For the world of flamenco, like any other, all kinds of characters swarm around. Some are just that, characters – for their contribution, from any angle, to the world of flamenco– and others, minor figures. Some are loyal and others disloyal. There are hard workers and others who take advantage. Just as there are those who add value and those who subtract. There are those who are calm and those who seek trouble, those who spread the word and those who make themselves known.
For José María Velázquez-Gaztelu, who is honored in the Cultural Week of Flamenco Activities in Paradas of 2026, is all of the first. And much more. Because he is a character who, through more than half a century attached to the flamencoHe has managed to create his own forms and ways: elegance, didacticism, aesthetics, and commitment. Because he is loyal to what he lived through, to a time that slipped through our fingers and remains intact in his memories and his recollections. Because José María is a hard worker beyond belief. If not, there we have the legacy we have. And it adds up. And this is fundamental. We have never heard a harsh criticism or a heated exchange from his lips. What he says, he says well, and after much thought and meditation. He is a responsible man and, “in the best sense of the word, good.” And calm, serene, bullfighting slowly, which is when the bulls throw you onto their backs. And teaching and showing, that the flamenco It comes first.
Since 1984, he has written, directed and presented the Radio Clásica RNE program Our Flamenco. It is also worth highlighting his poetic side, where clean and understandable lyrics appear, sensitive and not sentimental, with books of importance such as The ash (1967) Rites (1971) The limits of the desert (1998) o Journeys of Eternity (2016).
"His work, both lyrical and prose, exudes a sense of intellectuality amidst so much mediocrity. His is excellence. It's essentially 'doing things right, right away,' as The Divine Bald Man would say."
He was co-writer and presenter –as well as one of the fathers of the child– of the historic series, broadcast by Spanish Television between 1970 and 1973, Rite and geography of cante y Rite and geography of danceHow much do we owe to these series? How many artists have been rescued from oblivion and, thanks to them, have been left suspended in the air for anyone who wants to open their eyes?
His vision of universal Andalusian has passed through the German Brewery from Madrid, through the bars of the taverns of Santa María neighborhood from Cadiz, through the tabancos of Jerez and through the Vargas sale, where an angel with pythons drawn by hangs on one of its walls Picasso.
The oldest people in the area say that in Lower Andalusia there are remedies and spells for everything. The voice of the Cadiz master is one of them, to cure the body and bad thoughts, to calm the spirit and drink from the fountain of peace. jondo. That in his voice nests the past, the present and the future.
His work, both lyrical and prose, is an air of intellectuality among so much mediocrityHis is excellence. It's the equivalent of "doing things right and finishing them off," as El Divino Calvo would say. For almost a decade, he has been responsible for the flamenco pages of the weekly magazine. El Cultural.
El flamenco It's your world and your world is full of flamenco. Paraphrasing Hadrian del Valle with Fernando VillalonWe could say that José María is a “hero of harp and pen.” He recently presented his latest book, From overnight (Athenaica), where he reviews, in different voices, his more than half-century in the art world. A publication that, soon, will be essential for understanding an era, a time, of which the master Velázquez-Gaztelu has been an exceptional witness and protagonist.
