One of the great strengths of the flamenco the base is the fan club collective, the volunteer fans who work with dedication in their associations and who form such a core of unbreakable people, who are always bearing the inconveniences, disadvantages or inconveniences that arise, through thick and thin, always there, no matter what happens.
The social commitment and voluntary efforts of the members, their willingness to commit to improving and transforming reality, are assets worth taking into account. And, in addition, in the managers who support the PeñaIn Flamencas there is an enormous motivation and a great sense of responsibility for the social and informative work that they carry out.peñan, for the achievement of the objectives that are proposed.
I would like to focus today on that implication Peña Flamenca The Forge of Bellavista, which on Sunday, April 27, 2025, celebrates its golden anniversary, half a century with the motivation and energy of men and women united by a common goal in the performance of flamenco diffusion, in addition to being able to explain the capacity for survival, for permanence despite the difficulties.
In the origins flamencos of the expansive Sevillian neighborhood of Nice view, we must recall, back in the forties of the last century, Diego the Horse, who ran the White Horse Tavern, and Master Leo, a baker, whose excessive passion had such an impact on those closest to him.
But it is fair to say that, if my memory does not betray me, the flamenco relevance of such a popular neighborhood began to occur with the creation of the Peña Flamenca The Forge of Bellavista, an entity that owes its name to an initiative of Antonio Cid Pérez and began his journey at 18 Enamorados Street, where he was baptized flamenco from Seville Peña Flamenca de Torres Macarena.
«The culmination of the activities of the Peña Flamenca The Forge of Bellavista arrived every year with the Festival Flamenco La Fragua, a meeting that fortunately persists and that in 2025 will reach its 45th edition with the satisfaction of having fulfilled its duty: to be the oldest event of the dog days that Seville offers its visitors.
It was April 27, 1975 when a group of friends like Vicente Hurtado Cobo, who was its first president, Juan MendezJosé Cabello Romero – the tireless and good friend Pepe Cabello–, Juan José Hidalgo Espadiña, Manuel Martos and brothers Manolo and Juan Muñoz, among many others, managed to carry out their dreams by creating a serious project that was endorsed by some forty-five founding members.
That same year, with a hundred members, they would fill a gap that the cultural authorities had neglected: creating and consolidating a Festival Flamenco in Seville, as this objective was actually the reason for its foundation. And the following year, they would fulfill the aspiration of calling the fans to the contest that, for those of the jurors, had to disappear in its seventeenth edition, that is, back in 1993.
Much has happened since then, quite a lot, if you look at the rain gauge. However, its legendary social club on Caldereros Street – now at 17 Gaspar Calderas Street, and under the leadership of Angeles Fernandez Merida– has served as a meeting point for the exaltation and dignity of this cultural phenomenon.
During the winter period, amateurs and top figures alternated –Antonio Mairena y Camarón de la Isla They did not know the taste of their applause - with the already traditional 'Partner's Women's Day', in addition to planning the contest, a contest that in its first editions was written with a sense of feeling for the sake of Fernando Góngora (1976) Jose Galan (1977) Pepe Cabello (1978) and Fernando Porrito (1979)
Without losing the trail of the contest, the decade of the eighties was marked by the triumph of Marcelo Sousa (1980) Child Mattress (1981) José Parrondo (1982) Paco Moya (1983) Kiki from Castilblanco (1984) Little Blonde from Pará (1985), again Marcelo Sousa (1986), Jose Tirado (1987) The Hardware Store (1988) and Pepe from Ecija (1989)
"Although it doesn't appear on the map of the territories that generate flamenco forms, I believe that Bellavista is a neighborhood that occupies a prominent place in our history, thanks above all to the greatness of those who were born there, the space built by the artists who visit it, and, especially, the vital, sometimes thankless, role of its fans."
The nineties finally recorded the names of Manolo Cordero (1990) Manuel Restoy (1991) and Juan Delgado (1992), all singers who filled the joys of cabales that tempered the strings of their sensibilities in this welcoming Forge, such that José CantudoPepe Cabello and his son Emilio Cabello, the Cordovan Pepín de BellavistaJuan Mendez, Teresa Gómez Guerra –godmother of La Fragua–, the dancer Jose Joaquin and the guitarists Pura's Child, Antonio Gamez, Ishmael Guijarro and not sufficiently weighted Isidoro Carmona.
The culmination of the activities came, however, each year with the Festival Flamenco Forge, a meeting that fortunately persists and that in 2025 will reach its 45th edition with the satisfaction of having fulfilled its duty: to be the dean event of the dog days that Seville capital offers its visitors.
Although it doesn't appear on the map of territories that generate flamenco forms, I believe that Bellavista is a neighborhood that occupies a prominent place in our history, thanks above all to the greatness of those who were born there, the space built by the artists who visit it, and, especially, the vital, sometimes thankless, role of its fans.
It is his followers who, encouraged by the defense of Andalusian culture, have been forging what is now 50 years old. jondo, disseminating their ethical values and social attitudes, and installing in public opinion the sensations and emotions that emanate from the fact flamenco, attractive rather than potential for a specific social sector: youth. Congratulations, then, because your perseverance has paid off.
