I return from Ceuta to Algeciras and cross the Strait of Gibraltar to return home after following the route to Jerez de la Frontera. On the ferry, my memory, stored with memories, takes me back to Francisco Vallecillo Pecino, here in the Flamenco Gathering of Ceuta pays tribute to him through the IV Autumn Cycle, days that bear the name of such an illustrious flamenco and that we have had the honor of inaugurating evoking the farewell of Pepe Montes through his daughter Esperanza Montes, bathed in tears singing the tanguillos of Cádiz Chano Lobato, and as a prelude to the recital of Dolores Agujetas.
Dolores' presence in the entity she presides over Jesus Gutierrez It takes us back to the problems of the flamenco woman at the center of the historical controversy, but also to the desire not to die in the attempt to place the cante of woman at the root of the cry.
When Dolores took possession of the stage escorted by Domingo Rubichi'sA guitarist with a warm expression and convincing pulse, he immediately emerges in tientos-tangos with a vision focused both on the color of his melodic line and on the family model he imitates from Jerez to Triana, that is, his father Manuel Agujetas.
It is when I go back to a time in the past, when Vallecillo and I, the undersigned, were talking about Dolores's paternal grandfather, the wise man Old Man Sore Muscles, whom I met in Écija, at the house of Curro Torres.
The dawn of the seventies of the last century was passing, and after hearing it on countless occasions, I now confirm that, as heir to the cantes of Manuel Torre, Carapiera, Diego the Marrurro y Uncle Jose de Paula, was a very good luminary to radiate with the lamp of its cantes the contributions of subsequent family generations.
The recital continues with soleá, gloriously framing the variations of Frijones and Juan Ramírez that her grandfather Agujetas el Viejo left us, but where Dolores cannot deny that she is a native of the Jerez neighborhood of La Plazuela and daughter of Manuel Agujetas, with whom I have a photo from when I was 13 years old and who asked me months before dying to write his memoirs, so she is the heir of the singer who bled himself to death giving the melodies a hard time.
But to understand its roots and its history, to know its concept of cante, also appears as usufructuary of Diego Rubichi, singer of singers, without forgetting, therefore, that she is also the great-granddaughter of the sister of José El Chalao, hence its link with the Chickpea and Mijita.
«Dolores Agujetas, a voice from the rosebush cante A gypsy who, in the interest of pushing his vocal capacity to the limit, places himself firmly in the roots of his ancestors, especially in his paternal roots. And if this is so, it is because the purpose of his story is to ignite the melodies as he embodies them in his throat, and when he seeks the bonfire to burn himself in it, it is not to incinerate himself, but to return to the source from which he drank so much.
Ancestry, therefore, shapes Dolores's identity and personal development. She advances through Manuel Torre's taranto, and Ceuta fans are convinced that we are witnessing the axiomatic model of Gypsy primitivism, which she always placed us in, even in the valley of shudders.
Domingo Rubichi's guitar demonstrates his technical security in the accompaniment. Dolores, meanwhile, delights us with her plaintive and piercing expression from the fandangos of Cepero. It brings temperament to the seguiriyas, putting the emphasis on the somberness over the varieties of the Crazy Matthew, Uncle Jose de Paula y Farrabú, the great-uncle of Santiago Donday, marking the emphasis on the somber in the styles, which does not prevent it from giving the variants such an intense impetus that it does not cease until it extracts its most distinguished fruit.
It is then that the audience realizes how to recreate the naked frankness of the cantes inherited, with no other addition than one's own personality and, in the case at hand, the chiaroscuros of the voice.
Let us note in this regard that next November will mark 34 years since Dolores made her official presentation at the Peña Flamenca Garbanzo. It was in 1991, and ten years later he released Daughter of the goblin, his debut album, a sample of what he knows how to do, that is, the cante that runs in your genes.
And in Ceuta, after advancing by hammer of Juan the Bald with heartfelt dedication to my favorite José Luis Vargas Quirós, honorary president of the Society of the Cante Great of Algeciras, in which I felt it was somewhat forced, she closed her performance with bulerías, but with laconic and deep vocalizations, from which I conclude that what matters is to synthesize the proposal of the Jerez singer as the representation of the expressive ardor of the gypsy, the vehemence when throwing the thirds into the air, but also the ardor in the high tones.
Dolores Agujetas In conclusion, she has been the protagonist at the Tertulia Flamenca de Ceuta with the aim of placing women face to face with the mirror of history. The day, as we pointed out in the introduction, was the inauguration of the cycle that honors the memory of my great friend Francisco Vallecillo Pecino, who, from the high heavens, and as a great supporter of cante Gypsy, would be satisfied with the recital of a woman who, in order to find her own voice, shows herself linked to her family heritage.
We have therefore heard a voice from the rosebush of the cante A gypsy who, in the pursuit of pushing his vocal capacity to the limit, places himself firmly rooted in his ancestors, especially in his paternal roots. And if this is so, it's because the purpose of his story is to ignite the melodies as he embodies them in his throat. When he seeks the bonfire to burn himself in it, it's not to incinerate himself, but to return to the source from which he drank so much.
