Juana la Macarrona
Juana la Macarrona (3 May 1870 – 17 April 1947) was a Spanish
Born Juana Vargas de las Heras in
Renown as bailaora
Early career
Her mother was Ramona de las Heras Valencia, a flamenco singer, her father Juan de Vargas Barrío, a flamenco guitarist.[2] At the age of seven Juana began dancing in the streets to their accompaniment, hers being a flamenco family. Among Juana's gypsy ancestors was Josefa Vargas, also a bailaora. More distant ancestors were among the earliest flamenco performers known.[3] María Vargas, Juana's sister, was the lesser-known dancer María La Macarrona.[4][5][6] Juana landed her first regular job at a café cantante in Sevilla, but she earned more in the streets by the equivalent of "passing the hat". Later she danced beside the singer El Mezcle at a flamenco café in Málaga.[7]
At about the age of 16 Juana was "discovered" by
Her flamenco style
From reports of her performances, La Macarrona followed a style then considered traditional. Her
About the footwork then current among flamenco bailaoras, there is a disputed issue. Some assert that today the zapateado is more developed, others disagree.[18] A contemporary describes her spell over an audience.
The people are silent, holding their breaths with an almost religious fervor, while the feet of La Macarrona give rhythm to her dance. The chords of the guitar have little value now. Because La Macarrona dances to the compás of her own magnificent footwork."[19]
Juana Vargas la Macarrona "poseía una asombrosa flexibilidad en los movimientos del cuerpo y dominaba el manejo de la bata de cola que enroscaba a sus pies después de dar las vueltas con encreíble maestría."
Personality
She also became known to aficionados for quotable, impromptu expressions. For example, after performing with flamencos often in Paris Juana had become familiar with speaking French. On a later trip north from Spain, she was asked to make arrangements when the train reached Paris. Upon arrival, for whatever reason, nobody seemed able to understand her. She explained, "It's not that my French isn't good, it's just that they've changed the damned language since I was here last."[23]
The crown of fame
- La reina
In the flamenco
- Ballets Russses in Sevilla
Her reputation in international dance was correspondingly high, no less in the world of ballet and classical music. Four well-known traveling companions saw her dance, circa 1917: the impresario
"In Seville we went to see Ramirez and Macarrona, the two outstanding flamenco dancers of the day. Their dancing more than lived up to our expectations, and we were dazzled by the ferocious power and elegance of their performance."[27][28][29]
The "Ramirez" mentioned with La Macarrona is probably Antonio López Ramírez or "Ramirito" (1885–1930).[30]
- La poesía
On stage her elusive movements drew rapt attention, almost reverence from many audiences. She attracted poetic lines. Radiant was her stage presence, her rhythmic grace fluid. With her turns of emotional intensity, and her sudden stillness, she'd conjure a fragrance of roses. La Macarrona "le injertó al baile una antiquísima fuerza emotiva, llena de feminidad y gracia, como en los
Her stage name
La Macarrona was her stage name of Juana Vargas. The name is said to be taken from two flamenco ancestors of Juana Vargas. Each named Macarrón, they flourished in the 18th century: Tío Juan Macarrón and Tío Vicente Macarrón. Juana's family was long accustomed to performing the flamenco arts. Her namesake Tío Juan Macarrón of Jerez de la Frontera is described as being a cantaor (flamenco singer) of 18th-century Spain and "Uno de más antiguos intérpreters conocidos" (One of the earliest flamenco interpreters known). Of another of her namesakes, Tío Vicente Maccarón, an equal antiquity and rôle is referenced.[32]
Macarrona in English would mean "macaroni or macaroon". In addition to the foods, the word "macaroni" in 18th century England also signified an "English dandy... who affected foreign mannerisms and fashions."[33] This second meaning originally derived from Italian, and is retained in the Spanish cognate "macarronea" [English: "macarronic"], which currently is defined as "burlesque verse" mixing "real or coined words from two or more languages."[34][35] So that, if in itself it carries a meaning in addition to family ancestry, La Macarrona could mean "exotic talker", analogous to how she dances, also fitting her knack for off-stage humor. La Macarrona could advertise her being a "dandy" of the flamenco arts.
