SPECIAL FEATURE: 'Inmigración' by Ángeles Gabaldón

Committed flamenco returns

Silvia Calado Olivo, November 2003
Fotos: Daniel Muñoz

The critical force of flamenco bursts again. Following a lull of several decades in which jondo art seemed to have forgotten its natural cry of protest, denunciation returns. Such daring is the work of Ángeles Gabaldón, who boldly chooses this means to début with her own company. 'Inmigración' is a collective show with a unanimous message: to make society aware of the reality of the illegal trafficking of people. And the means is going to be a multimedia flamenco show with the participation of, besides the Sevillian bailaora and her multiracial company, anthropologist Fernando González-Caballos, choreographer Javier Latorre, guitarist and composer Daniel Méndez, the Chekkara Orchestra of Tetuán, film director Yvan Schreck and writer Juan José Téllez. Together they seek for "the show to contribute to making everyone aware and to work as a cultural weapon".

The test tube was in university territory. The show's scriptwriter and director, Fernando González-Caballos, was a member of a research team at the University of Seville that "reaches an agreement with the Social Affairs Council of the Junta of Andalusia to do a project on immigration, a very current topic in world society and a priority for Andalusia". The anthropologist comments that "the Andalusian coasts are the port of arrival for people wanting to seek a new life for themselves, a better life, a job. And we sought to contrast that reality with when the Andalusians were an emigrant people out of need who during the sixties and seventies led a considerable exile both within Spain and abroad". And this contrast is what gives cause for the story's script: "The tables have turned so that those people who were once emigrants turn into a land of immigrants, a place where people now come seeking the same thing as the Andalusians did in the past". The expressive vehicle was going to be "Andalusian music and the cultural expression of Andalusia, which is flamenco", connected to other world musics such as Indian and Andalusian.

At the same time, Sevillian bailaora Ángeles Gabaldón was giving her professional career a big boost by carrying off the 'Desplante', the dance prize of the 2002 Las Minas de La Unión Festival. And it was time to go solo with her own company. She would be the star of 'Inmigración', signing a double commitment: "Besides my dancing, I contribute being aware of the reality of my society to the show. And the feeling I get every day from seeing it... because we see it". In the newspapers and on the TV news we constantly see the dead washed ashore by the sea: thirty-six cadavers reached the beaches of Rota after a boat sank on October 25th, 2003. We see the terror on their faces when the police come to meet them, their countenances half-grateful, half-fearful when the Red Cross comes to their aid in Tarifa, their sauntering along the highway shoulders in the farming towns of Almería, their races around downtown Madrid with bundles of illegal records over their shoulder to dodge authorities... We see it.

And each member of the crew of 'Inmigración', a combination of "recognized people and people yet to be discovered", wants to declare their rejection towards blindness. "We have the collaboration of many immigrants: a Brazilian (Fernando Lima, artistic director), a Japanese (Eri Fukuhara), a Frenchwoman (Chloé Dauphin), an Englishwoman (Nicolia Morris), an Spanish emigrant in Germany (José Carlos Morales, a member of Taller Flamenco, the show's production company), a Moroccan (Jallal Chekkara)... They are all aware of the subject". Complete the company the dancers Fani Fuster and Lourdes Recio, the stage manager Belén Candil and the technicians José Luis Álvarez (sound) and Juan Luis Domínguez (lights).

Juan José Téllez, the Cádiz-born journalist and writer who was entrusted to write the lyrics, affirms that "we began with the political approach that three quarters of the world can't be subordinate to the rest". And he defends that "immigration can't just be translated into the word 'problem', but into culture, harmony, new rhythms, crossbreeding". Moreover, he appeals "to the memory of Spain, which was an emigrant people". And Téllez knows a great deal about that, since he is the author of the brilliant essay 'Moros en la costa' ('Moors on the Coast', from the equivalent in Spanish of 'The Coast is Clear') (Debate) - with a prologue by José Saramago-, which served as inspiration for González-Caballos to reel off the narration.

