Semana Santa and Catholic processions in Jerez de la Frontera (part 1)

Religion, meaning here Catholic Christianity, is a very important part of life in southern Spain including Jerez de la Frontera, where I find myself.  In late February, the Catholic brotherhoods began practicing for the Semana Santa processions.  Semana Santa is a week-long celebration that takes place in the seven days prior to Easter Sunday.  This year, it begins on April 13 (Palm Sunday) and ends on the day before Easter, April 19.

 A paso with the Virgin Mary, church leaders in front.

It is one of the most important celebrations in Jerez de la Frontera and many other cities in Spain.  In Spain, the idea of separation of church and state is not the norm, and not only does the country consider itself (Catholic) Christian, but the government gives a lot of money and many special privileges to the church.

The centerpiece of these processions are the pasos, religious floats weighing several tons, carried on the shoulders of strong young men.  The pasos require between 24 and 40 guys to carry them, and they have to practice and train for weeks beforehand.

There are 35 guys carrying the paso frame here.

At first, they only carry the frame of the float, but gradually, more weight is added until finally, they can carry the completed float with all that is on top:  life-sized wooden figures of Jesus Christ and others, hundreds of pounds of gold and silver leaf, figures of the Virgin Mary wearing very heavy, embroidered velvet, and on one paso, a live, fully grown olive tree.

MORE on Semana Santa in the next post.

Festival de Flamenco de Jerez de la Frontera (Flamenco Festival of Jerez)

This is going to be a tourist story.  I´m back in Jerez and since returning, in spite of best intentions, first I caught a cold and then was overwhelmed by the annual, 2-week Festival de Flamenco de Jerez de la Frontera.  The festival ended on Saturday, March 8, and I ended up taking a class in rhythm/palmas (fun, fun, fun) and in dance (seguiriyas-lots of work but also really great).

Here's the theater where the major festival events were presented.

The rhythm/palmas class was with Luis de la Tota.  Of course I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures, but here´s a photo of Luis that I have from when he was acting in Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  

 Luis de la Tota, palmero extraodinaire.

The dance class was with María del Mar Moreno, and she really wanted us to work.  That´s good.  That´s how you learn.  But I´ll just mention that on the final day of class, when we had gone all the way through the choreography about five times - to say nothing of working on individual sections - and our time was up, a student much younger than me said something like "Man, I´m exhausted.  At least now we can rest."

María heard this and said, "You´re all much younger than I am, and you´re saying you´re tired?  No good.  Let´s go through the choreography again."

And so we did.

Including me, even though I am NOT younger than she is.  But that´s not a problem.  I have lots of energy.

The truth about film festivals

Sometimes I think the fastest way to get rich these days is to start a film festival.

Film festivals in the United States charge money for you to send them your film for review.  If they don't accept your film for their festival, you are still out of pocket.  And they charge anywhere from $30 to $105 per film you send them.

This is big time money.

There are, of course, the longer-standing festivals, and the festivals with such prestige that if you get into one, you're almost certain to get a distribution contract.

Because distribution contracts is what festivals are all about:  having a nice audience at the festival and something prestigious to put in the credits and on the DVD cover is fine, but mainly, you submit to a festival because you want to get a good distribution deal.

Because if you're an independent filmmaker, you made that film because you wanted people to see it, and you hoped somehow to recoup your investment.  Distribution deals is supposed to be the painless way of getting exactly that.

Since with technological advances, making movies has dropped from something that costs millions of dollars to something you can do on a shoestring, everyone and his/her second cousin is doing it.  This means there is room for more and more festivals, including festivals that accept work that, perhaps, really doesn't "deserve" to be seen, meaning that is poorly made, or has nothing to communicate, or something on that order,.

Hence, the charges that festivals know you'll pay.

And just an FYI:  most festivals in Europe do not charge money for you to submit your film for consideration.  Apparently the money thing is an "American" invention.

Creating an image

Every video/´`film project needs an image.  Something that a person totally unfamiliar with what you are doing will be attracted to and that will give them a basic idea of what your video/film is about.

Try coming up with something that lets people know your video/film is about traditional flamenco.

Sounds easy?  Well, it wasn't for me.

The image.

I had to create an image for our documentary-in-progress, Flamenco:  the Land Is Still Fertile (Flamenco:  la tierra está viva).  We´ll have a bunch of pretty famous performers in it, as well as people from the community.  The documentary will entertain (but of course!), will let people know what traditional flamenco is all about, and will show the connection between traditional flamenco and gitanos (Spanish Gypsies).

So why not just put an image of one of the famous people who is going to be in the documentary?

Because first of all, that would imply that the famous person in question was more important than the OTHER famous people that will be included.  In addition, we certainly don´t want to use the image of anyone who we haven´t filmed yet (which means most of them, because we don´t have the money to pay their fees yet).

We don´t want to use our famous flamenco singer co-director, Antonio de la Malena, because then it will look like the documentary is just a puff piece about him.

 
Couldn´t find anything of farm workers in Spain.  This has no sound but gives a good idea of farm work.

