Peteneras

I was introduced to Peteneras when I was asked to accompany a dance choreography. I was told jokingly that this was a cursed palo and some flamencos, particularly some superstitious gypsies refused to sing or dance it. The gypsies I was involved with at the time didn’t give two hoots about the curse. Anyway there’s a reason it sounds like funeral music. It is funeral music. To understand this you need to know the story behind Peteneras. These stories go back many centuries. There are different versions. The version I was told goes something like this. 

“The name is taken from the village of Paterna de Rivera, near Jerez de la Frontera. The superstitious legend connected with its origin endows the flamenco palo Peteneras with a certain mystique. According to this legend, a beautiful young prostitute called Dolores died a violent death at the hands of one of her lovers. Due to her irresistible power of seduction she was called the “damnation of men”. For some authors, the word prostitute is a little severe and they prefer a more poetic description such as, a beautiful young temptress who stole men’s hearts.

After her death, songs were created around the story. The superstition surrounding Peteneras is directly connected with the misfortunes that followed later public performances. One account is of a dancer who played the part of Petenera and died a choreographed death on stage, following the story line from the legend. The four male dancers involved in the show carried her off stage on their shoulders singing, “La Petenera has died and we are taking her to be buried”… Backstage they discovered that the dancer really was dead, apparently from a heart attack.

Every year in July, the people in the village of Paterna pay homage to this form of cante and to Dolores by hosting a national Peteneras song competition. There are some who believe that Peteneras was originally a song of the Sephardic Jews. The evidence comes from a verse which makes reference to a beautiful Jewess on her way to a synagogue. This would date the song back as far as 1492, which is when the Jews (and the synagogues) disappeared from Spain“