José Monje Cruz, Camarón de la Isla, is probably the greatest flamenco emblem of all time. What Michael Jackson has been to pop or Elvis Presley to rock and roll, Camarón is to flamenco music.
1 Before you were Camarón, what did they call you?
You may have heard why he was given the name Camarón. Well, yes, for being a thin, blond boy, as I saidthe shrimp, a type of small shrimp that is very typical of the coast of Cádiz. But do you know what they used to call him? Pijote Chico. His older brother, Jesús, was called Pijote, so they didn’t complicate things any further. It wasn’t until his uncle told him he looked like a shrimp that he was renamed.
2 The recipe of your voice
Can you imagine Camarón de la Isla’s voice as a child? Among those who saw him sing as a child, it is said that he was already a prodigy, that he had music in his throat. No wonder that, while still very young, he won the first competitions that accelerated his fame, and it is considered that his official presentation to the world was at the age of 16. However, he preferred his voice past the cigarette holder, which brings us to the next piece of information.
His ability to convey a wide range of emotions, from heartbreaking sadness to exhilarating joy, is what makes Camarón de Isla such a revered figure in the flamenco community and what makes him a unique artist.
3 Up to 70 cigarettes a day
Camarón said that to warm up his voice before singing he needed to smoke a few Winston cigarettes, but his entourage counted up to 70 cigarettes a day. In fact, in the book written after the death of the artist between Camarón’s wife, La Chispa, and the journalist Alfonso Rodríguez, Marcelo Camus, the artist’s psychiatrist, assures that his only true addiction was tobacco. That is why, after countless treatments when he was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to continue smoking and simply enjoy the time he had left surrounded by his loved on
4The true passion of Camarón de la Isla
Perhaps you already know that what the little “shrimp” wanted from the beginning was to become a bullfighter. As a child, he was fascinated by bullfighting, perhaps because his father’s forge was right next to the bullring. Close to its handle was the Venta de Vargas, a flamenco venue, a tablao, where many bullfighters used to go and José Monje used to go to the door with all the excitement of seeing the bullfighting masters of the time.
When he was still very young, he liked to trim the heifers and even had a bullfighter’s costume. So it is not surprising that Camarón and Curro Romero admired each other. Because the cantaor wanted to be a bullfighter and the bullfighter wanted to be a cantaor. Such was their connection that even when Camarón released his last album, Potro de Rabia y Miel, an opening performance with Curro Romero was being prepared for the VII Bienal de Arte Flamenco de Sevilla. Unfortunately, lung cancer took him a couple of months earlier, at the age of 41, in July 1992.
5 His first steps on the guitar
Following his search for his talent in his Spanish roots, Camarón de la Isla also fantasised about playing the guitar. Although as a child he started playing every time he saw a Spanish guitar, and although he can be seen in many videos singing and playing at the same time, the truth is that Camarón was never able to develop his mastery of the guitar as much as he would have liked, because he was called to sing. But like many enthusiasts, he turned the guitar into a hobby. Hence, by the end of his life he had amassed a large collection of guitars.
6 The Honeys of Failure
Failure is part of success, even if it is hard to see in the moment. This is what Camarón understood the day he released his most revolutionary album, The Legend of Time. Already handling the classic flamenco palos and being in Madrid, Camarón came up with the idea of fusing the purest of flamenco with other music that could fit in, such as jazz or rock and even some distant instruments, such as the Indian sitar. However, this development was not well received by the public. At the time of its release, it sold barely 6,000 copies (and he used to sell more than 30,000).
The listeners, unaccustomed to that mixture, reproached Camarón for having lost his purity. Hence the famous interview in which he replies: “Purity can never be lost, when you really have it inside you. The only thing I see is that people still don’t understand me the way I sing. My way of feeling, people still haven’t understood it.o”. Today, La Leyenda del Tiempo is considered a masterpiece of flamenco fusion.
7 How many children does Camarón de la Isla have? What do you do?
Few people can imagine what it means to be the son of a legendary figure. Among those few are Camarón’s 5 children, who make their way in the artistic world in different ways.
His son, Luis, is a flamenco guitarist, thus embodying one of Camarón’s own dream careers. Gema y Rocío, for their part, have dabbled in the world of flamenco singing, but what concerns them most is to win the incessant fight for their father’s image rights, of which the family has commented more than once that they feel deprived.
The youngest, José, has continued in the wake of the cante, but he has done so from an innovative point of view. José, known artistically as Mancloy, is dedicated to rap and trap with flamenco touches. In his songs, he says: “They say I have to sing like my father, in the end I turned out to be a rapper. Compare’ don’t compare me, I’m just me and Camarón is the greatest”.
Nothing was publicly known about Camarón’s fifth daughter until 2022. And even more so in 2023, when the episode of Lazos de Sangre was dedicated to the artist premieres.
His widow, Dolores Montoya, la Chispa, met her at the wake for Camarón. María José was 18 years old at the time and her relationship with her siblings is excellent.
María José is the fruit of a relationship that the cantaor had from a relationship prior to his marriage on the stage at the Madrid tablao of Torres Bermejas. Today, he has his father’s last name. As his widow explained on the public television program: “When he was absent, the papers were arranged and, through the mediation of a friend of mine who was in Badalona, we named the girl María José Monge Regaña.”
8 The “palos by Camarón”
Such has been the strength of his figure in flamenco singing that we speak of cante camaronero, especially in the styles of fandangos, tangos and tientos, rumbas, bulerías and tarantos, to which he imprints an indisputable personality.
Flamenco puro y del mejor
The other key to Mont-de-Marsan being regarded with envy by other festivals is a very good programme.
Javier Puga explains that, although its development was not easy, the line of bringing the best of Spanish flamenco has always been present. For example, the first edition featured the ballet of Cristina Hoyos, the Pinini clan, Rafael Riqueni, José de la Tomasa… In 1990, Camarón de la Isla, Tomatito and Paco de Lucía. And so on, year after year. Javier Puga ceased to be in charge of Arte Flamenco 20 years later and some critics write and say that the event has become more commercial and less pure.
It is a festival with many sponsors and patrons, and with a Foundation that provides resources for the hiring of artists. For a time, they had the financial support of the Junta de Andalucía through the Consejería de Cultura and the Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco.