Lucas López, Mairena's ambassador in Almería (I)

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The (alleged) antiquity of the cantes

Who did Antonio Mairena imitate?

In the private and flamenco relationships of Antonio Mairena There are protagonists who affected him on a personal level but also artistically, such as lucas lopez lopez, with whom he not only had effective communication, but we could define him as one of the fundamental actors of Mairenism, a school understood as the return to the aesthetic ideals of classicism flamenco but without giving up other conquests –harmonic, rhythmic and melodic– that, in the end, future modernity would demand.

And we say this because the prolongation of the melodic line, the recitation and the stretching of the phrasing went to the background with Antonio, and those acquired much more importance. cantes fundamentals in which the stroke is more forceful and the color and texture of the voice is something more than a complement to collect easy applause.

Having established this preliminary, it is known that the most renowned amateur and constant point of reference in the flamenco The Almerian is, without a doubt, Lucas López. And I say this without ambiguity, given that he proposed the scope of action on two levels never known until then: he offers Almería, on the one hand, a reference range, and on the other, he grants the flamenco a statute of authority, which is the guarantee of the jonda presence of Almería in the rest of the world.

He is from an eminent generation – that of Francisco Moreno Galvan o Capuletti–, well, son of the Virgitano Antonio López and from Almería Filomena Lopez, was born on January 29, 1925 in the Reducto (others say 02-01-1925 on Santa María street in the San Antón neighborhood), at the foot of La Alcazaba, with the merit that, committed to the flamenco Since he was old enough to remember, he played a very active role in determining the territory as an area of ​​Flemish influence.

We are, then, in the centenary of his birth, and Lucas – let me call him that, simply, because for the person signing he was like one more of my family – grew up hearing singing flamenco both at the door of the bars where drinks were served and by the hand of his father, with whom he took him at the age of ten to listen to Manuel Vallejo, Pepe Pinto, Angelillo y The Peluso, among others.

A year later, we find him as an apprentice in a pharmacy, and later he would become a business teacher and director of administration at the Hotel Simón. In 1949 he joined the Almería City Council as head of Accounting, where he was its auditor until he retired in 1990, in addition to working in his private life as an administrative manager or having held positions in the Football Federation and the Semana Santa Association.

«He is from an eminent generation, since the son of Antonio López from Virgi and Filomena López from Almería, he was born on January 29, 1925 in the Reducto, at the foot of La Alcazaba, with the merit that, committed to the flamenco Since he was old enough to reason, he played a very active role in determining the territory as an area of ​​Flemish influence.

On that vital journey, we stop on March 22, 1963. The Teatro Cervantes hosted the final of a Competition Cante by Antonio Quiros, director of Radio AlmeriaThe winner was the Almeria native Jose Sorroche and at the end of the party the singer performed RaphaelThe jury members were Rafael Monterreal Aleman as president, Diego Lopez Lopez (Diego the Clown), Christopher Munoz Montoya, Jose Gonzalez Vergara known for Child of Álora or Pepe de Álora, and Lucas López.

That same night, as on another occasion We recount in Expoflamenco, it was decided to create a Peña Flamenca in Almería, when the associative fabric in Andalusia was in embryo, since there were only six peñas: The Silversmith (Grenada, 1949), The Well of Sorrows (The Palaces, 1951), The Bordones (Cordoba, 1953), Juan Breva (1958) Peña from Lucena (1959) and Peña Paco Herrera (Chiclana de la Frontera, 1962).

Those five visionaries who explored a new way to spread the flamenco They began to meet twice a week at Lucas's house, located on the third floor of a building on Paseo de Almería, opposite the building of the now defunct Casino Cultural. There the first projects were hatched and the task of drafting the statutes was undertaken, using the one that governed the club as a model. Peña Juan Breva from Malaga, which was provided to them by Mr. Perfecto Artola, director of the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra, with Rafael Monterreal Alemán as its first president (1963).

The entity, which was initially going to be called Peña Flamenca Fosforito, in accordance with its good intentions, but which it ignored, displaying its greatness of spirit, was registered in the Registry of Associations of the Civil Government with the number 1 of its kind, on May 15, 1965, and therefore its “official” start-up as such. peña with the name of The Taranto.

The company's registered office was set up at number 39, Calle San Antón, near Plaza de Pavía, where Lucas's mother, Mrs. Filomena López Fernández, had a business. And that is where the first steps were taken provisionally.

And I say provisional because Lucas was persevering, always ready to overcome challenges and find the strength and resilience to move forward. The City Council had the Arab Cisterns, at 20 Tenor Iribarne Street, a premises ceded, along with 5.000 pesetas for its repair, to an association run by the industrialist Arts of Arches, but unused and unrepaired, and was only used as a warehouse for the public works brigade and with an attached dwelling for the head of Services. But we will describe the subsequent events in the next installment.