Carmen Amaya

[7] In 2023, the researcher Montse Madridejos published an academic article in the journal Sinfonía Virtual in which she underscores and gives more weight to 1918 as the possible year of birth of Carmen Amaya.

[8] Amaya entered the flamenco world accompanied by her father, an impoverished Calé Romani guitarist who made a living by playing in pubs day and night.

The first time she appeared in print was in 1931 thanks to Sebastià Gasch, an art critic who saw her and wrote an article in the weekly newspaper Mirador [ca].

Promptly, the viewer feels subjugated, upset, dominated by the face of La Capitana, by her fierce hip movements, by the bravery of her pirouettes and the force of her broken turns, whose animal ardor ran parallel with the astonishing accuracy with which she executed them.

The raging battery of her heels and the unsteady play of her arms now aroused, excited, then collapsing, surrendered, abandoned, dead, gently moved by the shoulders, are still recorded in our memories like indelible plaques.

what caused us to look at her dance was her nerve, which twisted her in dramatic contortions, her blood, her violence, her wild impetuosity as a caste dancer.

On 18 July 1936, when the coup in Spain took place, Carmen and her team were in the Zorrilla Theatre in Valladolid, working for Carcellé's company.

[10] In 1936, when the Spanish Civil War had just begun, Carmen Amaya and her troupe were on tour in Valladolid with Luisita Esteso's show.

From there they sailed for Buenos Aires on the ship Monte Pascoal, which took fifteen days to cross the Atlantic and arrive at Brazil and Uruguay.

She made films in Buenos Aires with Miguel de Molina and won the admiration of musicians Arturo Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski, who publicly praised her.

A good example of the enormous popularity that the artist achieved in this South American country is the construction of a theater that bears her name: el Teatro Amaya.

She went several times to Hollywood to film some movies and the most important personalities of cinema, music or culture wanted to see her dance.

It was reported that after seeing her, Roosevelt gave her a bowling jacket with brilliants and invited her to dance at the White House.

She returned to Europe where she performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and later in London, where she got to meet the Queen of the United Kingdom.

She continued her work in Madrid, Paris, London, and different cities in Germany, Italy, and the rest of Europe.

In 1951, she married guitarist Juan Antonio Agüero,[15] a member of her troupe, coming from a distinguished family from Santander, who was not a gypsy.

In 1959, Carmen experienced one of the most exciting moments of her life, when the inauguration ceremony of a fountain bearing her name was held.

In subsequent years she continued her work in northern Europe, France, Spain, the United States, Mexico and South America.

At the end her illness, a kind of renal impairment that impeded her properly eliminating the toxins that her body accumulated, prevented her from continuing in Gandía.

"[16] Carmen Amaya died of kidney disease in Begur, Girona, Catalonia, northeast Spain, in 1963 and is buried at the Cemetery of Ciriego in Santander.

In Madrid in the "Tablao" Los Califas, she was honored by a tribute performance in which many artists participated, including Lucero Tena, Mariquilla, and Felix de Utrera.

Amaya died in Bagur, where she spent her last days, her remains rest in the crypt of her husband's family, in Santander.

Three years after her death in 1966, the statues of her were erected in the Parque de Montjuic in Barcelona, and in Buenos Aires, while in Madrid, in Tablao Los Califas, a tribute, led by Lucero Tena, among other artists, took place.

A selected transcription of these comments by Vicente Marrero, reads: Carmen Amaya can see the amazing conviction that sometimes tends to dance.

Brunette, with a tragic and remote idol face, Asian cheekbones, with long eyes full of omens, twisted arms.

Brunette, with a tragic and remote idol face, Asian cheekbones, with long eyes full of omens, twisted arms.

1942 newspaper advertisement
Posthumous monument erected in honor of Carmen Amaya. Located in Begur, Spain .