ABSTRACT
Flamenco has been a hotly contested cultural phenomenon in Spain for the past fifty years. Scholars, flamencologists, aficionados and performers have strongly defended various interpretations of flamenco’s origins, as well as who can be said to “own” or claim flamenco. Why has the ownership of flamenco been fought over by its various factions of aficionados and scholars in recent years? What has been at stake for those who either embraced or rejected flamenco in its one hundred and fifty year history? What is involved in the “ownership” of flamenco and what ideological stances do these contested theories of origins reflect? Furthermore, what does this discourse (as well as the related discourse of authenticity) reveal about issues of identity construction in flamenco? This chapter attempts to wrestle with some of these questions. I look at flamenco’s contested origins and at its evolution from marginalized, low-class entertainment to its elevation to the status of art. I examine the process by which flamenco became Spain’s national symbol and one of her biggest cultural exports. In this chapter I will illustrate some of the complexities of what flamenco has represented in the past, and those elements from the past which continue to define and shape flamenco in the present. I investigate the role of women in these transformations; at times their passive role as it has been shaped and articulated by the dominant cultural values, and at other times their very active participation in shaping their own role within flamenco.
