FLAMENCO CHRISTMAS IN JEREZ. SPECIAL FEATURE

Of Jerez and its zambombas

Carlos Sánchez. Jerez, December 2004

Christmas is here. Jerez dresses up for the festivities. Thousands of light bulbs illuminate the downtown area. The town is decked out. It is a time for celebration. Despite the low winter temperatures, thousands of Jerez inhabitants take to the streets. It is a dearly loved time, a time for family. Encounters and re-encounters. Indelible moments. Zambombas. Yes, that so peculiar festival belonging to Jerez's popular heritage which is held every month of December. The magic of a genuine tradition. Gatherings of Christmas songs, of Christmas carols to a flamenco beat.

Zambomba 2004. Peña Antonio Chacón (Photo: Carlos Sánchez)

The term zambomba has become associated with these unique encounters that have proliferated spectacularly over the last few years. The word zambomba defines a very peculiar handcrafted instrument originally made of reed - bamboo cane -, ram skin and mud; and which is shaped like a large earthen vat. Nowadays, the ram skin has been replaced by cloth. The characteristic sound of this popular instrument defines the entire musical encounter. A festival of rural origin that Jerez has known how to safeguard, endowing it with a peculiar mark, just like other towns in the mountains of Cádiz which have also contributed to the preservation of this unique gathering.

Although there are different opinions on their starting date, the most common one sustains that they must be held after the Day of the Immaculate Conception, but the truth is that this year they had already begun in late November. Regardless of the town, the place or the people who organize it. What is happening is that the phenomenon of the zambomba has become too commercialized, going from being a genuine ritual to a lure for bars, cafeterias and discotheques, thus losing a certain amount of family and neighborhood flavor. Just the flamenco peñas and brotherhoods advocate maintaining the essence of this encounter, respecting its original format. From the neighborhood courtyards, from open-air venues where the star-filled night sky could be taken in, the zambomba has gradually been moved to indoor venues. From the moonlight to the artificial light of places. From the winter cold to warmer sites.

Few are the zambombas that are held outdoors nowadays. Just some of the peñas - for questions of space - prefer to hold them outside, in this way preserving the traditional place. To do so, they set up immense tents to safeguard people from the chill of the night air. They set little bonfires in metal barrels to allay the cold December nights. But it is the very ambience of the festival itself that warms up everyone attending with the necessary heat. The zambomba is a festival where each and every one of those attending take part. Everyone sings and dances in a huge circle. As the hours go by, the ambience starts to heat up. The people begin to devote themselves. A tribute to the god Bacchus. The Christmas carols are non-stop. A preamble to the Jerez cante par excellence, the bulería, which puts an end to these celebrations.

The promotional work of numerous peñas, associations and citizens keeps one of Jerez's most traditional expressions alive. During these so special days, the city displays its most genuine voice. Everyone contributes to the preservation of this festival. All you have to do is take a stroll through any of the zambombas which are held in the city in this period to be able to check out the strong magnetism these unique gatherings possess.

The zambomba stands out as the great star of the month of December. It awakes from its slumber every year in order to take possession of Jerez's Christmas. The so peculiar sound of this instrument marks the beat of the festival. It is followed by its inseparable tambourine or the very bottle of anisette. The latter, once it has been drunk, is turned into a typical instrument of the celebration.

La Paquera de Jerez (Photo: Javier Hurtado)

They are usually held at night on most occasions, but there are also day zambombas. The latter are accompanied by local gastronomy. Good garlic or good cabbages, vin du pays and the traditional pestiños - a typical Christmas sweet made with flour, anise, sesame, dry sherry and honey - are ingredients that inevitably accompany these gatherings. To warm up your body, nothing better than a glass of anisette. In this way people's throats are ready for a party that usually lasts for hours.

Although the entire town takes part, it is when the great local voices appear that the zambomba gains its greatest shine. The Zambo family are great Christmas carolers; just like the Méndez family, with Manuela and Paqui at the head. La Paquera de Jerez not only popularized the Christmas carol ‘Tin Tin Catalina’, but also dotted her entire discography with these ‘flamencoized’ Christmas songs. Recently, La Macanita has also recorded numerous Christmas carols, as is proven by the records ‘Así canta nuestra tierra en Navidad’, ‘Navidad gitana con Camarón y Paco de Lucía’ and the film ‘Flamenco’ by Carlos Saura, whose zambomba she is a star in. Ángel Vargas, José Mercé and even Rocío Jurado have also made an exhibition of Jerez's Christmas cante.

The repertoire of songs is highly varied. A legacy of incalculable value left to us by our ancestors to celebrate Christmas as only Jerez can and knows how. The Christmas carols say a lot about the way the people feel this dearly loved festival. The wealth of their tunes, of manners and religious, plunge us into scenarios from other times. The zambomba has worked as a binding element for all the people's songs. In this way we can find in its vast repertoire Christmas carols of a religious nature, such as ‘Los caminos se hicieron’, satirical burlesque songs like ‘El curita’, Christmas carols by numbers such as ‘De las doce palabras’, and endless other styles.

Los caminos se hicieron con agua, viento y frío, caminaba un anciano, muy triste y afligido, ¡gloria!, a su bendita madre Victoria, ¡gloria al recién nacido, gloria! Llegaron a un mesón, para pedir posada, y el mesonero ingrato, iba y se la negaba, ¡gloria!, a su bendita madre Victoria ¡gloria al recién nacido, gloria!

The roads were made with water, wind and cold, an old man walked, very sad and afflicted, glory! to his blessed mother Victoria, glory to the new-born, glory! They reached an inn, to ask for shelter, and the ungrateful innkeeper, left and denied it, glory!, to his blessed mother Victoria glory to the new-born, glory!

(Excerpt from the Christmas carol ‘Los caminos se hicieron’)

	El Torta (Foto: Daniel Muñoz)

Since 1999 the Villamarta Theater Foundation has attempted to institutionalize the zambomba, moving it to the enclave of the theater. The flamenco peñas are the ones in charge of championing this cultural expression. Over the past few years, appearing at the theater in Jerez have been numerous artists - and non-artists - from peñas such as that of Fernando Terremoto, which has taken care to dress up its zambombas with great names of cante such as Capullo de Jerez, Luis de Pacote and Fernando Terremoto Jr., who has even contributed compositions of his own already included in popular tradition.

The Tío José de Paula Peña, a pioneer at the Villamarta, has been in charge this year of providing continuity to this offer on the night of Friday, December 17th, 2004. Beautiful images were given away by the nearly forty people who flooded the stage of the land of the bulería with their artform. ‘Copos de nieve caen’, ‘Tarantán’, ‘Camina la Virgen Pura’, ‘Estando un curita’, ‘Señá Santa Ana’... were a few of the Christmas carols intoned by the women from the peña together with José Vargas ‘El Mono’, Ángel Vargas, Joaquín el Zambo and the guest artists: Antonio Cortés Pantoja ‘Chiquetete’ and Juan Moneo Lara ‘El Torta’. The party, which to the delight of those present lasted for nearly three hours, was closed with a ‘Nochebuena por bulerías’ over an hour long where the idiosyncrasy of Jerez's people was latent. The real celebration, however, is outdoors since in Jerez's Christmas, the zambomba is present in each and every nook and cranny of the city. One feels like taking a beautiful journey to the purest and richest traditions of Jerez's culture.