Between the Church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, San Fernando (Cádiz), to the marshes and salt pans of the Sancti Petri channel, is the neighborhood of the streetsthe environment in which José Monje Cruz grew up, Island Shrimp. He said that people didn’t understand the way he felt but it wouldn’t be because he didn’t sing it…
In the summers of his childhood, when he left the forge where his father worked, he would stop to take a look. a bath in the Zuazo bridge (San Fernando) and ended the days Sale of Vargas to see the artists who sang.
He wanted to be a bullfighter, but he was not good at it. In reality, life had something better prepared for him, recounting through alegrías, tangos, bulerías and sevillanas what he felt. And so, from the patios of the Callejuelas and the inns of San Fernando, his art crossed the ocean that saw him grow.
His most controversial album, ‘La Leyenda del Tiempo’, was the album with which he revolutionized flamenco. Incorporating the electric bass into his songs, many flamenco lovers did not understand his music. “you’ll like it“, he said, as if he knew that that disaster in sales would later be an anecdote to remember in his international success.
Camarón de la Isla was ahead of his time whose only preparation when it came to getting on stage, to warm up his voice, was his Winston.
The July 2, 1992José Monje Cruz dies at 7 in the morning due to his lung cancer at the Germans Trías i Pujol Hospital, in Badalona.
His origins
30 years after his death, his name is still in the words of the people, his songs are still playing and many ‘shrimp farmers’ of all ages are still walking around the places where the artist grew up to be filled with his spell.
Curiosity remains about its roots. So much so that earlier this year his biography was published in graphic novel mode: ‘Shrimp, they say about me‘, by Carlos Reymán (text) and Raulowsky (illustrations). “Flamenco in my land is an element of identity. In a work about flamenco, obviously Camarón was the most suitable to open that tribute“, Raulowsky tells laSexta.com. The illustrator assures that this project was also very personal since his partner Carlos Reymán, also a screenwriter for the novel, died just when it was published: “All those consequences are also in the work. When Carlos is diagnosed with the tumor, I find myself drawing Camarón in that state. And when I finished my drawings, my friend was dying. The comic takes you by the hand to the death of Camarón de la Isla, to his legend. It has been a very beautiful and painful job“.
In this work, Raulowsky draws the name of each chapter with the mythical tiles that carry the streets of the center of San Fernando: “These tiles are the representation of flamenco, of how it is mestizo. Being stuck on the wall, when it fell in the old days one letter had to be put in another, and the typography was never the same, it was cleaner and newer, but purity and miscegenation is still there“. The same thing happened with Camarón’s flamenco. “He sang what he lived and how he did it. He was sincere, authentic and humble, that’s why many people have followed him, “adds the author.
Camarón’s way of being, his purity and humility, attracted a lot of public attention because they felt identified with him and admired him for carrying his art with total naturalness. Lolo Picardo, spokesman for the Venta de Vargas family, insists on this: “Even in that he was a revolutionary. Shrimp was very good peopleHe didn’t speak ill of anyone. The gypsies came with their sick children so that Camarón could touch them and heal them. He used to get ‘colorao’, he said that he sang but that he didn’t know how to cure. He was very humble.”
Shrimp’s San Fernando
This July 2, as on every anniversary of his death, the mausoleum is dressed with colored flowers brought by his family and followersalthough Nuria López, technical manager of the San Fernando Tourist Office, assures that not a day goes by without someone coming to replace them: “It is a very authentic place. His grave always has flowers“.
López explains to laSexta.com that for San Fernando, Camarón is always a claim. Thus, he says that a year ago, next to Venta de Vargas, his interpretation Center, a museum with all kinds of Camarón’s personal items that his own family has donated so that anyone who wants to can visit it: “It’s open every day except Monday and it’s free.” “There are his shirts, his records, his musical pieces… There are notebooks with super curious comments in his own handwriting, a large number of strange instruments that he collected… He was innovative, groundbreaking… A genius,” he explains.
The house where Camarón lived with his parents is also open to the public. “There are two people who are in charge of making the visit because seeing it is not the same as being told about it.” Nuria López assures that it is essential to listen to the story of his childhood when you arrive at his native house since now, after so many years have passed, it is renovated and requires an explanation in order to imagine how they lived: “They are neighbors’ patios where the kitchen and bathrooms were shared… And inside it had two very small rooms.” In order not to make a spoiler, I am not telling what López revealed to me that they leave for the final part: “Some tears fall when you get there“.
Another of the essential places to visit on this ‘route’ of emblematic places in Camarón is the Venta de Vargas: “Camarón was like my uncle. The Venta gave him his place to make himself known and he gave us everything, among other , to be the best flamenco place in the history of Spain”, also tells Lolo Picardo, who assures that, every year, they receive some 20,000 people of all nationalities “expressly for Camarón”. “Camarón came to sing here, it was his house, he knew the sale better than anyone. He sang what came to him. At the age of 17 he released an album that he recorded here, with a recorder at the door. Alberto García Alix took his photos here most famous, and this was even the place where he celebrated the baptism of his youngest son. It lasted three days, it was a scandal”, confesses Picardo.
Camarón slid the middle fingers of both hands down to touch the palms. Despite all the instruments that he was getting to know throughout his life, that alone was enough to accompany his scratchy voice and leave everyone breathless when listening to him. “After 30 years, people continue to name him and remember him. We we say that it is the reason why Camarón is still living“.
Source: Lasexta
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
