Argentina, flamenco cantaora. Interview

“I wouldn’t like to go out on stage and hear people say I’m the spitting image of another cantaora”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, July 2006

Neither ‘La’ in front, nor a nickname, nor baile. Just Argentina, her first name. And she sings. Though she’s from Huelva, she upholds that she is a complete cantaora. She has thus been taught at a school by maestros such as Paco Taranto, José de la Tomasa and Esperanza Fernández. Like fellow classmate Sonia Miranda, she has already captured her knowledge on an album with her same name and produced by a Jerez-born guitarist, José Quevedo ‘Bolita’. There is a Jerez flavor on this début album recorded at La Bodega studio with the company of three personal guitarists: Manuel Parrilla, Juan Diego and Diego del Morao. With this letter of introduction which she is already presenting live, she still wants to go on studying and “seeking my personality”.

Argentina (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Where does Argentina get flamenco from?

I started dancing when I was a little girl and one of the teachers I had used to sing Huelva fandangos. I used to get home and sing, but I never imagined I could get this far. Later on, a friend of mine who was learning to play the guitar told me her instructor was teaching her how to sing fandangos. “I want to, too”, I told her. Her teacher listened to me and told me to come with them. We formed a children’s group, Niños de Huelva, and we recorded an album with Christmas carols and two with fandangos. Five girls were pulled out of that group and we were called Cané. We made two albums, but they weren’t very successful either. My mother and my grandmother used to like singing, but they didn’t orient me at all; they never showed me what they knew. My mother could have dedicated herself to it, but the situation at that time... everything was a bit chauvinistic. And now she tells me what a granaína is, when I’ve had to go out and fend for myself. How lucky some people are who have someone in the family dedicated to this.

Arcángel says that the cantaores from Huelva are pigeonholed in the fandango. How did you decide to look for other ways in cante?

Me and my classmates were the same. Fandangos. Fandangos. Fandangos. But little by little, they started to teach us bulerías one day, alegrías another day, another, colombianas, tangos... Very little, very little. I did it as best I could. Back then I only used to go to fandangos contests. Since I didn’t know other cantes, I never left Huelva. I used to get shows at peñas and people would be surprised that as I was from Huelva, I’d sing por seguiriyas or por bulerías. Arcángel is right; we’re pigeonholed.

Next, you went to Seville to study cante at the Cristina Heeren Foundation. How do you size up the experience?

Yeah, I was recommended to enter the contest, since I could study there and have a good base. I signed up, they gave me a scholarship and I’ve been there till now. I had to quit the third quarter because I was tied up with the album.

Just like Sonia Miranda, you prove that cante can be learned, don’t you?

There’s a controversy at the foundation about that... Pepa Sánchez, the course coordinator, yells at us because she thinks we’re really lucky. We have all the records to study at our fingertips, while cantaores in the past like her father - Naranjito de Triana – had to fend for themselves and listen to what they could. We have it as an obligation and when you have it as art, it’s appreciated more. And yes, cante can be learned. Once I was introduced to Niño Josele and he asked us what we did. And when we told him we were cantaoras and that we were studying at the Cristina Heeren Foundation he asked us: “Ah, but is flamenco studied?”. And he just said that and left. I was amazed.

Argentina

What teachers have you had and what mark have they left on you?

Esperanza Fernández, José de la Tomasa, Paco Taranto... I’ve learned things with José de la Tomasa which aren’t on the records. He’s given me a lot of advice, he’s taught me to know how to breathe at places in order to have a fandango or a soleá effect. I’ve learned a bit of everything with him; how to sing por soleá, por seguiriyas, soleá por bulerías, levante... He used to look at me and ask me, do you like it? And I’d say yes, but he didn’t agree. And the thing is I didn’t understand him. But now I love, for example, a murciana. I was barely with Paco Taranto for a month, but I got the best out of him. The first cante I learned was a bambera of his which people have been surprised by every time I’ve done it. And of course, he also taught me the Triana soleá. Well, just the alfarera; I missed out on the apolá. We’ll see if next year I can pick up something more.

Because you intend to go on studying...

	"I intend to go on studying. I still have a lot to learn"

Oh yeah. I still have a lot to learn. You learn too much there and there are things I still don’t know. I know cante por peteneras, but I’m not able to sing it up on stage because I’m not sure of it. And being there is also a way to rehearse, to have your voice tuned up, singing for three hours every day. It’s been really good for me. If I had two peñas to go to on the weekend, I warmed up a little and I worked like clockwork.

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