From now on all the flamenco activity in Mijas will be included under the brand ‘Duende y Compás. With alma mijeña' (Charm and Rhythm. With the soul of Mijas). This was announced on Monday 24th by the councillor for Culture of the Mijas Town Hall, Juan Carlos Maldonado (PMP), who presented the initiative together with representatives of the four flamenco peñas in the municipality: El Gallo, La Unión del Cante, Peña Flamenca del Sur and El Pitero. 

"‘Duende y Compás‘ is a promotional brand, which emerged from the flamenco board in Mijas, it is municipal programme with which we want give flamenco the boost it deserves", explained the councillor.

 

Mijas, a benchmark for flamenco

"In Mijas there are many activities related to flamenco thanks to the peñas. We are the municipality with the most peñas in the whole province and I would dare say in the whole of Andalusia. Therefore, what we wanted to do with this project is to link all this activity through a municipal programme called ‘Duende y Compás’, which allows us to give visibility to all these actions in a joint and unified way, among other things, in order to help the peñas to raise funds to carry out their activities", Maldonado explained. 

 

Institutional and private support

For the councillor for Culture it is essential that the private sector also joins this bandwagon of support for our flamenco culture. "All the businessmen and all the institutions that see that flamenco is a benchmark here in Mijas will also want to participate in this public-private alliance that we always talk about, in all these programmes, because at the end of the day culture is also economic activity and the possibility of promoting tourism in the municipality".  

For Maldonado, "flamenco has a great cultural and economic value and is an incentive, an attraction and a resource that we have to make the most of, so that tourism, which is our main economic engine, has another powerful segment such as culture and especially flamenco".  

Culture, with the soul of Mijas

Under the slogan ‘Cultura, con alma mijeña’ (Culture, with the soul of Mijas), all the flamenco peñas in Mijas join this municipal programme to support flamenco. "Everything that is done in Mijas is fabulous, we are very happy with Culture, because it supports all the peñas and we also have the sponsorships. If the peña were on its own it wouldn't be able to function as it is functioning", said María Ángeles Martín, responsible for social media at the Peña Flamenca El Gallo. 

The president of the Peña Flamenca La Unión del Cante, Diego Morilla, expressed himself in the same way: "I think it's important that the Town Hall supports our music, which is flamenco, and under this programme 'Duende y Compás', which has been created in Mijas. I think this project is good and very interesting. Someone who has been fighting for more than 40 years for our music to be recognised and for it to reach the schools, knows how important it is to support flamenco".

Hand in hand

The Culture Department is grateful for the support of the peñas for the development of this programme. "The truth is that we are very satisfied from the area of Culture with the participation of our flamenco peñas, always collaborating in any activity, and we also want to involve all Mijeños, we want them to participate when activities related to flamenco are organised, because they are open to everyone", added the councillor.  

'Duende y Compás. Con alma mijeña', therefore, is a collection of all the cultural programs of each peña, which seeks to highlight the close ties that Mijas has with the art of flamenco. In Mijas there is and always has been a lot of flamenco culture and the young people are also coming on strong. Supporting this art, our own, an intangible heritage of humanity, is essential for it to occupy its rightful place in society, in culture. 

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