Matilde Coral, flamenco bailaora and maestra. Interview

“I’m going to have to close my school”

Juan José Téllez. Seville, July 2006

“If she was awarded the Medal of Andalusia for preserving the Sevillian School of Baile, how are they going to let it be lost now?” protests flamencologist Manuel Herrera beside Matilde Coral. At her home in Seville on Pureza street, the lady in the bata de cola refuses to surrender before the possible closure of her famous school, for want of the official authorization and the 1,500 meters required by current legislation. At her side, her husband Rafael el Negro, their children and daughters-in-law provide dialectic ammunition, the same which has come to no avail so far before the Junta de Andalucía and Seville’s City Hall: “I’m going to have to close my school”. One of her children affirms that he’s seen her cry for an hour and a half every time she utters that phrase.

	Matilde Coral (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

For the last sixty years, the bailaora has condensed what Pastora Imperio called the Sevillian School of Baile and which she consolidated throughout her career: “I haven’t invented anything, I swear to God” – she humbly admits. “Everything was done. The only thing I’ve done is to find a number for it and put it in the story”.

When the law changed, it officially achieved the elementary level, given that before it was “superior” (higher): “The School, under the old law, was recognized as Superior. The new law came into effect and I’ve been fighting for this for eight years. The law requires a series of square meters that I don’t have. I just have prestige. I was given temporary authorization until we moved or managed to gather enough space. But who can get 1,500 meters in Triana without any aid? After two extensions, the permit has run out. I’ve had to finish the classes who were already studying at my house, without admitting anyone else. That’s what’s ruined me, because the faculty’s had to be maintained without enough pupils. From one hundred something, we’ve dropped to thirty or forty in the last two years. We could get by teaching sevillanas classes, but our school isn’t a regular neighborhood school; rather, we were authorized by the Junta de Andalucía to teach official courses. And what we’ve always tried to do is keep the Sevillian School of Baile alive”.

This week, the political parties Partido Popular, Izquierda Unida and Partido Andalucista have appealed to the Culture Council to seek a feasible alternative for Matilde Coral’s place to stay open and go on teaching her wise old trade. Matilde Coral doesn’t want to hear about favoritism. In her kingdom on Pureza street, artists have appeared of the likes of Isabel Bayón, Merche Esmeralda, María Pagés, Manuela Carrasco, Milagros Mengíbar, María Oliveros, Pepa Montes, Mistela, Luis Ortega...

Matilde Coral (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

During the previous municipal term of office, councilman Rafael Carmona promised Matilde Coral a place in the building which was to house the deputy mayor of Triana’s office, but Emilio Carrillo was clear when she and her daughter-in-law Alicia went to see him: “He told us we had no business there”. Now, the bailaora knows that Seville’s municipal delegate of Culture, Juan Carlos Marset, seems interested in finding a solution to her problem: “You, sir, have answered me – I’d like to say to you -, but I’ve been trying to get City Hall to give me an alternative since Mr. Monteseirín’s been in the legislature, who used to be a friend of mine and I can’t understand how that’s been forgotten afterwards. He hasn’t received us in all this time; we’ve called thousands of times and he never received us. Just silence as an answer. I spoke to Rosa Torres, in Málaga, to the Culture councilwoman. I went at her and I sort of let off steam. May it be as the Lord wishes, I told myself. When I get to Seville I’ll receive you, she told me. And that was it. I’ve called and nothing’s come of it”.

“Now Marset says I have all his support. Everybody gives a lot of support but they’re words which are gone with the wind. I’m not going to approach you in a meeting or at a party; it isn’t ethical. I know the book of good manners; I’m not going to approach you at a party. At a party, I have to go as I am, an older bailaora, a really well-dressed lady. If I’m asked, I answer. If not, I hold my tongue. When I fly off the handle it’s because I’m being messed with. Tell me, Mr. Marset, who do I have to beg? I don’t beg anyone down on my knees; not even the Pope. What I’ve done, I’ve done without doing any harm to anyone”.

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