Later years in flamenco
Juana la Macarrona when fifty (in 1910) established a permanent home in Sevilla. In 1922 she was a judge at the Concurso de Cante Jondo in Granada (see below). In 1931 Juana danced in the motion picture Violetas Imperiales directed by Henry Roussel.[36][37] In a trio of elder dancers, Juana performed on stage in the 1933 El Amor Brujo. Also in 1933, and in 1940, she toured with the stage show Las Calles de Cádiz.[38]
She was able to extend her dancing career well past sixty. "Such was her dominance in the dance that in the 1920s, when she was in her sixties, she still drew crowds as a headliner in the major cabarets of Sevilla and Madrid."[39] In part, however, she performed out of necessity, caused by the loss of much of her wealth in a house break-in. Stolen was a small fortune in "cash and jewels".[40] Eventually, however, her cafés-cantantes era fame had faded; she then mostly performed in colmaos (flamenco taverns) and ventas in Sevilla. "Occasionally benefits would be held in her honor".[41]
When she was seventy-five, she gave a newspaper interview in Sevilla. She lamented the decline of flamenco. "Ni en los cafés nos quieren ya, cuando hemos sío siempre las reinas der mundo. Pero to lo acaba er tiempo."[42]
La Macarrona had taught "droves" of younger dancers. Among them was Teresita España, who she considered turned out the best. Also her student was Florencia Pérez Padilla, the Rosario of the performing pair "Rosario and Antonio".[43][44]
Concurso de Cante Jondo
In 1922 Juana appeared at the Concurso de Cante Jondo held in Granada. This event, promoted by composer Manuel de Falla and poet Federico García Lorca, was chiefly a contest for amateur flamenco artists, but it also attracted veteran performers. Honored as a judge for the contest, in that role La Macarrona joined three other stars of flamenco, the cantaores Antonio Chacón and Manuel Torre, and the cantaora La Niña de los Peines. Juana's presence richly animated the Concurso festivities, for one, by her excited jaleo cries of "¡Lapoteosis!" ["Thunderstrike!"][45][46] Later the maestra herself danced, to a trio of guitarists including Ramón Montoya, while the young Manolo Caracol sang, and Gitanas of the Sacromonte punctuated the music with their palmas. Eduardo Molina Fajardo writes:
"La Macarrona, flexible como si se hubiera quedado plantada en sus enolvidables dieciséis años, se hizo una diosa de rito antiguo, lleno de parsimonia y de misterio, que luego recobraba ardor y acelerado ritmo. Su traje de flamenca se transformaba en ola, en viento, en flor."[47][48]
Antonia Mercé "La Argentina" attended the Concurso. A bailaora herself, she turned her admiring gaze to La Macarrona as she performed the flamenco arts. When Juana sat afterward La Argentina came to her, and gently knelt down at the feet of the goddess! Carefully, perhaps a bit mischievously, she took off La Macarrona's dancing shoes. Then carried them away.[49]
El Amor Brujo
In 1933
Three elders of flamenco dance, La Macarrona, La Malena, and Fernanda Antúnez, were featured. They played in roles of the brujas (the three sorcerers) during "the scenes in the gipsy caves". At the end the three also danced an
Carmen Amaya
In early 1936 the
Guitars began the flamenco event, for a
Soon her demons took hold of her. 'And, Good Lord, what broke loose there!' La Macarrona and La Malena were on their feet, crying. It was a dream: they had come back to life in the person of Carmen.
In the "magic circle of flamenco art" a new star began to shine. Macarrona suddenly cried out, "You are the Queen!" The audience laughed, stirred, murmured... clapped in rhythm. All the while they shouted encouragement, various jaleos to Carmen who kept on dancing, her eyes wet, "full of tears". She'd be the new Faraona of the
Las Calles de Cádiz
In 1933 and again in 1940, La Macarrona toured with the celebrated stage show "Las Calles de Cádiz" (The Streets of
In Las Calles de Cádiz, "the colorful life of the
Flamenco memory
In 1947 La Macaronna died in
Yet a decade later the flamenco arts were experiencing a grand renaissance, in which Juana Vargas as La Macarrona was well remembered. Years earlier, in 1935, Ferdinando el de Triana, a flamenco
Reference notes
- ^ For sources see footnotes to text.
