Those films included La Hija de Juan Simón in 1935, María de la O in 1936, Seda, Sangre y Sol in 1942, Sueños de Gloria and Knickerbocker Holiday in 1944, See My Lawyer in 1945, and Los Tarantos in the early '60s. Amaya returned to Spain in 1947, and by that time, the Spanish Civil War was over the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, aka El Generalíssimo, was firmly in place and would remain until his death in 1975.ĭuring her lifetime, Amaya appeared in quite a few films - some in Spain, some in Mexico, and some in Hollywood. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt invited her to perform in the White House Amaya also performed for British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the '40s. Amaya became such an international celebrity that in 1944, U.S. During her 11-year absence from Spain, Amaya traveled all over the world and danced in New York City, Paris, and Lisbon, Portugal and performed in a long list of Spanish-speaking countries that included Cuba, Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile. Amaya was 22 when the Spanish Civil War started in 1936, and she left Spain to get away from that conflict. Escudero el Gato's dance moves had a major impact on Amaya, who became a celebrity all over Spain when she was in her teens, and became even more famous in her twenties.
Bar de Manquet was where Amaya met Escudero el Gato (Escudero the Cat), a famous gypsy dancer from Madrid who was the brother of flamenco guitarist El Pelao Viejo. And she also learned a lot about flamenco at Bar de Manquet, a working-class flamenco hangout where she was first hired to dance in 1924 at the age of ten. Although Amaya had no formal training as a dancer, she learned a lot about flamenco from her family, including her father, a flamenco guitarist named El Chino, and her aunt, La Faraona.
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Amaya was born into a family of gypsies in Barcelona on Novemand grew up in the Somorrostro section of the city, which was considered a poor slum back then, but is now full of pricey beachfront real estate. The Barcelona native was famous for her singing, but she was even more famous for her dancing - and long after her death, Amaya's dance moves have continued to influence young Spaniards who study flamenco dancing. The book Queen of the Gypsies, which is 402 pages long, is available from Sevilla PressSan Diego, California you will find a number of other interesting publications by Paco Sevilla on that website as well.Spanish dancer/singer Carmen Amaya went down in history as one of the greatest and most influential flamenco performers of the 20th century.
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As she said on one occasion, “I don’t know how to go through the world alone, and if I don’t go with my people, I get nothing out of life.”… swelling the “company” to include her grandfather, Juan Amaya Jiménez, at one time a great dancer but now little more than the object of Carmen’s tender affection, her father, José el Chino,…her diabetic mother, Micaela (Carmen took on the responsibility of daily insulin injections), her sisters, Antonia and Leonor, and other assorted relatives.’ He writes ‘But Carmen couldn’t go without her family.
We can follow her on her world tours and watch her dock in Buenos Aires in 1936, welcomed by a wall of ‘ paparazzi‘.Ĭarmen Amaya ‘s fame was such that she toured the world performing, however, as Paco Sevilla explains, she was very much a ‘family’ person. Using many sources, such as interviews of flamenco artists speaking of their experiences with Carmen Amaya, we feel as though we are so close to her, we could almost touch her. The book also gives insight into the innovations in existing flamenco styles during her time and the introduction of new styles into flamenco. Paco Sevilla’s book, entitled Queen of the Gypsies – The Life and Legend of Carmen Amaya: Flamenco in the Theater Age: 1910–1960, is exemplary in the level of detail and background which he has uncovered, not only about Carmen Amaya but also about the many flamenco artists of her time, such as the flamenco guitarists Ramón Montoya and of Sabicas who worked with her for many years, flamenco dancers La Argentina, Vicente Escudero and Antonio, and flamenco singers such as Antonio Chacón and Niña de los Peines.
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