El City of Seville has awarded the City Medal to the teachers Pepa Montes y Ricardo Minho, both for walking together raising the flag of the Sevillian school, as his biographer, my dear, titled it Angel Vela Nieto, as well as for being “two great ambassadors of flamenco on stages all over the world.”
The city of Seville has therefore been honored with a life brimming with art, the story of two illustrious Sevillians who continue to teach us valuable lessons, which contradicts those who, for their own self-interest, point the finger at the collective flamenco as if trapped in their daily routine, when they forget that every experience, however big or small, can offer a unique and impactful perspective that invites us to reflect on our cultural existence.
That is the importance of this distinction that the teachers received on Saturday, May 30, in a solemn ceremony held at the Fibes Conference and Exhibition Centre, where the gratitude of the Seville council was expressed to those who bring to the world stories that, starting from Las Cabezas de San Juan and Triana, respectively, bring the past to the present.
In Ricardo Miño's case, this award recognizes his artistic awareness and also the historical significance of his marriage to the great flamenco dancer Pepa Montes, which resulted in the birth of his son, the pianist. Pedro Ricardo Minho, in addition to his compositional freedom and the definitive establishment of a life dedicated to art.
It is rare to find, in this sense, an instrumentalist who has dedicated his entire career to categorizing the guitar from the facets of the concert, the cante and dance. And within that singularity lies the recipient of the Medal of Seville, Maestro Ricardo Miño, son of Peter Richard y Carmen, perhaps the most Triana of all the Triana people, and born on October 19, 1949 in a tenement house in the Cava de los Gitanos, in the Corral del Sombrero, located on Pagés del Corro street, 69-71.
It was in July 1974 that our archives found him advertised alongside Pepa Montes at the IX Caracolá de Lebrija, a week before attending the tribute in Huelva to Manolo from Huelva and two and a half months before becoming godfather at his sister's wedding Maty at the Salesians of the Trinity.
The following year he won the Musical Fortnight Prize in Paris for best solo guitar performance, and after participating in the Grand Art Gala Flamenco by Matilde Coral and Rafael el NegroHeld in the XX Seville International FestivalIt so happened that Ricardo was performing as a concert pianist with Curro Velez e Isabel Romero Isabel was a leading figure in dance, but she couldn't answer the call, and it was Ricardo who recommended Pepa Montes, who worked at the The Gallos tablaoThey weren't dating yet, but since then, with a few exceptions due to tours, they have been inseparable, to the glory of art. flamenco.
Pepa and Ricardo were married in the Triana church of Santa Ana on March 7, 1976, and that day they signed their best contract. Image and sound more intertwined than a tear. They honeymooned in Morocco, while in Spain they headlined summer festivals, recitals, cultural weeks, tours of Europe and Japan, and even recorded albums.
"Perhaps that is the secret of why they make such a harmonious couple, because if dance is the poetry of silence, the guitar is like the word for the ear, that wood, in short, that guides the trunk of an art that from today belongs to the intimate medal collection of the demanding and privileged city of Seville"
The work of this artistic duo is inexhaustible. Their uniqueness is evident in their television work, in productions featuring their own creations, narrated with clarity and eloquence, ultimately symbolizing the triumph of dignity over the hope of completing the circle of the Sevillian school.
Ricardo Miño, for his part, is about overcoming obstacles that seemed insurmountable and that he overcame, until he achieved success, with inspiring personal stories that show us that, even in the most arduous moments, individual ability and determination can lead us towards the light.
I'm referring to the light of their memories, the light that dispels the darkness of their past experiences in order to build a future where all their contemporaries had the same opportunities. They had to cut their teeth—if you'll excuse the metaphor—in all kinds of situations; keep a watchful eye on their mentors; and strive for the highest ranks of the elite. flamenco beyond our borders; to forge their glory in the festivals of the dog days without losing sight of the stature of their mentors, and to immortalize their name in stone, both with the compositions and from the artistic direction in the monumental column of the Golden Age of flamenco.
And alongside this surprisingly modern guitar expert, recognition is also given to Pepa Montes (Las Cabezas de San Juan, 1954), who has evolved the Sevillian school to its highest peak, but also conferring upon that distinction the name of someone who evolved from the search for beauty and pleasure to reflection, towards inner truth.
Eternal Seville is its unifying, integrating element, which is why its high school tradition remains relevant, but with a new way of imagining it through the most varied stagings. In its dance there is, on the one hand, committed, existentialist poetry, capable of erupting into a dramatic sensibility that resonates with everyone. And on the other hand, aesthetic sovereignty, since, by virtue of its paradigmatic status, its bodily language displays modes and forms with the intention of unifying the impossible.
The dance of teacher Pepa Montes is, therefore, that of an inventor who invents herself, one that brings forth the extraordinary: disconcerting gestures; feet that hint at the dialectical keys of a pleasurable language; arms that, due to their impression, deserve to be museum pieces, and movements whose folds pinch us until we encourage us to applaud her without ceasing.
That is Pepa Montes, the flamenco dancer capable of shaking the very foundations of any theater in the world. And when she takes the stage, a single dance, any dance, is enough to demonstrate that her art is a high art form of feminine sensuality, a formula that combines rigor and freedom, consistency and the unexpected, a touch of imagination and a vision of boundless beauty. It is, in short, art raised to its highest form, a way of imagining movement in solitude and representing it through the language of fantasy.
Congratulations, then, to Pepa Montes and Ricardo Miño, and our congratulations to the Seville City Council, which has understood that while the man from Triana dances with the strings of the guitar, the woman from Cabeza paints with her body language the life that music holds.
Perhaps that is the secret of why they make such a harmonious pair, for if dance is the poetry of silence, the guitar is like the word for the ear, that wood, ultimately, that guides the trunk of an art that from today belongs to the intimate collection of medals of the demanding and privileged city of Seville. ♦
