Catalina Leon Benitez, Caty Leon To her friends and fans, she is a free, capable, and hardworking woman. A writer about flamencoShe is a tireless teacher, an expert in teaching methods, guidance, and pedagogy, as well as in her specialty, art. She is the author of short stories and two books of essays on the work of Jane Austen.
I interviewed him for a digital newspaper Cultural LightThere I was able to ask him my questions about his career not only in research and dissemination of flamenco.
A life and professional career that has been recognized with the medal of merit in education from the Junta de Andalucía, the appointment of Adopted Daughter of Triana or, recently, that of academician of the Royal Academy of San Romualdo of Sciences, Letters and Arts of San Fernando, city where she grew up, although she was born very close, in Chiclana.
I have to say that I consider her a master and my teacher in the teaching of flamencoDeep and evident is the love he feels for his hometown, the two cities mentioned, San Fernando and Chiclana, paradises by the sea, in the area of the Bay of Cádiz, whose memory and air have given his life and his passion for flamenco a deep sense, smell, air, color, and warmth.
She holds more surprises and, with her brief and precise verb, with her critical sense, she is also a blogger, in the best sense of the word. See his career path here and his contributions on art and flamenco and reflections, book recommendations, stories, etc.
In June of this year he just released his latest book, a new work about flamenco: News from flamenco in TrianaPublished by the prestigious Renaissance publishing house from Seville, founded by the tireless editor and quality poet Abelardo Linares placeholder imageThey've had the great idea of founding a specific collection of flamencoSomething we desperately need, as there are several, but some have disappeared or have little distribution reach. One of the most recent to emerge has been Hummingbird EditionsDirected by Manuel Ramos Ramos, to whom I must express my gratitude for the publication, in October of last year, of my book Poet flamencoHow to make letters for the cante, with a foreword by Jose Luis Rodriguez Ojeda, with whom I have been training since the eighties of the last century, along with Caty and others –Manuel Herrera Rodas, Ricardo Rodríguez Cosano…–, a group of teachers dedicated to the cause of teaching methodology flamencoAlthough they are now retired and some, sadly, have passed away. Caty is one of the pioneers, a master of this latter point; that's how I and many others feel, as the literature doesn't lie.
Renaissance has had a different kind of luck, having Antonio González to direct this collection. He was the founder and director of Signature Editionswhose collection of flamenco It was a generous offering, and although it might sound presumptuous to say so since they've published four of my books there, I say it because it's only fair: aside from my own, more modest works, the others are of high quality and have contributed greatly. I didn't know I was with Renacimiento now, and they invited me to contribute to the expanded, revised, and updated reissue of Didactics of flamencowhich is now also available under the new name Teach flamencoAn interdisciplinary vision of the literature of canteBoth books have prologues written by our author, no less. So Caty's book and mine have been published simultaneously, hand in hand, which for me is a real privilege, for all the reasons mentioned, because I consider her a master and my mentor, an unavoidable role model.
And now let's get down to business with News from flamenco in Triana, which, as the author says, is so, in Triana and not of Triana, since one of the theses she defends is that There was nothing in this famous Sevillian and universal neighborhood but a melting pot of canteAnd styles, a broad mosaic of diverse origins – from Jerez to Cuba – artists from various homelands.
The work is divided into a presentation of the author and several chapters: I. Geographical and historical context, II. The gaze of the romantics, III. Visions from within, IV. Flamenco in Triana, FlamencoTriana, V. Conclusions, plus the essential bibliography and a list of acknowledgments. 196 pages that bring us closer to the history and peculiarities of flamenco, watch out, in, in Triana.
In the presentation, he makes clear his "Trianerismo in his blood" and the non-encyclopedic and non-exhaustive, but rather informative, nature of the book, something evident.
In the chapter Geographic and historical contextwithout necessarily being data flamencoYes, but necessary, it leaves us with interesting notes and anecdotes, such as those relating to the Islamic origin of the neighborhood from the 12th century, its boom from the 16th century, the construction of the mythical boat bridge – safer than people think – or the construction, finally, of the Triana Bridge in 1852, which solved many problems.
The second, The Romantics' Perspective, alludes to a long list of romantic writers who left a stereotypical image, sometimes, he says, already disappeared, which created an insistence on a certain image of Andalusia and Seville linked to the marginal and the exotic, even when the city was already beginning to modernize, always in quotation marks.
I found it very interesting because, with Caty's expertise as a historian and art graduate, she makes it clear that not everything that glitters is gold and that, in addition to what has already been said, some people didn't talk about Triana, such as Alexandre Dumas, or they barely did, and when they did there were different approaches, from the merely descriptive and interested in the peculiar and, let's say, marginal, such as The bordersto the most critical, as Blanco White.
In the next one, Insights from withinHe summarizes the same thing, but from the perspective and experiences of Spanish writers, or at least those who have lived here for a long time. He finds, as before, that some speak little—like Núñez de Prado o José Carlos de Luna– either they don't do anything about Triana specifically, or they do it from a clearly romantic, idealized perspective.