- ^ Juana la Macarrona at website El Arte de vivir el flamenco (parents, year of birth 1860).
- ^ Regarding her earlier Macarrón ancestors, see section "Her stage name" below.
- ^ Manuel Ríos Vargas, Antología del Baile Flamenco (Sevilla: Signatura de Flamenco [c.2001]), p. 165 (sister María), pp. 165–166 (Juana Vargas de las Heras was born in 1870).
- ^ K. Meira Goldberg, "Juana Vargas 'La Macarrona': A flamenco treasure" (New York Public Library, 2015): sister María la Macarrona.
- ^ Fernando el de Triana, Arte y Artistas Flamencos (Madrid: Imprenta Helénica, 1935, facsimile reprint by Extramuros Edición, Sevilla, 2009), pp. 148, 150. Accounts given of Juana, followed by Maria, both called La Macarrona. No mention is made of a family connection. Photographs of Juana at pp. 72 and 73, and of Maria at p. 75.
- ^ D. E. Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (Madrid, 1964, 1988), pp. 212–213 (Juana's parents, early career; born circa 1860).
- ^ García Lorca's Poema del Cante Jondo (1931), the section "Viñetas Flamencas" the verse Retrato de Silverio Franconetti. A mix of "Italian honey and our lemon" who "opening the mirror's quicksilver, suffered his songs without breaking them".
- ^ Café Silverio: its patio's platform (el tablao) briefly described in Barbara Thiel-Cramér, Flamenco (Lidingö: Remark 1991), pp. 86-87.
- José Manuel Caballero Bonald and es:Alfonso Grosso (who also painted her portrait), the flamencólogo professors Daniel Pineda Novo (who wrote her biography) and Juan de la Plata, Pablillos de Valladolid, and her contemporary the flamenco cantaorFernando el de Triana (1870–1940) [aka Fernando Rodríguez Gómez] who wrote his account of fellow performers, Arte y artistas flamencos (1935).
- ^ Paco Sevilla, Queen of the Gypsies. The life and legend of Carmen Amaya (San Diego, 1999), pp. 99–100.
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (1964, 1988), p. 213 (discovered, career).
- ^ Ríos Vargas, Antología del Baile Flamenco [c.2001], p. 166.
- ^ Long ruffled dress with a train, the cola.
- ^ La Macarrona "handled the huge Manilla shawl and her bata de cola--dress with a train--superbly... skillfully and elegantly... an art in itself." Barbara Thiel-Cramér, Flamenco (Ligindö: Remark 1991), p.105.
- ^ Fernando el de Triana, Arte y Artistas Flamencos (1935, 2009), p. 148 re dance style.
- ^ "Juana la Macarrona" at Flamenco World, Spanish article (citing Fernando el de Triana on her dance style).
- ^ Paco Sevilla describes La Macarrona, and other bailaoras (female flamenco dancers) of the era, as equal to today's dancers in footwork. Sevilla's book on Carmen Amaya, Queen of the Gypsies (1999), p.100.
- ^ Pablillo de Valladolid, in José Blas Vega and Manuel Ríos Ruiz, Diccionario (Madrid 1988), p.436, cited by Sevilla (1999), p.100.
- ^ Quote from Francisco Hidalgo Gómez, Carmen Amaya. La biografía (Barcelona: Ediciones Carena, 2010, 2013), p. 82: La Macarrona "possessed an amazing flexibility in moving her body and with incredible mastery she dominated the management of the bata de cola which swirled around her feet after she'd made the turns".
- ^ "La Macarrona [Juana Vargas]" at Biografías y Vidas (her favored palos).
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (1964, 1988), at 214 ("fireball" reference and duende quotes), 219 ("fireball" quote, duende).
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends (1964, 1988), p. 213 (quote).
- ^ Juana "is the one that for many years reigned over the art of flamenco dance." Fernando el de Triana, Arte y Artistas Flamencos (Madrid, 1935, Sevilla, 2009), p. 148.
- ^ Cf., "Juana la Macarrona" at Flamenco World, Spanish article (citing Pablillos de Valladolid).
- ^ Sevilla, Queen of the Gypsies (1999), p. 99 (quoting Pablillos de Valladolid).
