Reviving Spanish culture through Anda Jaleo

While the world was busy devising their New Year’s resolution, I was occupied with a more serious matter: the music album to start the New Year with.

This is not an easy task as music – just like perfumes can remind you instantly of good or bad times depending on the year. For example, in 2020 I decided to start the year with Rosalía’s album Los Ángeles and the year didn’t turn out to be as magical as expected.

Now whenever I hear Rosalía’s girl-like voice singing “the world is leagues and leagues,” it takes me back to driving through Muscat’s semi-empty roads during the pandemic. This year – and just like the past two years I chose to listen to my favourite Spanish singer Rozalén’s new album Matriz (matrix).

The album celebrates the diversity of Spanish culture and contains some revived traditional songs in Spain’s official languages: Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Vasque. One of the tracks that attracted my attention was a Bulería style song called Anda Jaleo (Come on shout!).

It wasn’t like any other flamenco song I heard before where singers are all lovesick and begging for poison to end their misery (to which my typical Arab response is always: “Ya aa’mi buy it yourself! It’s cheap!). This song was deep and literate as the opening verse is: “I came upon a pine tree, to see if I could catch a glimpse of her, but I only saw the dust, raised by the car she travelled in.”

I decided to research the song and was surprised to know that the lyrics were written by Fredrico Garcia Lorca, Spain’s iconic poet. But what’s the story behind this song and its significance to Spanish culture?

It all started in the twenties of the last century when Spaniards started considering flamenco old-fashioned and preferring modern music to it.

This concerned Lorca and a few of his friends who decided to revive this authentic Spanish art. They started gathering popular songs and ballads from the gypsies living in the caves of Granada where he came from.

The song Anda Jaleo was not only sang by the gypsies, but also mentioned in 19th century Spanish songs compilation by authors José Hurtado and Francisco Ocón. The song Anda Jaleo was originally called The Diligence and the Smugglers of Ronda.

The opening verse of the song had the singer cry after coming upon a pine tree and marvelling how green it was, which Lorca changed to become instead an enamoured climbing the pine tree in hope of catching a glimpse of his beloved but all he sees is the dust raised by her car.

However, he kept the original chorus Anda Jaleo (come on shout!) and the second verse where the roughness of the smugglers is felt: Now we’re done with the ruckus, let’s get on with the shooting! This roughness is suddenly overridden with a gentle plea to a pigeon not to come out as he’s a hunter who’ll feel remorse if he kills her (and later finds a dead pigeon on the street of Los Muros that he makes a crown of flowers for). Lorca’s version of the song became popular when it was recorded in 1931, where he played the piano and La Argentinita sang it among other traditional songs. These songs were part of Lorca’s travelling theatre company La Barraca that travelled throughout Spain to raise social awareness among peasants, especially that of their rights.

The song was banned after Lorca’s assassination in 1936 and during Franco’s regime. Now 93 years later Anda Jaleo continues thriving as everything else with Lorca’s enchanting touch. Listening is recommended.