reserved cycles to make women visible.

The anvil that presides over the stage. JAVIER BARBANCHO

"We try to fight

for this art declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2010. That people give it a chance, so that it has more and more value. Unfortunately, it no longer exists," he laments. José Luis, the "poor treasurer who fights against the red numbers", jokes, because with the fees they only cover a quarter of the performances -the bar saves them-.

They never swam buoyant.

Paco remembers how the old Junta assaulted him with "there is no money for the artist, scratch your pocket, let's see how much you have", when he had been there for six months, back in 2003. But, even with narrowness, they forged a golden tradition in Vallecas, next to the

, the dean, or La Fragua, in San Fernando, also standing, or Los Cabales, in Entrevías, or Paco del Pozo, in Portazgo, in a city that saw the mythical Charlots go extinct, in which the the immortal

or Carmen Linares, or the Chaquetón, who walked Mercé or

(80-90) toiled.

La Duende began to be welcomed in a premises of the Communist Party of Spain, at the hands of the militant

and, today, a beloved symbol - he died in 2004 -.

He remembers the newspaper library of EL MUNDO that one day he went to the headquarters of this newspaper to present his project.

Also from then is the detail, legendary and true, that a portrait of Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria, presided over the premises, along with those of

... as, yes, the canons.

The wise

, who died in 2020 and a flamenco critic of this newspaper, recounted that visitors used to ask who the lady in the painting was, to whom, jokingly, they responded with pilgrim names.

"Its founders

, in an area ravaged by drugs, with problems.

They met in the bars, they liked flamenco and they wanted to do something more for the neighbourhood". This is how they took root in the humble and militant Vallecas, with the people of the PCE meeting in the dressing room, and with "an extraordinary flamenco atmosphere, from an emporium". They came from all over Madrid, the performances were broadcast on Tele K -the neighborhood chain- and, when Chaquetón closes its headquarters on Canarias street, they unite.

Pedro Ceballos, the first president of the club. CARLOS MIRALLES

"Ceballos marked the rock, it gives it boom. He only had a little problem, they said, that he would get on, present the artist and incidentally throw a rally. Although he had to do it with great grace", laughs Paco, who was already received by

, the other footprint president.

"You entered there under acronyms, but there was never an ideological problem, neither from the PCE nor from those who were not in politics."

Only once, with Paco already in front, he had to make a "putos coloraos" ugly from the audience.

in the whatsapp of the club

. If you let the brothers-in-law talk, they kill themselves."

With Izquierda Unida, "due to circumstances that sometimes occur in life", they ended up outside after 20 years in that original cradle, to make a pilgrimage to their sister in Los Cabales, to the Civic Center and, later, between restaurants - "we closed five, we were ashamed, but we are not jinxed," they clarify.

In fact, the obituary was even signed.

"I bring here the transfer and consequent death of the Peña Duende", was published in Jondoweb, back in 2014, linking "the announced death" to that of Johnny -the San Juan Evangelista Residence

, where Camarón gave his last recital.

"We were four, who left us to put the 'closed' sign on the outside."

But they endured, until they found the current headquarters, unused for 25 years.

"You have to have a lot of enthusiasm to move forward.

."

They weather without subsidies, despite their patrimonial work.

"Here the knowledge and that purity within the mix of flamenco is preserved", insists Miguel, "because he has become a disappeared person in the media spectrum".

It remains for television nostalgia, à la

, that continuous flamenco presence of

, Los Chichos... "Youth comes little, and that's what we have to try," claims Gerardo.

"It would be necessary to educate the ear of young people. It seems perfect to me that

and he covers himself by making the song for the ex", continues Miguel. "But the concept of culture will be lost", interjects the rest, again to the point. They are resistance from the last pure quejío from Madrid.

"Quejío: peak moment in the interpretation of cante, it seems that the cantaor is tearing his voice apart and you feel that cante hurts".

Goblin Rock.

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