- ^ Massine, My Life in Ballet (London: Macmillan 1968), pp. 114–119, quote at 117–118.
- ^ Cf. Lynn Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Oxford University, 1989), pp. 88–90, at 89.
- ^ Cf., Meira Goldberg, "Juana Vargas 'La Macarrona': A flamenco treasure" (2015). Evidently there is 1917 film of La Macarrona dancing, taken by Léonide Massine.
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (1964, 1988) at 187–188.
- solearesshe created. ... And by her waist, by her arms, she was climbing on the fluid surge of the dance... ." Quoting Caballero Bonald in Spanish article "Juana la Macarrona" at website Flamenco World.
- ^ Manuel Ríos Ruiz, Introducción al Cante Flamenco (Madrid: Editiones Istmo, 1972, 1988), at 231 (the singers). The honorific Tío is Spanish for "uncle".
- ^ Weber's New World Dictionary (New York: Simon and Schuster, 3d college ed. 1991) at 809. As British colonial overreaching, mocked in a popular song of the American revolution: "Yankee Doodle dandy, stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni!"
- ^ Diccionario de la Lengua Española (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 18th edn Real Academia Española, 1956) at 823.
- ^ Weber's New World Dictionary (3rd college edn 1991) at 809.
- ^ Ríos Vargas, Antología del Baile Fllamenco [c.2001], p. 166.
- ^ The film involved a gypsy girl from Granada called Violeta, who reads the hand of a young lady who marries the emperor of France Napoleon III. The film was remade in 1952.
- ^ See below for these shows.
- ^ Sevilla, Queen of the Gypsies (1988), p.99 (quote).
- Editorial Bruguera, 1971, 1974), pp. 19–21. Often then Gitanosled lives guided by ancient tribal values, enjoying a rural vitality and a savvy intuition. Yet changing urban customs eluded many.
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (1988), p.213-214 (as elder dancing, the burglary, benefits, author quotes).
- ^ "They don't even want us in the cafés anymore, when we have always been the queens of the world. But time does away with everything." Juan de la Plata, Flamencos in Jerez, quoting the La Macarrona interview, repeated by Pohren who then translates in his Lives and Legends (1988), pp. 214-215.
- ^ Sevilla, Queen of the Gypsies (1999), pp. 63, 216 (Juana teaches Rosario).
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends (1988), pp. 214–215 (Teresita the favorite); 237–238 (Rosario's ballet flamenco ), 199 (Los Chavalillos de España).
- ^ Ángel Álvarez Caballero, El cante flamenco (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1994), p. 216 (the judges; "¡lapoteosis!").
- ^ Here "jaleo" is agitanado Spanish for "cries of encouragement to flamenco performers".
- ^ Eduardo Molina Fajardo, Manuel de Falla y el "Cante Jondo" (Universidad de Granada, 1962, 2nd edn 1998), pp. 136–137 (her Concurso dance and the quoted description), p. 139 (her jaleo "¡lapoteosis!").
- ^ "La Macarrona, supple as if she had remained still set in her unforgettable sixteenth year, became a goddess of ancient rites, full of hesitation and mystery, yet she then summoned the ardor and accelerated the rhythm. Her flamenco dress appeared to become a wave, the wind, a flower."
- ^ "Juana la Macarrona" at Flamenco World, in Spanish.
- ^ Sevilla, Queen of the Gypsies (1999), pp. 169–170 ("folkloric" quote at 169); p.65 (La Argentina's earlier production at request of Falla; cf. p. 186). La Argentina (1890–1936) and La Argentinita (1898-1945) were not related (pp. 72-73).
- ^ Ríos Vargas, Antología del Baile Flamenco [c.2001], p. 113: La Argentina (Antonia Mercé Luque) had produced Falla's El Amor Brujo at the Trianón Lírico de París in 1925.
- ^ Manual Orozco Diaz, Falla (Barcelona: Salvat Editores, 1965), pp. 63–73 re Falla's El Amor Brujo.
- ^ Sevilla, Queen of the Gypsies (1999), p. 169 (García Lorca, Ballet Español).
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (Madrid 1964, 1988), p. 368 (the three dancers in "gipsy caves", the star dancers, quote re Ballet Español, tour) [source: letter of Antonio de Triana]. Cf. Vicente Escudero, p. 191. Pilar López was La Argentinita's sister (p. 229).