Declaring himself along the same lines is Javier Latorre, choreographer of three of the show's acts: "Who can see that footage and be soulless enough not to get involved?". And in the work he was entrusted to do, he says he has "applied his knowledge to a 'collage' of scenes, each one of which has a name and tells something different related to immigration": 'Fin de año en el exilio' ('New Year's Eve in Exile'), 'La Odisea' ('The Odyssey') and 'Vivir para contarlo' ('Live to Tell'). Latorre, whose family also immigrated, adds that "one of them rouses the lost memory in a country of nouveaux riches, a Christmas among Spaniards in Germany, which has a tragicomic nature; another one is a plotless scene of continuation, abstract, based on the feelings sung by Jallal Chekkara, which is the lament of an immigrant who doesn't manage to come across and is rejected back home upon his return". In short, it is his desire "for the show to contribute to making everyone aware and to work as a cultural weapon".

Perhaps to multiply its effectiveness, the work is multimedia. As Téllez points out, "we're going to put all the resources we have on stage". And to González-Caballos, that means "joining the experiences we've had so far: the musical and the audiovisual, putting it all together into a multimedia theater show, trying to use the most possible means to try and increase the audience's awareness".

Nicolia Morris in 'Inmigración'

The dancing is the core. Ángeles Gabaldón is proud to have "an interesting choreography team", consisting of a contemporary dancer; Javier Latorre, "the ultimate head of choreography because besides putting together several acts, he's going to sew the entire show together"; Marcos Vargas, "choreography assistant who's going to sign the soleá"; and she herself, the author of 'Comprando la libertad' ('Buying Freedom') and 'El silencio' ('Silence'). Arising from all their work is a first act which mixes Estremadura cheering and clapping with flamenco Christmas carols, which try "to look at history, with a celebration together"; a second act, preluded by an instrumental milonga which is a soleá and "expresses the solitude someone can feel outside his country", by means of a threesome with two Andalusian bailaores and a black man that "also represents the fight for integration into the new commune". The following number is "the taranto 'Comprando la libertad', which represents the hard work that emigrants usually do, filling the lowest positions".

Next is the main video, the work of González-Caballos and film director Yvan Schreck, authors of the documentary on La Paquera's journey to Japan entitled 'Por oriente sale el sol' ('The Sun Rises in the East'). The audiovisual material is, in part, recorded by Schreck and, in part, "authorized by Paco Lobatón's production company, which is going to lend us all the footage of his program 'Sin Fronteras' ('Without Borders') broadcast by Canal Sur". The footage is accompanied by the music of the Chekkara Orchestra who, due to their experience with Enrique Morente, Arcángel and Segundo Falcón, "know flamenco style very well". With regards to the music, on the one hand, there are compositions made specifically for the show, like that of the Moroccan group, those of Keko Baldomero and those of Morón-born guitarist Daniel Méndez, who plays in the companies of Antonio Canales and Javier Latorre. The show's director foretells that "after this work, Dani is going to come out enhanced, since he's discovering himself, finding a lot of things. And I think he's going to find a brilliant composer in himself". On the other hand, use is made of packaged music, including the flamenco blues group Pata Negra, "because we don't want the narration to fall off at any time; we want it to flow like a film".

The end will be twofold: "The lucky return which can be celebrated through bulerías and, on the other hand, the martinete and the seguiriya as a lifeless return". Ángeles Gabaldón will perform this ending solo, accompanied by the cante of Manuel Lombo, "representing the society which turns its back on that reality and while harsh footage is shown of captures, deaths... I dance blindfolded, since society veils your eyes, and even if you want to listen, there are times that they don't tell you; they filter it to you. It's not so much deceit as telling us that they don't want us to see more". And she wants to raise her voice against this imposition, her voice which falls silent in order to yield to the expression of her body, since "doing social art was needed in flamenco. It's important for artists to express what we feel. And we have a lot to say in this society".

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