Picture by Doré
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Responding to the exotic
call imposed by the romanticism, many European travelers
dived into the entrails of Andalusia in a century that begins
historically with the Guerra de la Independencia (the Spanish
Independence War) and the approval in 1812, of the first
Spanish Constitution in the Courts of Cadiz and ends with
some unsuccessful attempts of industrialization and the
loud '98 crisis. People meanwhile alleviated their sorrows
with their own cantes and their own dances. In 1831, Serafín
Estébanez Calderón, romantic author from Malaga,
in his passage entitled "Un baile en Triana",
taken from his work "Escenas Andaluzas" that narrates
his assistance to a party in which he saw El Planeta performing.
El Planeta is one of the first known professional flamenco
singers. George Borrow publishes in England in 1841 "Zincali,
gypsies of Spain", one of the titles of his bibliography
that derived from his adventures in Andalusia. "Viaje
por España" from Charles Davillier draws already,
in 1862, the dances performed by the village people (la
gente del pueblo) celebrated at the light of an oil lamp,
in courtyards or pubs. The list of testimonials, most of
them foreign, is vast .
