This is a Japanese flamenco dancer, known as La Yunko, who caused a great stir by winning first prize in her category at the International Festival of Cante de las Minas in La Unión (Murcia).
“Since when do flamenco dancers come from Japan?” asked a bewildered audience.
The question reminded us of the first verses of the Cuban song They are from the hillwhich say: “Mom, I want to know where the singers are from.”
There is an ancestral drive to know where people and things come from because we like them to be from a place, hence the certificate of origin of chickpeas from Fuentesaúco or Catalan cava. We are reassured that things are from where they are: that Valencians are not from Cáceres, for example, nor Andalusians from Galicia. As for the Japanese, we prefer them to come from Japan because if they come from Seville, like La Yunko, our national schemes are broken, our geostrategic identity collapses, as they say.
Hence the perplexity felt by some when it was discovered that Spanish flags were made in Vietnam. But how can something so ours, so ethnic, so red and yellow come from so far away? What kind of patriotism is it that displaces the economic benefits of this national industry to a country in Southeast Asia? Well, that’s the way things are. Fortunately, there is nothing to prevent a Swede from singing merengue. La Yunko defended herself from criticism by saying that when she danced she didn’t know where she was from. What are we waiting for to start dancing?
