Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco, Seville, Spain

Flamenco is our most authentic cultural identity; is the art in our land, a symbol that identifies us as Andalusians inside and outside our borders. The Andalusian Institute of Flamenco is an Andalusian institution created in Jerez de la Frontera, dedicated to the recovery, conservation, research and diffusion of flamenco.

Flamenco is a dance style typical of Andalusia. Its main facets are the cante, the touch and the dance, also counting on its own traditions and norms. As we know it today it dates from the eighteenth century, and controversy exists about its origin, since although there are different opinions and slopes, none of them has been able to be verified of historical form. Although the RAE dictionary associates it especially with the Roma, 1 is more than perceptible the fusion of the different cultures that coincided in the Andalusia of the time. Of all the hypotheses about its origin, the most widespread thesis is the one that exposes the Moorish origin, only the cultural mestizaje that at that time occurred in Andalusia: native, Muslim, Gypsy, Castilian and Jewish; favored its creation. In fact, the region of Andalusia already existed its germen long before the gypsies arrived, also taking into account that there were gypsies in other regions of Spain and Europe, but flamenco was only cultivated by those who were in Andalusia.

Its popularity in Latin America has been such that in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico, diverse groups and academies have emerged. Its wide diffusion and study in Chile has allowed even the appearance of well-known national figures such as guitarists Carlos Ledermann and Carlos Pacheco Torres, who teaches flamenco guitar at the Rafael Orozco Conservatory of Music in Cordoba. In Japan it is so popular that there are more flamenco academies in that country than in Spain.

It has abundant material related to it: a music library with almost 15,000 recordings, videos, newspaper library, graphic file and a library with more than 5,500 volumes and 1,200 printed music files. Recently it has been extended with a generous donation of the Chair of Flamencology that includes, among others, many unique slate discs. In 2017 received the donation of the documentary fund of the flamenco critic Ángel Álvarez Caballero.

Since November 2016 the documentary archive of the critic Ángel Álvarez Caballero, which counts more than 23,000 pieces.

In 2017 he has also received the legacy of Juan de la Plata, the Cádiz singer Mariana Cornejo and the bailaora Angelita Gómez.

At present, the Andalusian Center for Documentation of Flamenco directs its efforts towards the future conservation, in digital format of its sound and graphic backgrounds, and in the diffusion of the same using the new possibilities of dissemination in network, and through periodic expositions on flamenco artists

Likewise, there is a work of diffusion of flamenco in the education in acts like the provincial days of 'Flamenco and Education'.

From its creation in 1987 until today, the Andalusian Center of Flamenco has had six directors. On the last one, in 2015 it was known that Luis Guerrero, member of the PSOE had been charged to direct the Center for three years without even having stepped on it.

In November 2010 Unesco declared it Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity3 at the initiative of the Autonomous Communities of Andalusia, Extremadura and Murcia. It is also Intangible Cultural Heritage Ethnological Andalusian and is inscribed in the General Inventory of Furniture Goods of the Region of Murcia established by the Directorate General of Fine Arts and Cultural Heritage.
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