“How beautiful this has turned out, my goodness,” spontaneously exclaimed the Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, upon passing through the doors of the new Paco de Lucía Interpretation Center, which she inaugurated this Friday together with the mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce. , at the head of a long relationship of authorities, family members of the guitarist and the general public.
Of course, the artists who accompanied the Algeciras musician throughout his career were missing, although some of them participated this Saturday night in a concert commemorating the 77 years that Francisco Sánchez Gomes would have turned this December 21, not having died in Mexico ten years ago as a result of a heart attack.
The counselor believes that this new flamenco enclave, built where the city’s Local Police Headquarters was, will become a space “where you can feel Paco”, a place that, in her opinion, “should serve as an inspiration to young people.” “They start playing the guitar.”
The universal guitarist used to say that “Algeciras is the only way I have had to survive, so that the world does not eat me, I am like snails, I carry my shell on my back, my shell is Algeciras and I live in it. “I am always in Algeciras.”
“Paco said that he was always in Algeciras, that’s why we owed him this center. We remember the musician and the person because both are the same essence. The same source and the same flow. Although it is in Algeciras, like Paco, the center was born to be universal,” stated Del Pozo, convinced that “Algeciras, and therefore, Andalusia, owed this interpretation center, a living space, to its most universal flamenco artist.” “which is much more than a collection of memories, recordings, videos or photographs.” “This space pays tribute and remembers the man and the musician, because both are part of the same essence, the same source, the same flow,” the counselor added.
The path taken until the opening of the Interpretation Center has not been easy: the granting of European funds corresponding to the Integrated Territorial Initiative that were allocated to the province of Cádiz, in 2018, months before Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla succeeded José Antonio Griñán in the San Telmo Palace, allowed the opening of the Center dedicated to Camarón de la Isla in San Fernando – with a budget that doubles that of Algeciras -, that of Rocío Jurado in Chipiona and that of Lola Flores in Jerez de la Frontera.
Since then, Paco’s has had to face processing errors, problems that occurred in the different tenders, the Covid-19 pandemic, the appearance of archaeological remains in its perimeter and costs that inflation has skyrocketed from 1.2 million of euros initially budgeted to the 2.5 that it ultimately cost and that has required complementary contributions from the Junta de Andalucía and the Provincial Council of Cádiz, in addition to those of the town council. Hence, the City Council has had to request successive extensions for the opening of the Center, although Rocío Arrabal, spokesperson for the Municipal Socialist Group, came to fear that Europe’s money would be lost with such delay.
Local political polarization has led, in recent days, to the socialists threatening not to attend the inauguration of the Center, by making it coincide with a plenary session where the alleged irregularities detected in an external audit of municipal companies were debated, while that the PP, through the deputy mayor delegate of the Treasury, María Solanes, even appealed to the “Christmas spirit” so that they would join the “pride of being from Algeciras, “proud to be from the city where the great guitar genius Paco de Lucía was born.” All this, after telling his opposition that “no matter how much they want to poison municipal management, they end up being the poisoned ones.”
In any case, although without completely ironing out the rough spots, Paco de Lucía finally managed to bring them together yesterday under the same roof, to tour, hand in hand with the Reina de Corazones company that carried out the museumization of the Center, the itinerary created to learn about the life and work of the musician from Algeciras through six spaces: “The son of the Portuguese woman” – in memory of Luzía Gomes, the artist’s mother, with a section dedicated to Antonio’s Plan, by Antonio Sánchez, his father, and the “master plan” that Donn Pohren theorized about–; “The owner of the guitar”, “The genius of flamenco”, “Algeciras is music”, ‘Guitarist of the world’ and ‘Paco in images’.