Logically Estebanez Calderon and its Andalusian scenes, its Dance in TrianaThey are studied with the critical eye that characterizes the author, capable of seeing details or contradictions where others may not yet have noticed them. She makes it clear that it is a reference point for many researchers, but that it is more of a literary work than a historical one; it is not a study. flamenco Therefore, many details must be questioned. Certainly, many studies have already analyzed it, but the monograph stands out. Cantesy cantaores de Triana, Pepa Sánchez Garrido, Daughter of José Bernal Naranjito de Triana, whom we all admire, and of course Caty León, who considers him a total role model of cante of Triana in recent times, after the ancient ones, already, Silverio, Chacón and Pastora, or the esteemed Pepe de la Matrona.
This flamenco singer is specifically cited as a fundamental link from the old to the modern –20th century– in chapter four, Flamenco in Triana, Flamencos of TrianaHere he insists on something that may shock more than one person: that there were no cafés cantantes, salons, or academies in Triana in the 19th century, and that cafés cantantes, on the other side of the river and in the rest of Spain, did not end with the flamenco, the work and grace of professionals, who are the ones who create and develop it.
Here we see the video of cante through tangos by Naranjito de Triana, with Manolo Franco, in 1989, in Canal Andalucía Flamenco, YouTube:
He laments that this neglect continues today in Triana, where, he says, there is no peña flamenca "nor a public tasting place of the flamenco in the neighborhood” –p. 151–. Don’t tell me that doesn’t catch your attention. Likewise, that Triana is a melting pot of cantes. There is a long list of artists –p. 149–, some very well known, such as Pepe de la Matrona, Curro Fernandez o The TitSome less so, and, since I like nicknames and have written some articles about them, these are some of the most interesting in the flamencoAs you know: Frasco the Redhead, The Malino, The Deaf One, Manolo the Donkey Man, Bread Swallower, The Posture Chicken, The Finita, The Tomb, Antonio the Sandman, The Spotted One...
To his teacher and great friend Luis Caballero She takes him as a reference point for Triana knowledge, without ceasing, like a good student, to question or refute some of his ideas, and those of others, such as the idea that in Triana, more than professionals, there were, says Caballero, "rituals" flamenco"hidden things" –p. 149–, something that is almost frightening if it is not properly understood, as his other teacher and friend, Angel VelaHe is also cited as a scholar of flamenco in Triana, as well as others like Manuel Cerrejón, Manuel Barrios or a historian of the struggles of the Andalusian peasantry, Antonio Miguel Bernalwhich makes it clear that the gypsies did not form an agrarian proletariat.
Nor does the work go unanalyzed World and forms of the cante flamenco, Antonio Mairena and the poet Ricardo MolinaOf course, something the author has already done in excellent articles and I myself in several books, especially in the reissue of this one in Giralda EditionsThis facsimile edition includes a lengthy introduction by me, presenting arguments for and against this work, which has been so hotly debated for years. In the bibliography, the author cites the 1979 edition, even though there are other, more recent editions, such as the one mentioned, where I cite it, as I say, for its contribution to the discussion. But the book she has published deals with Triana, not the... flamenco in general.
Let's see the cante by Antonio Mairena in the style of seguiriyas from Triana, with the guitar of Melchor de Marchena and cheerleaders, none other than Tomás Torre, Rosalía de Triana and Juan Talega, 1966, YouTube:
Let's keep going.
In the ConclusionsThe somewhat lengthy sections, pp. 157-184, though divided into several subchapters, reiterate the book's purpose and focus, as well as the main ideas presented. One of these is that the flamenco It is always avant-garde, in reflections that intertwine those about art in general, painting, music, the flamenco, as the author knows how to do.
It concludes with the basic bibliography and a list of acknowledgments.
In short, I think it's an easy and enjoyable read, thanks to its accessible style. It's very well written, which isn't always the case with every author. The historical context, while necessary, is a bit long for my taste and provides interesting details. The author skillfully blends research, the work of other authors, and his own opinions, regardless of who they may be directed against, living or deceased, friend or foe.
Another strength is his critical thinking – he laments the current state of the neighborhood, as well as the lack of importance sometimes given to art in Spain – and, without a doubt, I loved some of the anecdotes, even personal ones, like the one about his grandparents, one a snail seller, the other more of Pastora, which liven up and give humanity to the story of what Triana has meant.
I miss, undoubtedly due to my interest in flamenco lyrics—as a Literature professor and researcher—the inclusion in the work, either throughout, which would have been easy to do, or in a brief concluding anthology, of more lyrics alluding to Triana, or to styles known as Triana songs, or by artists from the area. That said, the first thing we see is the prologue—p. 9—with six excellent lyrics, such as these two (in the first, she chooses the variant that, due to Francoist censorship, replaced "little Republican flags" with "little Gypsy flags") with which I bid farewell to this book and to my friend and mentor, whom I don't mind saying a thousand times, congratulating her, as well as the publisher, on this well-written, well-compiled, and carefully produced edition:
Triana is so beautiful
when they put it on the bridge
the gypsy flags.
The four little points
that sustains Triana:
San Jacinto and Los Remedios,
The O and Señá Santa Ana.
→ News from flamenco in Triana, by Caty León. Renacimiento Publishing House, 2026.
