On February 28, 1980, Andalucía held a referendum on the Statute of Autonomy that made Andalucía an autonomous community in Spain. Every year since then, we use this day as a way to show how proud we are of Andalucía, our people, our food, our symbols and everything that makes this region one of the most special places in the world (yes, I am a proud “andaluza”). If you have children that attend a local school, I warn you that you will spend hours listening to your child rehearsing the Anthem of Andalucía with the flute and that they might get addicted to molletes – and it will all be because of this specific holiday.
Once you become an adult, you understand that being from Andalucía means more than a one-day celebration at school. You understand that Andalucía is the perfect representation of how different people, cultures and religions can coexist throughout thousands of years of history. When you walk around the streets of any town, you feel like you have traveled back to the time when the Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans or Carthaginians inhabited this land. When you pay close attention to our culture, you feel the Christian, Moorish and Jewish heritage. All this makes this region a land of history, traditions and art known by the rest of the world.
The best example of how our heritage and history has created something unique is flamenco. Andalucía is the birthplace of flamenco, the most important flamenco singer in the world, Camarón de la Isla, and the most important flamenco guitarist in the world, Paco de Lucía. There is one other reason that makes us proud when we say “I am from Andalucía”: the amount of intellectuals, writers and artists that were born in this region. Federico García Lorca, Pablo Picasso, Lola Flores, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Maria Zambrano, Rafael Alberti, Carmen de Burgos, Luis García Montero, Diego Velázquez, Joaquín Sabina, Alejandro Sanz, Victoria Kent, Rocío Jurado, Felipe Benitez Reyes… I could spend the entire day naming influential “andaluces”. If you do not recognize some of these names, I encourage you to do a little bit of research – you might end up realizing that you have seen a couple of them walking around the streets of Rota!
Maybe two or three years is not enough time to relate to this feeling I just tried to explain. However, it is more than enough time to visit every corner of this gorgeous region. Make the most of your time here, go out and explore – I promise you will not be disappointed!
The Father of Andalucía
We owe our symbols of identity to Blas Infante, the “Father of Andalucía”.
Blas Infante was a politician, writer, historian and musicologist born in 1885 in Casares, Malaga. He spent most of his life fighting for Andalucía’s autonomy, dignity and identity, and he was the mastermind behind the flag and the emblem, which, per our Statue of Autonomy of 1981, are the official symbols of Andalucía.
The Green and White flag represents our countryside, purity and hope for a better future, and the emblem is inspired in the city of Cadiz and shows Hercules with two lions and reads "ANDALUCÍA POR SI, PARA ESPAÑA Y LA HUMANIDAD" (Andalucía by itself, for Spain and for Humanity).
Blas Infante also wrote the Anthem of Andalucía. The anthem was presented to the public by the municipal band of Sevilla during a concert on July 10, 1936 – a week before the start of the Spanish Civil War. The next time the anthem was performed in public, was over forty years later, when Spain transitioned to democracy.
Blas Infante was executed by General Franco’s forces on August 10, 1936 during the civil war due to his political activism. He never saw the impact he had in our history and our identity. He never saw the amazing Andalucía that we get to live in and call home.
| Date Taken: | 02.28.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 02.28.2023 08:23 |
| Story ID: | 439341 |
| Location: | ROTA , ES |
| Web Views: | 103 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, February 28th: Dia de Andalucía, by Alejandra Tirapu Lucero, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