SO - I chose an image of one of the people from the community who we´ve already filmed, who is dancing, who communicates energy and enthusiasm, who is elderly and a little heavy (which shows that flamenco is not something that only the young and slim can dance).  And to show traditional flamenco´s connection to a way of life, I decided we needed the image of a garbanzo plant.

Many, many of today´s flamencos who are gitano and are middle aged or above used to work as farm laborers.  Many, many of those who are younger have parents who worked as farm laborers.  They worked in the vineyards, the worked in the cotton fields, they worked in the sugar beet fields, and they worked in the garbanzo fields.

Garbanzo plants have a shape that works better for my design idea than the other plants, so garbanzo was my choice.

Garbanzo plants growing.

But where to find a correctly but also appropriately shaped image of a garbanzo plant?  Not on the internet.  I tried.

So to make a long story short, I ended up growing a bunch of garbanzo plants, then photographed (and PhotoShopped) the one that suited me best.

NOTE:  You are encouraged to send me any comments you might have about the design (see top).  Send to info@palominopro.com.

The "Toro de fuego" and "Torito Pinto" (part 3)

Torito Pinto and the Toros de fuego have often been considered different forms of the same thing, but as I look into the origins and ways of performing them, however, I wonder if this is correct.  It may be that Torito Pinto is indigenous to Latin America, and the Toros de fuego to Spain, and that they are two separate and distinct performances. 

Why do I think this?  For one thing, I see no dance to music and song associated with the Toros de fuego in Spain, nor have I found any reference to Torito Pinto in Spain.  Yes, in a few locations in Spain, the Toros de fuego are made with paper maché instead of iron, but perhaps the Spaniards borrowed the idea from Latin America.  

 

In Latin America, you see both the Torito Pinto and the Toros de fuego…but it’s easy to imagine that the Torito Pinto, which contains many indigenous elements, was a Latin American indigenous response to the bull fighting that the Spaniards brought with them across the ocean.

Another reason for thinking that the Toros de fuego and the Torito Pinto are from two separate traditions is because, although the very first Toro de fuego in Spain dates to the early 1900s, they didn’t become popular and widespread until just a very few years ago.  Instead, for centuries in Spain, live bulls had their hors dipped in pitch which was then set on fire, and the terrified bull set loose to run through the streets.  Apparently this dates back to a battle in which the fire-carrying bulls were used as a weapon against the enemy.

A performance from my documentary, "A Zest for Life"

But since 2010, animal rights’ activists in Spain have succeeded in getting many regions of the country to ban the use of live bulls, and so these were replaced by the metal or paper maché bulls spouting fireworks.  That is what you see in the modern Toros de fuego in Spain.

In other words, if I am correct, not only are Torito Pinto and the Toros de fuego two separate forms of cultural presentation, but the influence has gone both ways across the Atlantic:  the Toros de fuego from Spain to Latin America, and the occasional use of paper maché bulls from Latin America to Spain.

________________

The writer of this article, Eve A. Ma, is a filmmaker whose work includes documentaries about world music and dance, including Afro-Peruvian and Mexican.  She speaks Spanish, has spent much time in Spain, and has visited several Latin American countries.  Her web site is www.PalominoPro.comTo keep up with her work, sign up for her newsletter HERE

The "Toro de fuego" and "Torito Pinto" (part 2)

Now, we move to a different scene:

A group of people, women as well as men, are dancing in a circle, accompanied by musicians.  They are dressed in colorful costumes.  The women usually have red scarves which, at a certain point in the dance, they use as if the scarves were a bullfighter’s cape.  As the musicians start to sing, a man holding up the paper- maché -covered frame representing a bull enters a space between them.  The dancers form a circle around him, and continue on.

The dance, the song and the music continue until the choreography is completed.

This is the “Torito pinto,” the “Little spotted bull,” a dance especially tied to the country of El Salvador but also performed in almost every country in Central America and many in South America.  It is not performed in Spain.

 

This is a version from El Salvador.

Each country where the “Torito pinto” is performed has given its own stamp to the dance.  There is even a distinct Afro-Peruvian version.  Depending on the location, the dance is done in honor of certain saints’ days, or around Christmas, and in El Salvador, in honor of the country’s patron saint, San Antonio Abad, San Salvador as well for other celebrations.

The song is a song about freedom.  It usually has five verses.  Although there can be variations on the words, MOST of the time, the first line of the first verse goes:  “Psst,  Torito Pinto, son of the Moorish cow….” (:Hishto! "Torito Pinto," hijo de la vaca mora…”) 

In this version, also from El Salvador, they don’t sing the song.

In many versions, the song continues on to tell the story of a spotted bull who manages to escape and run off to freedom with his lady love to join the wild, free bandits.  (The bandits, or “bandoleros,” are of the type of Robin Hood and Zorro – freedom fighters.)  In others, it tells of a woman who is approached by a man, a drunk (represented by the bull).  She denies him, even though her friends tell her he is dangerous.  She says that she’s not afraid, that he won’t hurt her because she’s fearless and she always tells the truth.