- ^ Ríos Vargas, Antología del Baile Flamenco (c.2001), p. 115: the three dancers, "queines encarnaban a las tres brujas" (who personified the three enchantresses).
- ^ Sevilla, Queen of the Gypsies. The life and legend of Carmen Amaya (San Diego, 1999), p. 178 (quote).
- ^ José Samperio, Carmen Amaya (New York: Luo Dunetz and Paul Lovette, 1955), quoted in Sevilla (1999), p. 178.
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (1964, 1988), pp. 218–219: "It was a matter of opinion who danced better, La Malena or La Macarrona, but it was almost universally agreed that these friendly rivals were the supreme bailaoras of their epoch." Views on Carmen Amaya (1913–1963), at pp. 230–237.
- ^ José Samperio, Carmen Amaya (c.1955), "her demons" quote, "the Queen" quote, Faraona status; related by Sevilla in his Queen of the Gypsies (1999), at p.178.
- ^ Cf., Francisco Hidalgo Gómez, Carmen Amaya. La biografía (2013), p.86. The author similarly describes a scene: Carmen Amaya encountering the enthusiasm of La Macarrrona and La Malena during a memorable night in Sevilla. Yet Hidalgo's very brief version is apparently dated circa 1923.
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (Madrid 1964, 1988), pp. 214, 226, 125–126 (the show, La Argentinita).
- ^ Ríos Vargas, Antología del Baile Flamenco [c2001], p. 115 (show; La Macarrona played a bruja).
- ^ Cf., Félix Grande, in his Memoria del Flamenco (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1979), two volumes, 2: pp. 527–528, 531–539. This era has been called the era of "ópera flamenco". Said to be unfortunate for adulterating flamenco for commercial purposes, nonetheless these flamenco performances continued its popularity.
- ^ The other bailaoras were: Fernanda Antúnez (b. 1875), La Sordita (b. 1870), and La Malena (b. 1870). Pohren, Lives and Legends (1988), pp. 217, 218, 219 (bailaoras); 127–128, 226 (the barrio), "high point" quote at p. 226.
- ^ "Juana la Macarrona" at Flamenco World, Spanish article.
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends (1988), pp. 125, 214.
- ^ Sevilla, Queen of the Gypsies (1999), pp. 206–207 (1940 show).
- ^ "The modern kids, the youth of today, look at us as if we were something rare, without stopping to think that we have made three generations cry with our gitanerías." Quoted from a 1935 newspaper article and translated by Pohren, Lives and Legends (1964, 1988), at pp. 214–215. Juana had given a 1935 interview, printed in a Sevilla newspaper, excerpts appearing in Juan de la Plata's book Flamencos de Jerez. Pohren draws a string of quotes from it.
- ^ Triana, Arte y Artistas Flamencos (1935, 2009), p. 148: "Todo cuanto se diga de su arte es pálido ante la realidad." Translation by Pohren, Lives and Legends (1988), p. 214.
- ^ Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco (1964, 1988), p. 215; "greatest" quote p. 212.
- ^ An award at the Concurso nacional de Córdoba has been named the "Juana la Macarrona" prize in her honor.
- ^ Ríos Vargas, Antología del Baile Fllamenco [c2001], pp. 166-167, dances and music named for her. Two pasodobles: Vargas la Macarrona and Macarrona Flamencona; and an alegrías (type of flamenco song): Alegrías de la Macaronna.
- ^ Cf. Triana, Arte y Artistas Flamencos (1935, 2009): photographs of La Macarrona at pp. 72, 73.
See also
- Flamenco dance
- Carmen Amaya
- Silverio Franconetti
- Café Cantante
- Concurso de Cante Jondo: Events of the Concurso
- La Argentina
- La Argentinita
- Women in dance
External links
- Juana la Macarrona at website El Arte de vivir el flamenco, article in Spanish, with photographs.
- Juana la Macarrona at Flamenco World, article in Spanish, with photograph.
- K. Meira Goldberg, "Juana Vargas 'La Macarrona': A flamenco treasure" (New York Public Library 2015). Photographs and text.
- es:Juana la Macarrona a Wikipedia, La enciclopedia libre.