The Castellón region has been very notable in the field of guitar playing, as this year it celebrates the 160th anniversary of the birth of Miguel Borrull CastellóAn important guitarist, whose death centenary is also being commemorated in Barcelona. But let us note that it is also the origin of flamenco singers such as Juan Varea, from Burriana; The Pono, from Vila-Real, or the Child of the Dawn, from Almanzora, not forgetting that it welcomed within its walls the farewell of the woman from Jerez Rita the Cantaora and the malagueña Lola Cabello, sister of The Trinitarian.
That's why it's striking that the reality that fills the soul in Peñíscola Let the dance be thanks to the educator Águeda Fibla, who, with the support of his daughter, Rocío CuencaSelect techniques and choreographies, motivate learning with active methodologies that encourage participation – note the names of Andrea Anguera, Alejandro Cabrera or Sara Benet in the Plaza de Armas of the Papa Luna Castle—and with the indispensable pillar of Lidia María Herrero, the local council's Culture delegate, transmits theoretical and practical knowledge about styles and their accessories.
We have been able to observe in the Water House the photo gallery of Martín Vallón, very interesting for its way of seeing the flamenco from black and white, and an exhibition about the Manila shawl at the Water House, which has had an impact on training, given that it is one of the most unique garments in the dance flamenco which, in its origins from the 16th century, came from the commercial port of China and arrived in Spain from Manila –hence its name–, where the fringes were added and country in which it reached its splendor.
The origin is of interest, focusing on its main advocate. Don Álvaro Manrique de Zúñiga (Salamanca, 1532 – Seville, 1604), Marquis of Villamanrique and Viceroy of Mexico, who ensured that the shawl became a symbol of elegance, and, in time, the most emblematic of Sevillian women, specifically of the cigar makers of the Royal Tobacco Factory during the 18th and 19th centuries.
It would be later when the flamenco It is adopted as a personal accessory, hence the incalculable value of an original Manila shawl, made between 1860 and 1930, since they are made of natural silk and their embroidery is done by hand, with the particularity that the highest quality ones were embroidered by men in Canton, a city in southern China.
In Peñíscola, it has been of interest to reflect that with the birth of the Sevilla's fairIn April 1847, the Manila shawl was associated with clothing, but it became established between 1870 and 1909, when gypsy women appeared dressed in a wide-legged skirt with ruffles, and bourgeois women attended the fair wearing Manila shawls, two habits that came together resulting in the current flamenco dress.
However, my theory is that it would be the Ibero-American Exposition of Seville, from 1929, which marks a turning point, as the percale dress gives way to the dress made of organza fabric (very fine and smooth silk), organdy (very fine and transparent cotton fabric) and batiste (fine linen fabric), and is complemented with the hair comb, the mantilla, the flowers and the Manila shawl.
"My theory is that it was the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville in 1929 that marked a turning point, as the percale dress gave way to the dress made of organza, organdy and batiste fabric, and was complemented with the hair comb, the mantilla, the flowers and the Manila shawl."
Depending on the fashion or tastes of the time, the Manila shawl evolved, which forces us to remember The Pardales, the first to set up a workshop to dress Sevillian women and artists of the time in flamenco attire, such as Pastora Empire o little star castro, among others.
But, to be honest, it was Lina The one who in 1963 introduced a completely different model from her sewing workshop in a tenement house on Salado Street, in Los Remedios, the street where the famous Tablao El Guajiro, the pioneer of all flamenco venues in Spain, inaugurated in 1951.
This proximity, together with the great socio-economic change that occurred in Spain in the 1960s, spurred the creation of the firm Lina Sevilla, which marks the transformation of the flamenco dress, since it closes the armhole and incorporates the shawl, instead of attaching the fringes to the neckline, as was customary at the time.
Lina, with her husband Francisco MonteroThey opened a new store in 1979 on Lineros Street, but with the addition that they introduced the embroidery designs created by her husband, after the couple acquired a machine at a fair in the 80s that allowed embroidery with silk threads, and the firm evolved with the incorporation, already in this century, of their daughters Dew y Mila.
But we must state unequivocally that, since the last third of the 20th century, the main production center has been the Sevillian town of Villamanrique of the Countess with the artisan embroidery workshop of Angeles Espinar Diaz (Seville, 1931), run in this century by her daughters, who maintain the maternal practice and the so-called "pretty stitch", that is, when embroidering the petal of a flower, the entire stitch must go towards the center of the flower, not towards the side that is sometimes done.
Ángeles Espinar's daughter continues the tradition and – as she stated in 2015 – contributes her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts. Similarly, in Seville, at number 33 Sierpes Street, we find a leading establishment specializing in shawls and mantillas, a business that celebrated its centenary in 2023. This family business, now with the third generation at the helm, continues to thrive. Juan and José Foronda, grandchildren of the founder, is an international icon.
The shawls of Foronda are recognizable at first glance by their spectacular embroidery, which includes hand-embroidered silk shawls, circular shawls, machine-embroidered shawls with crepe, and even bridal shawls, not forgetting that they also stand out for the dance of their fringes.
→ To be continued
