Legends of Time: flamenco during the Spanish Transition to democracy

The Transition to democracy (1975-1982) is a complex and still much-debated period in the recent history of Spain. Less frequent, however, are discussions about the ways in which flamenco was part of the struggles for the construction of a new democratic society in the first years after the Franco-dictatorship. 

The Transition is the time in which great flamenco artists like Camarón de la Isla, Enrique Morente and Paco de Lucía became stars; but it is also a period in which more marginal artists used flamenco to express their memories of the past. 

This talk led by Carlos Van Tongeren, Lecturer in Spanish Cultural Studies at the University of Manchester, and the flamencologist Ramón Soler, shows that flamenco was an essential part of the changes that took place in Spanish society during the Transition to democracy. 

Using examples from songs, films, theatre pieces and texts, this conference wants to open a debate about the relations between flamenco and historical memory.