Throughout the rooms, the visitor finds what the company calls “sensory experiences of light and color”, waterfalls that recall their most famous rumba, “Entre dos aguas”, a small auditorium, electronic tablatures to rehearse the sounds of the touch, documentaries, family snapshots, certificates, visas, the diploma accrediting his status as a favorite son of the province of Cádiz, loop videos – among them, some of the RTVA funds transferred through agreement for the Center– digital screens to delve into Paco’s relationships with other artists –such as Alejandro Sanz, who will also have his own Interpretation Center in Alcalá de los Gazules–, a photograph with Camarón de la Isla –his partner flamenco adventures–, another with the first Sextet, or the one that his widow Gabriela Canseco impressed for the posthumous album series “Canción Andaluza”. The contribution of the Paco de Lucía Foundation, which she presides, has been fundamental.
“Now we settle the debt we had with Paco for having made Algeciras the birthplace of the greatest guitarist in our country. It is a space to preserve and spread his legacy and a meeting space linked to Paco’s soul. Our thanks especially to Paco’s widow and his children. This center is a tribute to his vision of music as a universal language. And that’s how he let the world know,” acknowledged the mayor, José Ignacio Landaluce.
There is also no shortage of fetishes of different sizes, such as a Japanese yukata-type dressing gown that he used to wear on summer afternoons and that for a time he used to steal from Japanese hotels. In dialogue, yes, with the suit he wore at the Prince of Asturias Award ceremony or the one he wore – cap included – when he was named honorary doctorate by the University of Cádiz, in an event that also took place in Algeciras , during the artist’s life.
Along the walls and display cases, there are gold discs, canvases of different shapes donated expressly for the Center, the special prize of the 1962 Jerez competition, a miniature of the sculpture made by the sculptor Nacho Falgueras that can be seen at the entrance to the Algeciras port. , and even a cattail chair that is supposed to be the one the artist used, although no Carbon 14 test can prove it. Also, his “Algeciras Mare” cap, which he wore on his international tours and which today is sold as a local souvenir, a book to read at sunset, as the musician used to do on a reading fan that went from Ortega to Galdós, passing by his friend Félix Grande, by Arturo Pérez Reverte, Haruki Murakami or Henning Mankel.
You can see a cajon, signed by Piraña and other percussionists, although the first to join Paco’s sextet and flamenco in general was acquired by Rubem Dantas, who tonight plans to perform at the Teatro Florida, with other musicians such as Niño Josele, Joaquín Grilo, Duquende, Chonchi Heredia, Juan Carlos Gómez, José Heredia or Julián Heredia, in a reduced version of the show that all of them and some others offered at the Festival of Torrelodones. Not a single artist from Algeciras, by the way, in the city that claims the guitar school that Antonio Sánchez, Paco de Lucía’s father, would have created.
There are also guitars, of course. In this case, four: Sobrinos de Esteso’s from 1976, José Ramírez’s from ’77, the Ecuadorian guitar that Hugo Chiliquinga gave to Paco in 2010 and the one from luthier Vicente Carrillo with which Paco recorded ‘Cositas Buenas’.
“Regardless of the stage in which he performed, New York, Paris or Tokyo, Paco de Lucía always carried Algeciras with him,” insisted the Minister of Culture during the opening ceremony, which was also attended by Maria Moncada, the artist’s great-niece. . Along with them, the sisters Lucía and Casilda, Paco’s two youngest grandchildren, his nephews Ramón Sánchez and Maite Bandera, or his widow, Gabriela Canseco, with a tiny dog in her arms during much of the inaugural route. Not far away, the singer Pepe de Lucía, the only survivor of the saga, requested information or recalled anecdotes.
Among the few artists present – the dancers David Morales and David Lozano, the guitarist Salvador Andres, whose play was the first to be heard in the Center -, the local singer Paco Herrera distributed his traditional and authentic almanacs, based on his own photography. Lost in the crowd, Reyes Benítez, the son of the patron who supported those young artists since they were children and who bought Paco de Lucía’s first guitar, but got angry when the author of “I only want to walk” evoked him in public. This was the author of “Ziryab”, closer to his own people than to power in general.
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