Peña Torre Macarena y lo puro cante

It´s taken me 2 days to find what I´ve been looking for. Courtesy of Pedro, I experienced Peña Torre Macarena last night. Pedro is the dad of a hot young guitarist, and the uncle of an equally hot young singer. I use my adjective in two ways: these two young men, who look to be about 19, are both guapo (attractive) and excellent musicians. Manuel was a comforting link between my culture and theirs; a Mexican who´s lived in Vancouver.

Peña Torre Macarena, as I learned at the end of the evening, is where Camaron and many others started, and was founded by Manuel Torres (an important flamenco cantaor, long dead now). According to Pedro it is the most respected peña in Sevilla, and he was determined to get Roberto and Jose an audience there, as he is attempting to set them on the path to becoming another Camaron and Paco de Lucia.

It´s taken me several days before I´ve had a glass of wine, and not one man has called me guapa yet or been pesado with me, despite them looking the macho part, with long pointy cowboy boots and earrings. After the peña, we all went to the Carboneria, a huge barn of a place, which lived up to its reputation as a touristy joint with tons of young people and many of them tourists. The main attraction for most here was the dancer, who was certainly good, but lacked something less tangible. The focus at the peña is on a bunch of old men singing, with a few young men and women thrown in. We had a leisurely paseo at 2 am from the Carboneria to the hostel, and Pedro and I discussed various canataors (singers). That was fun, as I don´t know many knowledgeable people with whom I can discuss my hobby - well, not the part of it that involves listening to the singing. Especially not one who claims to be friends with some renowned singers. This was a perfect language immersion, and I found him easy to understand.

My understanding of the cante is improving - I can get quite a bit of what they´re singing at times, depending on the singer and how much he blurs the words. Last night when we arrived at the peña, another young man sang Moraito como un lirio (purple/bruised like an iris), to which I know all the words, and often go down the street singing, so it was exciting to hear it live. It was amazing to me that there were such a number of excellent singers randomly gathered in a casual manner. That was of course until I found out that this was an important peña, so it was not really random. Manuel (who does post production for movies) was asked to film the chicos, but once we got there, they kept asking him to film more. They explained that they rarely are filmed, and this is a concern, as they feel their art is endangered. Recently, flamenco as a whole was declared an important cultural treasure in the world in general, and flamencos these days use the phrase ¨Patrimonio de la humanidad¨.