At twenty-two, José Luis Ortiz Nuevo organized La Porra de Archidona, a flamenco festival in his hometown. Held annually throughout the first half of the 1970s, it brought top-of-the-line flamenco artists such as Pepe de la Matrona, Enrique Morente, and Manuel Gerena, along with leading literary figures like Félix Grande, to grace the stages of a then little-known town in the mountains of Málaga.
In 1980, while serving as Councilor for Culture in Seville, Ortiz Nuevo founded the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla, which would eventually eclipse all other festivals in both its international reach and the quality and variety of its programming. Eight years later, in 1988, he cemented his vision of the Bienal as a stage for flamenco’s avant-garde, illuminating the multidimensional dialogue this art form has always maintained with other creative disciplines. That vision was captured perfectly in the festival’s poster that year, designed by none other than Rafael Alberti.
Fast-forward to 2025: Ortiz Nuevo remains one of flamenco’s most prolific champions of innovation. His ideas don’t come from endless hours of doomscrolling on Instagram, but from thousands of hours spent researching in archives. These ideas take shape in numerous publications—Alegato contra la pureza, ¿Se sabe algo?, El libro de Morente 1, La rabia del placer, Tremendo asombro, among others—as well as in the festivals he continues to imagine and direct, most notably the Cabildo Flamenco.
"The nineteenth-century folklorist from Archidona, Don Emilio Lafuente y Alcántara, compiled a folk songbook that had never received the attention it truly deserves. All that will change over four days in November. Thanks to the support of the distinguished City Council of Archidona some of the most outstanding flamenco artists, along with distinguished scholars"
This eighth edition of the Cabildo Flamenco is no exception. As Ortiz Nuevo put it recently at a press conference: «Everything revolves around Don Emilio Lafuente y Alcántara [and his folk songbook], from the modernity of flamenco, from the honesty of flamenco, and from the antiquity of flamenco».
The nineteenth-century folklorist from Archidona, Don Emilio Lafuente y Alcántara, compiled a folk songbook that—despite its immense historical value—had never received the attention it truly deserves. All that will change over four days in November 2025. Thanks to the support of the distinguished City Council of Archidona—together with other sponsors—some of the most outstanding flamenco artists, along with distinguished scholars, will turn the Málaga town of Archidona into a cultural constellation where the old and the new, the refined and the popular, come together in the name of flamenco and in honor of two universal Archidonians: Emilio Lafuente and José Luis Ortiz Nuevo.
